The Human Consequences of Armed Conflict
by Marie Smyth
From: A Farewell to Arms? From 'long war' to long peace in Northern Ireland edited by Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen
The Bloomfield report had also drawn attention to the issue of the families of the 'disappeared' and recommended that 'every effort should be made to persuade and enable those with information about the disappeared to disclose it' subsequently, legislation (Northern Ireland (Location of Victims' Remains) Act 1999) was introduced at Westminster on 26 May 1999. This legislation limited the use of the results of forensic testing of bodies and offered protection to those coming forward with information about the location of bodies. The Victims Commission in the Republic of Ireland played a key role in facilitating a number of excavations in the Republic of Ireland, in June 1999, and excavation work stretched over a number of months. In spite of all the efforts, only a total of three out of a total of twelve missing bodies were found. Either the information given by the IRA was inaccurate or environmental factors intervened to thwart the majority of the searches. The period of searches was one of increased tension and anticipation for the families of the disappeared and of growing embarrassment for republicans.
The political process, meanwhile, was stuck. On the one hand, the issue of decommissioning and on the other the failure to implement the Agreement and establish an Executive constituted a stalemate. After the resignation of the Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble presided alone, balking at any movement on further implementation. Complaints about the status of the IRA ceasefire, and about continuing paramilitary punishment attacks, offered evidence for his scepticism about Sinn Fein's intentions. FAIT, a group originally considered for funding under the provision for victims, monitored and regularly publicised such paramilitary punishment attacks, thereby providing evidence to support Trimble's scepticism. Added to this, recurrent media coverage of the expenditure on resettlement of prisoners promoted an atmosphere of increasing cynicism about the Peace Process and the Agreement.
This was further crystallised by the announcement of the campaign for 'protestant civil rights' in the form of a long march. This campaign incorporated many of the newly formed victims' groups, FAIR and HURT were among those who came together under the umbrella organisation Northern Ireland Terrorist Victims Together (NITVT). NITVT's campaign was for a range of demands including: a declaration by the IRA that the war is over; decommissioning including ballistic testing of weapons; destruction of paramilitary weapons; disbandment of terrorist groups, and an international tribunal to investigate the role of the Irish government in the development of the Provisional IRA. Anti agreement politicians, from the DUP and anti agreement UUP, marched alongside those from the victims groups, and other supporters, including Nell McCafferty from the 1960s Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
Finally, as the Ulster Unionist Party moved further away from the prospect of the establishment of an Executive, they, too, became more deeply involved with victims. Michelle Williamson, whose parents were killed in the Shankill Road bomb in 1993, was supported by the Ulster Unionist Party to take a court action seeking a Judicial Review of the Secretary of State's ruling on the status of the IRA ceasefire. Should this ruling be overturned, Sinn Fein would be excluded from the political process. David Trimble accompanied her to court.
By the end of September 1999, Fraser Agnew, United Unionist Assembly Party member, resigned from The Long March Campaign, saying, 'I believe innocent victims are being manipulated and exploited for political ends. It's almost like emotional blackmail.'
|
