Foilsithe
An t-eolas is déanaí
Teanga: Níl leagan Gaeilge den mhír seo ar fáil.
I want to thank Jon Boutcher and the whole Kenova team for the enormous amount of work that has gone into producing this hugely significant report.
One thing that emerges immediately is the centrality of victims and their families. When I met Jon Boutcher, his focus on victims was very evident.
This underlines the need for a comprehensive, collective and victim-centred approach to legacy issues.
I welcome the strong emphasis in the report on the European Convention on Human Rights, which is an essential safeguard under the Good Friday Agreement.
In the report, the futility, immorality, and the sordid nature of the Provisional IRA campaign is laid bare.
It reiterates that the PIRA was responsible for the most deaths in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, over 1,700.
The report finds that the republican leadership has failed to acknowledge and apologise for the PIRA’s “murderous activities” and the intimidation of families.
The interim report is similarly unsparing in describing the actions of its so-called “Internal Security Unit” as representing “the worst of what one human being will do to another”.
Members of the PIRA’s ISU were responsible for “torture, inhumane and degrading treatment and murder, including of children, vulnerable adults, those with learning difficulties, and those who were entirely innocent of the claims made against them.
“These assaults and human rights violations were perpetrated to intimidate and subjugate the community.”
The report is clear. The PIRA’s response to those who were supposed to have informed against it was torture and murder.
Statements from very prominent Sinn Fein leaders at the time supported these actions.
The PIRA used torture and inhumane treatment as a deterrent against people working with the security forces.
The report finds that public comments of PIRA and Sinn Fein about the ISU’s conduct and the consequences of being an agent created an environment of significant intimidation for victim’s families within sections of the nationalist community.
Not only did these families lose loved ones, they often faced humiliation and violence themselves.
Sinn Fein as a political party must accept that the war was wrong, futile, and essentially an attack on its own community.
It should unreservedly apologise and state unequivocally that the PIRA’s activities and actions were wrong.
The report makes clear the challenging circumstances facing those who worked to keep people safe throughout the Troubles.
However, it also states that serious crimes “were not prevented when they could and should have been.”
It states Special Branch and the FRU withheld information in order to protect their agents, with the result very serious offences, including murder were not prevented or investigated.
This was a profound failure and an appalling dereliction of duty.
What the Kenova report makes clear is that “legacy cases can be investigated successfully, and the truth can be uncovered.”
The ultimate goal of our shared efforts on legacy is to advance the essential work of reconciliation.
Jon Boutcher is clear in his view that “there can be no meaningful reconciliation following the Northern Ireland Troubles unless and until victims and families know the truth of what happened, however uncomfortable that might be for those involved”.
Helping secure that truth for victims and families is a collective responsibility.