HET Accused Of Double Standards

The Historical Enquiries Team has dealt with killings involving the State with "less rigour" than those in which the State was not involved, according to new findings.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, a UK policing watchdog, found the HET has "serious shortcomings" regarding the way it has dealt with deaths in which State was involved.

The report said it risks losing the confidence of victims' families.

The PSNI unit set up to investigate over 3,000 deaths in Northern Ireland should have been more rigorous, according to the report.

Often, those cases which involved British soldiers were treated differently as a matter of policy, it found.

SDLP Policing Board Member Conall McDevitt said: "This report fully vindicates the academics and others who have been expressing deep concern at the way the HET has been investigating deaths at the hands of the state in Northern Ireland and its lack of proper accountability.

"In essence HMIC has concluded that the HET applied a double standards approach to the investigation of state killings and non-state killings providing those suspected of involvement in state killings with what any reasonable person would see as preferential treatment.

“The further finding that the HETs intelligence unit is staffed largely by former employees of either the RUC or PSNI will further damage confidence in its genuine commitment to dealing with crimes from our past in a fair manner," he concluded.

Alliance Justice spokesperson Stewart Dickson said: "This detailed report raises significant issues that the PSNI will have to address. However, the PSNI cannot deal with the past themselves.

"The Alliance Party has proposed debates in Stormont and Westminster calling for the British and Irish Governments to hold talks on how we can find agreement on this issue. We cannot ignore it because it is too difficult to resolve."

But Ulster Unionist Policing Board member Ross Hussey said: "I did make the point during proceedings that some 2,535 incidents fall within the HET’s remit with a total of more than 3,268 victims.

"The cases with State involvement therefore must be viewed as part of a much wider remit which the HET have to operate within. Much of the concern also relates to a period between 1970 and 1973 and must be viewed in the context of the time"

Ulster Unionist Justice Spokesperson Tom Elliott added: "This particular focus solely on incidents with state involvement will be alarming to those in our society who are only too aware that, accordingly to the Lost Lives volume, republican paramilitaries were responsible for 2,148 deaths during the Troubles; by far and away the vast bulk of the violence.

"The Ulster Unionist Party has been clear for some time that the mechanisms which are currently in place to deal with the past operate, on the whole, in an imperfect and imbalanced manner with some using it as a means to attempt to rewrite history painting the State and agents of the State as villains. That is not something which will be allowed to happen."

(IT/CD)