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05/12/2014
Amnesty Questions New Troubles Legacy Unit
Amnesty International has responded with cynicism to an announcement that a new PSNI unit is to replace the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) in the New Year.
The Legacy Investigation Branch was announced at the December meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board by Chief Constable George Hamilton.
The Branch will take over from what was previously the Historical Enquiries Team and will also focus on any murder cases that took place prior to the establishment of Crime Operations Department in 2004. This will include the Bloody Sunday investigation and the re-examination of the on-the-run cases.
Mr Hamilton said: "In the continued absence of an agreed political and societal response to Northern Ireland's past, the Police Service plans to fulfil its statutory obligations through a new Legacy Investigation Branch.
"The formation of this Branch will ensure that we fulfil these legal obligations in terms of reviewing and investigating the past. It is our intention that it will be integrated into Crime Operations Department and will be accountable to me, under the direction of the Assistant Chief Constable for Crime Operations, Will Kerr."
But Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International UK, said: "While the LIB, essentially a re-branded and pared down HET, may well be what the PSNI believes it can contribute, the fact is society in Northern Ireland and the victims of human rights violations and abuses need an altogether more comprehensive approach.
"International human rights law demands prompt, thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigations where victims of human rights violations and abuses enjoy effective access. The HET failed on many of those counts, not least on independence.
"We remain unpersuaded about how the LIB would, as it stands, meet the test of independence. The Assistant Chief Constable has also made it clear that the LIB is unlikely to be prompt in its work given resource and staffing constraints."
ACC Kerr said: "The new structure will consolidate existing expertise and experience, provide a fully accountable means of dealing with the past and, against a background of diminished resources, form an effective buffer between investigating the past and delivering contemporary policing which has to be our priority. It is not perfect but it is the best we can do in the current unsatisfactory and unprecedented circumstances."
(IT/JP)
The Legacy Investigation Branch was announced at the December meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board by Chief Constable George Hamilton.
The Branch will take over from what was previously the Historical Enquiries Team and will also focus on any murder cases that took place prior to the establishment of Crime Operations Department in 2004. This will include the Bloody Sunday investigation and the re-examination of the on-the-run cases.
Mr Hamilton said: "In the continued absence of an agreed political and societal response to Northern Ireland's past, the Police Service plans to fulfil its statutory obligations through a new Legacy Investigation Branch.
"The formation of this Branch will ensure that we fulfil these legal obligations in terms of reviewing and investigating the past. It is our intention that it will be integrated into Crime Operations Department and will be accountable to me, under the direction of the Assistant Chief Constable for Crime Operations, Will Kerr."
But Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International UK, said: "While the LIB, essentially a re-branded and pared down HET, may well be what the PSNI believes it can contribute, the fact is society in Northern Ireland and the victims of human rights violations and abuses need an altogether more comprehensive approach.
"International human rights law demands prompt, thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigations where victims of human rights violations and abuses enjoy effective access. The HET failed on many of those counts, not least on independence.
"We remain unpersuaded about how the LIB would, as it stands, meet the test of independence. The Assistant Chief Constable has also made it clear that the LIB is unlikely to be prompt in its work given resource and staffing constraints."
ACC Kerr said: "The new structure will consolidate existing expertise and experience, provide a fully accountable means of dealing with the past and, against a background of diminished resources, form an effective buffer between investigating the past and delivering contemporary policing which has to be our priority. It is not perfect but it is the best we can do in the current unsatisfactory and unprecedented circumstances."
(IT/JP)
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