Credit…Rob Stothard for The New York Times
To the Editor:
“A Law That Ireland Doesn’t Need or Want,” by Megan K. Stack (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 3), teases out the question of whether the British government will continue to obstruct investigations into killings in Northern Ireland, a question that has pained victims’ families for over half a century. The British government has buried the truth of its collusion in the killings of its own citizens since the beginning of the Troubles.
As the writer states, this collusion is an “undeniable fact.” The amnesty bill is opposed by all parties in Northern Ireland because the British government has no credibility to impartially referee cases, much less to investigate itself.
Jonathan Caine’s letter to the Irish American Unity Conference, referred to in the article, justified this heartless bill by stating that for over 50 years, “traditional criminal justice outcomes, such as prosecutions, are vanishingly rare.”
Mr. Caine, a parliamentary under secretary of state for Northern Ireland, failed to admit that his government has deliberately stonewalled inquiries and derailed criminal justice proceedings for those 50 years.
Now traumatized families must depend on the Irish government to bring legal action in the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the bill once it is approved, and that is a shame.
Peter C. Kissel
Washington
The writer is national president of the Irish American Unity Conference.
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