Almost 200 families of people killed by all sides in the Troubles are accusing David Cameron’s government of redacting and covering up sensitive files into their deaths.
In an advertisement published in the Guardian on Monday, the 180 families say the prime minister has reneged on a promise at the time of the Bloody Sunday report when he said there would be a new regime of openness regarding controversial killings by the British state, loyalist paramilitaries and the IRA in the conflict.
In the advertisement, issued through the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry, the relatives express concern that files belonging to police, the military and the Security Service relating to these deaths are being censored before being seen by the families’ legal representatives.
“Now your government proposes to use ‘national security’ (a term you have failed to define) to redact/censor official reports into the deaths of our loved ones BEFORE they are provided to us. To protect national security or save national embarrassment, Prime Minister? Are you afraid of the truth?”, it asks.
The advertisement/statement points out that Ireland’s foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, has criticised the British government for using the “smothering blanket” of national security to justify the non-disclosure of information to families.
Referring to the Stormont House agreement between Northern Ireland’s political parties to restore devolution, and which included commitments from London and Dublin to create an open system to analyse the legacy of the Troubles, the families continued: “Mr Cameron you failed to implement recommendations on how to deal with the legacy of conflict. There are times when we suspect that your government are waiting for us to die, hoping you can then ignore our demands.
“But we will not go away. Our children and our children’s children will fight on. We demand fully independent investigations and implementation of the other legacy proposals. These are rights, not privileges. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
One of the campaign groups fighting for an independent inquiry into the death of 11 people over three days in Belfast in 1971 at the hands of the British army point out they have had to go to court for a Hillsborough-style inquest into the killings.
Eleven civilians living in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast were killed between 9 and 11 August 1971 during clashes between republicans and the Parachute Regiment. All of those who died were killed by the army unit, which campaigners claim was later transferred to Derry, with some soldiers allegedly taking part in the Bloody Sunday killings of 13 civilians six months later.
John Teggart, whose father, Daniel, was shot and killed by the army, said: “We find ourselves now fighting to save our inquests, which the Cameron government has refused to properly resource, hence the backlog caused by blockages by the Ministry of Defence on disclosure.
“This was disclosed recently by Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan and Lord Justice Reggie Weir who asked for a unit put in place for the coroner’s court to clear all inquests into 95 deaths within five years,” Teggart continued.
“This proposal is presently being blocked by [Northern Ireland] First Minister Arlene Foster, who refuses to table it to the Northern Ireland executive. This is a red herring as it is still Cameron’s government’s responsibility to put packages in place to deal with the past. Our view is that all politicians need to be serious about dealing with the past in a speedy fashion as sectarian and tribal politics will never move on unless the past is properly addressed,” he added.
