Legacy Bill: Unfair to make victims 'complicit' in granting amnesty under new law

By Mark Rainey
Published 19th Jul 2023, 17:51 BST
Updated 19th Jul 2023, 17:51 BST
SEFF's Westminster protest against the Legacy Bill in January 2023. Photo: Stefan Rosseau/PA WireSEFF's Westminster protest against the Legacy Bill in January 2023. Photo: Stefan Rosseau/PA Wire
SEFF's Westminster protest against the Legacy Bill in January 2023. Photo: Stefan Rosseau/PA Wire
It is grossly unfair for the government to make bereaved relatives “complicit” in granting immunity to the killers of their loved one, according to a leading victims’ group.

Highlighting a number of major concerns with the Troubles legacy legislation on the verge of becoming law, SEFF director Kenny Donaldson said victims “expect better”.

Mr Donaldson said that the proposals around the workings of the new ICRIR (Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery) were particularly problematic.

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“Through the new ICRIR proposal, a victim’s family will need to approach the body should they wish to acquire some information (whatever its veracity). In doing so the family/individual is complicit with the conditional immunity being offered to the perpetrator. How can that ever be right to put a victim’s family in that position?” he said.

Kenny Donaldson - SEFF directorKenny Donaldson - SEFF director
Kenny Donaldson - SEFF director

“We will assess options still open to us over the coming days, innocent victims/survivors have known what to expect from terrorism and its apologists, they dared to expect better from their [UK] state.”

The new law will end the prosecution of serious Troubles offences committed between January 1, 1966 and April 10, 1998.

If perpetrators come forward to give an account of how and why they committed their crimes, they can then walk away in the knowledge that the evidence they gave cannot be used against them in the future.Mr Donaldson said: “We believe in the rule of law and we oppose overt or covert manipulation of the law in an effort to appease terrorism sanitising its’ bloody past.

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“We have also stood against any statute of limitation or quasi-amnesty for security forces believing this to be an insult upon their service, where the overwhelming majority served with honour, courage and deep restraint.“It is contemptuous of government to persist with policies which have the effect of equating security force members with terrorists”.

Mr Donaldson said the law being voted through the Commons on Tuesday “was not the outworking of democracy,” and added: “It was the outworking of an ideological policy of government ‘to get legacy done’ and... the results are not good outcomes for the people”.