Sinn Fein 'Up In Arms' Over Truth Commission

Sinn Fein has claimed that the NI Secretary of State has no power to overrule a proposed 'Truth Commission' proposal for Northern Ireland.

A party spokesman has expressed his annoyance after Owen Paterson told a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier this week: "I think there's a slightly naive belief that some new, all shiny, all glossy organisation is going to resolve the problems of the past.

"The terrible, terrible truth about many of these murders, which have completely blighted the adult lives of a very large number of people, is that we simply will never know."

Now, Sinn Fein has again called for a commission-style body in NI that would be similar to that carried out in South Africa after the end of White rule.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 after apartheid ended to allow victims and perpetrators to give evidence, while they had both civil and criminal amnesty.

However, the UK Government has already said there would be no more long-running public inquiries into the past in the wake of the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, which was the most expensive in the country's legal history.

Sinn Fein MLA and Victims Spokesperson Mitchel McLaughlin has highlighted his annoyance at Owen Patterson's comments, that he said were attempting to rule out a such an approach to dealing with the legacy of the past.

He said it was both arrogant and contemptible towards those who suffered throughout the conflict.

"For Owen Patterson to attempt to rule out a Truth Commission style approach to truth recovery is arrogant and completely ignores the fact that the British Government were parties to this conflict.

"We only have to look at the examples of the Saville inquiry to highlight that the British Government must come forward and play an active, honest and transparent role in addressing truth recovery on this island," he added.

"Further to this we only have to look at previous approaches such as the Stalker inquiry, a 3,000 page report which was subsequently redacted, suppressed and edited so much that only 13 pages were published, as the way in which Owen Patterson cannot, nor must not, deny the fact the British Government have a lot to answer," he continued.

"Sinn Fein have made it clear that it is our view that what is required is a victim centred international, independent truth recovery process.

"Republicans have made it clear that we would participate in such a body. The British Government should make it clear whether they would participate in such a process also instead of staving off and hiding from the rights and demands of victims of this conflict."

(BMcC/GK)