the
Northern Ireland offences bill
|
|
|
the Northern Ireland offences bill
British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW) is an independent non-governmental organisation that has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and the peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990. Our services are available, free of charge, to anyone whose human rights have been violated because of the conflict, regardless of religious, political or community affiliations. We take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of the conflict.
Much of the publicity and debate surrounding the Northern Ireland Offences Bill has centred on IRA prisoners who are on the run. Less attention had been paid to the fact that the Bill also covers persons who have not yet been charged, but may be in the future, with terrorist offences, or offences committed in the effort to combat terrorism. These provisions were never part of the Good Friday Agreement and the government has no mandate for them.
BIRW viewed the early release of prisoners convicted of terrorist offences under the Good Friday Agreement as part of the political settlement, which falls outside our remit. The provisions for the small number of prisoners on the run fall into the same category. However, we are extremely concerned that this Bill provides a blanket amnesty from jail for virtually anyone who committed a crime in Northern Ireland prior to 10th April 1988, and in particular, for agents of the state who took part in acts of collusion.
BIRW has always argued against separate legislation, practices and penalties in relation to acts of terrorism from those applied to other crimes. The twin-track system of justice in Northern Ireland has created martyrs to the cause, acting as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists, and resulted in miscarriages of justice. We think it is invidious to base the justice system on the supposed motivation for a crime, because if offends against the important principle that everyone is equal before the law. Murder is always heinous, whether perpetrated by a terrorist or a rapist, or anyone else. This Bill, if enacted, will allow anyone who committed a crime prior to 10th April 1998 to claim that his or her motive was terrorist and to get out of jail free. While in some cases it will be possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a crime was not motivated by terrorism, once a criminal claims to have been a member of a proscribed organisation and, for example, to have killed someone because s/he feared that the fact of his or her membership of the organisation would be exposed, it will be virtually impossible to disprove such assertions.
Sir Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has recently established a Historic Enquiries Team to re-examine every conflict related unsolved murder prior to 10th April 1988. It will examine over 3,000 deaths and will cost £24.2 million over six years. On our reading of the Bill, every single person charged by the HET will never serve a day in jail.
What concerns BIRW most is that agents of the state who colluded with terrorists will not be held to account, because they will be able to claim that any crimes they committed were carried out in the effort to combat terrorism.
The scale of collusion in Northern Ireland over the last three decades or more is only just beginning to emerge. Sir John Stevens has found that there was collusion in the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane on the part of both the army and the police. Judge Peter Cory found the same. He also found collusion – which may have involved the police, the army, the intelligence service, and the civil service – in the deaths of another lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, Catholic father Robert Hamill, and LVF leader Billy Wright. However, BIRW knows from its fifteen years’ work in Northern Ireland, that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Many members of both the Protestant and the Catholic communities, including members of the security forces, have lost loved ones because of policies which placed the desire to collate intelligence and protect informers above the duty to protect and save lives.
A puzzling aspect of this Bill is that it seems to equate agents of the state who have been involved with collusion with terrorists. The Good Friday Agreement included provisions for the early release of prisoners convicted of offences scheduled under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The provisions in the Bill concerning prisoners on the run have been described by the Prime Minister as providing “symmetry” with convicted prisoners. However, members of the security forces (the police, the army and the intelligence services) and civil servants are public servants. They are paid from the public purse. They are given powers, such as they right to carry and use weapons, to tap telephones, or to remand people in custody, which are not permissible to ordinary members of the public. When they commit acts of collusion, they abuse those powers and they abuse our trust. Higher standards can be expected from public servants than those that can be hoped for from terrorists. Public servants can and must be held accountable for what they do in our name and on our behalf. International human rights law rightly disapproves of the granting of impunity to agents of the state who engage in collusion.
Applications for certification under this Bill will be “tried” by a Special Tribunal, and if “convicted” and sentenced, will be immediately released on licence. Special Tribunals will be conducted by a single judge, sitting without a jury. There is no provision in the Bill for hearings to be held in public. Applicants need not even attend the hearing. Is this the way to reward collusion? Is this the way to hold our public servants accountable for illegal acts? Is this a mechanism that will heal the deep divisions in Northern Ireland, or will it deepen disrespect for the rule of law, the security forces, the civil service, and even the government itself?
It is impossible to measure the degree of damage that collusion has done in Northern Ireland over the past thirty or more years. Many lives have been lost. Many people have been injured. Many more have lost faith in the ability of the authorities in Northern Ireland to act fairly. This Bill will only make matters worse. If you care about a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, where democracy, truth and justice can flourish, please write to you MP and urge him or her not to vote for this Bill in its present form.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
