Stormont politicians have rejected a controversial UK government plan to for an effective amnesty in cases related to the Troubles.
During an emergency sitting, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) criticised the proposals put forward by Brandon Lewis last week to introduce legislation to create a proposed statute of limitations.
The government’s intention is to end all new prosecutions for crimes up to April 1998 — when the Good Friday Agreement was reached — and will apply to both military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.
Victims’ families last week expressed outrage over the plans, while Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said it was “plain wrong” for the government to offer a “blanket amnesty” for crimes committed during the Troubles-era.
In a recalled sitting of Stormont, the motion tabled by the SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon — expressing opposition to the proposals — passed on Wednesday without any dissenting voices during a two hour debate.
While non-binding, the motion called for victims and survivors to have a “full, material and central role and input into the content and design of structures to address the legacy of the past”.
Ms Mallon told MLAs that a prosecution amnesty would not be acceptable in any other modern democracy in the world and accused the UK government of attempting to sweep victims’ pain under the carpet.
She said the proposals would let “perpetrators, state and paramilitary, walk free and instead condemn the victims and their families to a lifetime of pain and suffering through the denial of hope, truth and justice”.
Ms Mallon added that the plans were a “unilateral move” by the UK government to deliver a “Tory party answer to a problem created by that same party and its backbench MPs”
“Backbenchers who have created a bogus myth that an endless parade of veterans are being dragged through the courts here to answer for their past,” she said.
Addressing the chamber during the debate, DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said victims “cannot and should not be ignored in this way”.
“The secretary of state seems to have chosen a path which finds equivalence between the soldier and police officer, and those who planted the bomb or pulled the trigger,” he said. “This is morally reprehensible.”
Speaking last week, Mr Lewis confirmed last week the government intended to introduce a statute of limitations which would end all new prosecutions related to the Troubles, with a new independent body to help families find out what happened to loved ones in killings and other legacy cases involving ex-paramilitaries and former members of the security services.
“We know the prospect of the end to criminal prosecutions will be difficult for some to accept, and this is not a position we take lightly,” he told MPs.
The Northern Ireland secretary insisted criminal investigations had proved damaging. “It’s clear the current system for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles is not working,” he said.
“It’s now a difficult, in fact painful, truth that the focus on criminal investigations is increasingly unlikely to deliver successful criminal justice outcomes, but all the while it continues to divide communities and it fails to obtain answers for a majority of victims and families.”
