SDLP Hits Out At SF Double Standards On Police Murders

SDLP Policing Spokesperson Conall McDevitt has said that Sinn Fein's credibility on reconciliation will be seriously questioned after the party sought to differentiate between the murder of Gardai and RUC officers

Mr McDevitt was responding to statements by Declan Kearney and Mitchell McLoughlin on reconciliation and the murder of police officers respectively.

He said: "Sinn Fein keeps telling us they want to build reconciliation but yet refuse to acknowledge that truth and reconciliation are two sides of the same coin. You cannot build a reconciled society on historic revisionism and retrospective justification of indefensible acts.

"The SDLP would question whether the republican movement is really committed to building a new reconciled and prosperous Ireland or are they just looking to rewrite history and dress it up as progress.

"The murders of police officers north and south were illegitimate and illegal acts. They were all wrong and all unjustifiable. It is frankly sickening that Sinn Fein would now seek to make a differentiation between the murder of a Garda and that of an RUC Officer.

"Nationalists across this Island will abhor any attempt to distinguish between the deaths of any person who is attempting to uphold the rule of law. How do they ever expect to be seen as credible partners in reconciliation when they make statements like this?

"The vested interests of those with something to hide in republicanism and elsewhere are holding back our society. We remain available to meet all parties to discuss how we build and ethical truth and reconciliation process. We call on others to stop the so called megaphone diplomacy and sit down with a view to jointly resolving to build a reconciled society."

(CD)