The Bloomfield Report - Relatives Response
From: Relatives for Justice (an organisation that supports victims of
state violence)
Families with loved ones killed by the state and its agents have the same humanity and the same right to truth. He did not offer them any recourse to truth; they were side stepped once again.
Unlike other relatives, RFJ members did not receive invitations to the launch of his report this confirmed their suspicion that his report would not reflect their needs and interests.
He remembered to include many others - but he forgot those killed by the state and its agents. They were treated as second class during the consultation process and were deemed second class in the recommendations of his document.
Some of the dead take priority in this report - British Army personnel, RUC members and prison officers are deemed appropriate for "special concern".
Members of all of these services have been guilty of some of the most vile human rights abuses recorded in this conflict. They had colluded with deaths squads, killed 359 people officially, tortured both physically and mentally thousands more, they have maimed others, including children with their weapons - all without fear of prosecution or having to ever answer for these crimes. Mr. Bloomfield did not recognise these thousands in his report.
While RFJ acknowledged that the 'Bloomfield Report' was a welcome development for many victims and survivors of violence, and they were glad for those people, it must also be acknowledged that it did not offer those represented by RFJ any form of recourse or comfort. It did the opposite. It affirmed that their suffering and loss is some what less.
If we are to move forward and build a just and equitable society which fully acknowledges what has gone before there cannot be a league table of victims. They must all be treated in an evenhanded way - sensitively and comprehensively. This report does not lay the foundation for this process, and furthermore cannot lay the foundation for real reconciliation.
As a confirmation of these fears the appointment of Adam Ingram as a "Champion for Victims" added insult to injury.
Mr. Ingram is presently charged with the promotion and safeguarding of the interests of the security forces. Security forces which since his appointment continue to violate human rights.
Relatives of those killed directly or indirectly by state forces cannot have confidence in his appointment.
It is inconceivable to believe that Mr. Ingram could understand or possibly make any contribution to the needs of these victims.
In March 1998 he rejected a call by the UN Special Rapporteur Data Parma Cumaraswamy for an independent investigation into the violent death of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane and reports of state harassment of legal representatives.
RFJ members experience has been the active cover up of the circumstances, leading up to, during and in the aftermath of the deaths of their loved ones - in the interest of the state and its forces, interests which Mr. Ingram is charged with continuing to protect.
It is totally reprehensible and extremely insensitive to the families that RFJ represents that he should given such a role. He is completely partial. A 'champion for victims' should have been appointed from the international community that would have been acceptable to all victims and survivors.
Many had presumed in the aftermath of the Good Friday document that the issue of all victims would have been handled sensitively, evenly and with equality. That recognition and acknowledgement would have been afforded to all those who suffer, not some.
This has failed to happen thus far. Instead those families left bereaved and the hundreds of people maimed and injured by the state are once again the Forgotten Victims.
Many still hold the view that Adam Ingram is not an acceptable commissioner and that this report cannot be acceptable when it excludes us, our interests, our concerns and our feelings.
RFJ publicly call on Adam Ingram to prove his bona fide as an impartial 'Minister for Victims'. If truly he has the concern of those who have suffered then RFJ in the first instance ask him to comply with the latest recommendations of the UN and to make public the entire findings of the Stalker/ Sampson and Stevens Inquiries. In complying with this esteemed body he would go a considerable way in gaining the confidence of victims, survivors and those left bereaved by state and state sponsored violence.
As this article goes to print the Irish Government have appointed John Wilson as 'Victims Commissioner' as part of their contribution to the Good Friday Agreement.
RFJ welcome the appointment by the Irish Government of a 'Victim's Commissioner' but would cautioned against it being a repetition of the Bloomfield Report' which ignored and further isolated the victims and survivors of state violence.
The much heralded 'Bloomfield Commission' and subsequent 'report' 'We Will Remember Them' ignored those views and specific needs represented to it by RFJ. It forgot about them, almost 400 families bereaved by the direct actions of British forces in our country and countless others through collusion. It reinforced the league table of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' victims and survivors.
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