British MPs Exploring Means of Covering Up British State Violence and Collusion During the Troubles
The British establishment is once again trying to bury its legacy and culpability for the deaths of innocents by virtue of British state violence, and collusion. The North of Ireland Affairs Committee is presently evaluating proposed British Government measures to abrogate legacy investigations. The Committee containing MPs from the SDLP, Alliance, Labour, the Tories and the DUP are actually looking into means to renege on commitments predicated in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.
Aontú Fermanagh/South Tyrone Cllr Denise Mullen has expressed outrage over this attempted cover-up of the results of British state killing in the North. Truth, accountability and justice have never been brought to the North due to the simple fact that the British government’s actions have never been truly investigated and perpetrators held accountable. Those who lost loved ones are once again relegated below a cover up operation to protect those who commissioned such bloodshed.
How is it that the so-called North of Ireland Affairs Committee can be said to be acting in the best interests of the people of the North when they move to whitewash some of the greatest atrocities and injustices perpetrated in the North? British government actions in the North have a tendency to be hidden, denied or whitewashed – I suppose why did we expect this to be any different?
Large sectors of Northern society grew up accustomed to British violence and targeting of their communities. It was a given that the police force were not on the side of all citizens but on the sides of certain citizens. Neither was the justice system on our side, nor the political system. Nevertheless, the loved ones of those who were murdered deserve the truth. Those who were murdered deserve justice. Only by truth and justice can old wounds begin to be healed and division lessened.
The proposals of the British government to deny truth and justice to those who have died by their actions, undermines the Good Friday Agreement, abrogates the Stormont House Agreement, and reneges on promises once made for accountability for all. Cllr Mullen: “Once again, those who want the truth and justice for the murder of their loved ones are being stonewalled by the British government with the help of a committee including the DUP, SDLP and Alliance party. Why are we less deserving of justice for what was done to us than anyone else?”
