It was instructive to read some of the press articles about how Tony Blair was going to face a grilling at the hands of that Westminster committee looking into those on-the-run letters. He’d pleaded Middle East business, he’d rung up old pals and asked if he really really had to appear, but long runs the fox and all that. They’d make Irish stew of him.
Except, of course, they didn’t. Blair is much too crafty, not to say slippery, to be tripped up by MPs’ questions. It was like watching the great Billy Kelly bobbing and weaving as opponents tried to nail him and found only empty air.
It helped that he maybe hadn’t that much to feel guilty or evasive about. These letters, we’re told, went to on-the-runs against whom the authorities did not have a case. That is, there was not enough evidence to implicate them in violent actions during the Troubles. Put it another way: these letters went to innocent men. That’s the proudest boast of British justice, isn’t it? Innocent until proven guilty. The Blair letters were simply an acknowledgement of insufficient evidence to turn innocence into guilt. In one case – John Downey – they apparently sent such a letter to a man against whom, we gather, they had evidence.
This, we were told, was very hard for the victims of violence to bear. I don’t doubt it: anyone who lost a loved one in the Troubles, regardless of which side, deserves sympathy. And of course the relatives of those killed in actions allegedly related to Mr Downey must have felt particularly cheated, which is no doubt why Tony Blair apologised for the blunder. And the fact that there wasn’t evidence against the others is no doubt why he didn’t apologise for the other letters. Why apologise for telling the truth to innocent men? Or are we saying the PSNI were lying in those letters and they really had evidence all the time?
I’ll tell you who feel pain and have felt it and will go on feeling it. People like the relatives of Roseanne Mallon, a 76-year-old innocent woman shot while watching TV in her own living room. The Special Branch people whom we now learn tampered with the gun that killed her – they’ll not go on the run. For the good reason that they will never be identified and the evidence against them will never be weighed in the scales of justice.
Here’s a question, maybe someone can answer for me: how many members of the ‘security’ forces have served a prison sentence for the deaths of people during the Troubles? Whether we’re talking about active republican combatants or totally uninvolved innocents – draw up a list of those in the ‘security’ forces who have been arrested and tried. Is it a long list? Is the pain felt by the relatives of those killed given consideration? Will those behind the killings – those who gave the orders, sometimes from remote seats of power – will they be dragged reluctantly before a grim-faced panel of accusers?
We all know the answers to those questions. So here’s a last one: why the indignation of such as Ian Paisley Jr over the on-the-run letters, yet no word of indignation or even sympathy for those killed and/or abused by those paid to protect us all?
Apparently there was a “little known section” of the branch which had access to forensic “evidence” prior to the forensic scientists.Surely this has massive implications for thousands of people convicted on forensic “evidence”?
Everyone of us swallowed the bitterest of pills (the release of paramilitary prisoners) in the interests of peace. i don’t understand how this OTR scheme is any less palatable and as you rightly state these letters were issued to innocent men. Detractors may claim loyalists didn’t receive such letters, they didn’t need them,they slept soundly in their beds free from the fear of arrest aided and abetted by RUC Special Branch and British Crown Forces.
Isn’t it wonderfuly ironic that SF got their OTR letters at the expense of ever getting a policeman or soldier convicted or even charged with any sort of a criminal offence I am completely sure that the Bloody Sunday and Finucane campaign must be thrilled still at least there will be no more pointless and expensive legal campaigns from now on.
By your reasoning the special branch people are innocent as they were not proved guilty.
What is interesting is that OTR letters were applied for on behalf of a large number of insurgents who were unknown to the security forces before then. Oops!
Most importantly, why would SF apply for OTR letters for innocent people?
Doubtless paisley et all will say they had Blair on the ropes. As you stated he’s too crafty for that. Paisley as usual was filled with his own self importance. The trouble with unionist/loyalists is, after all the murder and mayhem that has gone on they feel as though they can stand on the sidelines blaming everyone else as if they weren’t up to their necks in it and on many occasions fomented violence and murder. They were killing Catholics and blowing up power lines before the Provisional IRA even existed. And of course let’s not forget they killed the first policeman and one of the last in our recent troubles.
no letters needed for the british murdering war machine…..no charges for them…murder all they want
From memory only a very small number of members of the crown forces were convicted of offences during the troubles and all of them were released early.
Ian Óg was keen to draw attention to the genesis of the O.T.R. narrative, however, Mr Blair made few revelations about the matter. Bluster in Westminster does not detract from the evidence of collusion between the state, the security (?) forces, informers and sundry agents. Ian Óg does not appear keen to investigate the genesis of the so called ‘troubles’ in the 1960’s when discrimination, migration, loyalist murder squads and Unionist misrule went hand in hand.
Revelations about military surveillance equipment in an area prior to a killing, saturation of an area by military and RUC personnel prior to a killing or the role of Special Branch in forensic tests were denied as a matter of routine by military and political sources rather than demonstrate any inclination to conduct rigorous and impartial investigations into such appalling vistas. Police guilty of perjury, violence, threats, tampering with forensic evidence, confessions fabricated and admitted as evidence to secure convictions, best left to Judges? It is possible to chronicle the fact that former security force personnel burned notebooks stored in their homes, fearing a burglary might result in information falling into the ‘wrong hands.’
The event in Westminster in relation to O.T.R letters is testament to the fact that “the wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.” (Chomsky)
Rogue ! roars Ian Og.
Time was, every OTR was a globetrotter
In terra incognita each warrior terra cotta
Till Tones said ‘walk,
Don’t run, must talk
How dare the rotter Blair blot our jotter !
Regardless of what Unionists may think, these letters are not amnesties, they are simply letters stating to people that if they were brought to court they would be found not guilty or acquitted due to lack of evidence BUT and that’s a big BUT, but if evidence DOES turn up at a later date, then yes, those people can still be brought before the courts.
Its not an amnesty. What is an amnesty is the lack of security force members being brought before the courts, who have no need to run away and slept soundly in their beds because the state guaranteed their freedom even though over 300 innocent people were shot dead by the RUC/UDR/British Army, a large section of them children. And that’s just the beginning, not counting the systematic collusion with loyalist murder groups who were armed, helped and allowed to go on murder sprees against Catholic civilians.
I don’t hear of committees being set up to investigate these murders and allegations of collusion, on the contrary the British Government has consistently, despite repeated requests by the Irish Government, denied access to files and denied independent investigations into collusion, wonder why?…..
Why wonder there will be no more investigations and a full blanket amnesty for everybody involved not fair at all but who ever said life was fair?
Allow me to cut through the waffle. There was a war here, between Republicans and the rest. Thousands were killed, more were injured, we were all affected in some way.Thousands were jailed, British troops walked the streets armed to the hilt. The British government and mainstream media portrayed it as a crime wave. With a bit of irrational Irish religious hatred thrown in. When it was ended via the peace process, the myth of a crime wave continued. It still continues to this day, tv reporters continually refer to the Hyde Park bombing as a `crime`. Time to wake up and smell the (Irish) coffee. There are no OTR letters for members of Her Majesty`s forces because they were allowed to shoot with impunity. Most people in Britain are either unaware or uninterested. Get over it.
Why did so many people go on the run? Read the history of the four young men from Derry who were on the run for twenty years. Totally innocent of any wrong doing yet signed statements during interrogation in the Strand Road barracks, Derry, confessing to the killing of a soldier. Two RUC officers charged with writing the false statements were acquitted a few days.