Bloody Sunday Cash Re-opens Old Wounds

The families of RUC and Army Troubles' victims have been sidelined, it has been claimed.

Soon after this week's news that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has accepted that members of the forces had acted wrongly and that the Government was "deeply sorry" for the deaths of unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday, unionists have reacted to the MoD statement confirming that compensation would be paid.

When the Prime Minister presented the Bloody Sunday report to parliament in June last year he apologised and said the shooting by the Army was both "unjustified and unjustifiable".

The MoD has now written to the lawyers saying that it would like to resolve the compensation claims as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Ulster Unionist Leader, Tom Elliott - who is Chair of the Stormont First Minister's Committee - said: "Many victims will quite naturally be wondering 'What about me?' and more poignantly 'What about my children and grandchildren?'

"For example, 300 police officers were murdered during the Troubles, 277 by the IRA.

"How many children and grandchildren of those who paid the ultimate price for putting themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of us have suffered as a result.

"How many missed out on a full education, or a decent summer holiday, not to mention the love, care and attention of a parent?" he asked.

"It would be very helpful to have an independent assessment of how well balanced the pattern of compensation is down the years. I understand some files no longer exist, but the Compensation Agency do have enough information to provide a snapshot of what has happened.

"Given one of the main complaints from victims is that they operate on an uneven playing field, today's news will exacerbate that feeling, and urgent action is required to assure them the perception is being addressed," he said.

"The news also again highlights the way we are dealing with the past in an incomplete, imperfect and unbalanced manner. It is time to stop treating the past incident by incident, with the result the state and its agents are painted as the villains and the focus is lifted off the terrorists."

He is also calling on the Commission for Victims and Survivors to urgently report on all Troubles-related compensation payments.

Meanwhile, the DUP MP for East Londonderry Gregory Campbell has also said that many innocent victims across Northern Ireland will feel less valued as they have witnessed the level of resources dedicated to those affected by Bloody Sunday. Commenting Mr. Campbell said: "No one questions the loss felt by the families whose loved ones died on 30th January 1972 however many will question why Bloody Sunday has received greater attention and resources than other events of that era particularly when no attention was paid to why the soldiers were deployed in the first place.

"There are currently thousands of families across Northern Ireland who lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists during the Troubles but their cases remain unsolved.

"Therefore, when considering this compensation announcement we must do so through the eyes of an RUC or UDR widow who lost a husband and income in 1972 but received only a few hundred pounds of compensation and has never seen justice served.

"Murder was rife before 30 January 1972. In the two and a half years that preceded that day, over one hundred people were murdered across Northern Ireland.

"In the four weeks before that day in Londonderry alone, violence was carried out by the various factions of the IRA.

"There were nine separate bomb attacks on commercial and security force premises, six separate shooting incidents, including an 80 minute gun battle, and a number of gelignite and nail bomb attacks," he said, adding: "The Government has opened the Pandora's box by a politically motivated response to [the] Saville [Inquiry], if many others choose to demand a similar response what will the consequences of that be?"

Middle Ground

Attempting a way forward, the Alliance Deputy Leader Naomi Long MP has now called for the NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson to arrange talks between the political parties here urgently to broker agreement on how to deal with the legacy of the past.

She said consensus on the issue must be found as soon as possible so that the needs of victims can be addressed and a genuinely shared future can be created.

The East Belfast MP said: "The past continues to cast a long shadow over our future, reasserting itself in ways and at times of its own choosing, and that will continue if we do not address the issue.

"Consensus must be built to ensure that we address the legacy of the past in a comprehensive way which not only addresses the needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles but can also do so in a way which promotes reconciliation and a shared future.

"I am calling on the Secretary of State to convene talks as soon as possible amongst parties here to get started on agreeing a way forward.

"He has acknowledged that political consensus is required to take the process forward and that, on this most sensitive of issues, such consensus will be hard to achieve.

"I believe the Secretary of State has a duty to drive that process forward. Convening a meeting with local political parties would be a good starting point."

(BMcC/GK)