Northern Ireland Amnesty Letter

Henry McDonald (Labour rejects Peter Hain’s call for Troubles amnesty, theguardian.com, 12 May) must know, or might have checked with me, that I have never supported an amnesty, let alone a “blanket” one for Troubles-related crimes. Labour‘s shadow Northern Ireland SecretaryIvan Lewis heard me reject an amnesty on the record in parliament. As the former secretary of state for Northern Ireland who helped negotiate the historic 2007 settlement, I believe it is no answer to pursue prosecutions for Troubles-related crimes, especially when in 90% of these cases going back 40 years or more, the evidence cannot be retrieved. That means victims need redress and justice in another way, as suggested by the 2009 Eames-Bradley and 2013 Richard Haass reports, joined by Northern Ireland’s attorney general John Larkin. Northern Ireland’s politicians need to have the courage to agree a new approach and move on from the past of horror and evil.

Peter Hain MP
Labour, Neath

This was taken from the Guardian website, the article was published on Tuesday the 13th of May. The link to the original is below.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/13/northern-ireland-amnesty-peter-hain