Victims groups losing out to ex-prisoners says MP
From NEWS LETTER January 24th, 2001
LAGAN Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson called yesterday for work by the intermediary funding body that deals with victims of terrorist violence in Northern Ireland to cease following remarks allegedly made by its director.
He said there was growing disillusionment among victims and their families about the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust's role.
The trust's responsibility for administering funding to victims' groups, should end and be passed to a new Victims' Commission which would specifically deal with victims.
His proposal follows comments he claimed were made by Avila Kilmurray, NIVT's director, that ''politically motivated ex-prisoners of war are at the forefront and actively continuing the struggle''.
An angry Mr Donaldson said: ''I wonder what Ms Kilmurray means by the struggle? I wasn't aware that the Government had declared that ex-prisoners were ex-prisoners of war.
"And yet this is the lady who is the director of the intermediary funding body responsible for funding victims' groups in Northern Ireland."
"Ms Kilmurray goes on to speak of 'the often hidden cost of imprisonment - the former prisoners who are unable to come to terms with the brutal treatment they receive from the justice and jail system..."
"How do you think the victims feel about these kind of remarks?"
"It is little wonder that they have become disillusioned with the NIVT and the uneven-handed manner in which they have approached the issue of funding."
Mr Donaldson said Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR), which dealt with in excess of 300 individual victims in the South Armagh area, was in dispute with NIVT.
He asked: "Don't those people deserve a proper share of funding in contrast to the generous funding that's made available to ex-prisoners' groups?"
"Victims' groups feel - and rightly in my opinion - that they are not being treated with parity of esteem and that there is a lack of understanding about their situation."
Mr Donaldson raised the matter during a short debate at Westminster Hall in which he claimed that victims were receiving less compensation than the ex-prisoners who caused their suffering.
It was "insensitive" for NIVT to continue dealing with victims in the light of the alleged remarks, he said.
Northern Ireland Office minister for victims Adam Ingram said Mr Donaldson had made some "very strong allegations" against Ms Kilmurray, and he had taken note of them.
NIVT had taken "very difficult decisions", he said, but said that allocation of funding was now the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
"I understand that an executive committee has agreed that victims of violence should be specifically identified in that programme as a group requiring continuing support," he said, adding that there was nothing more he could say.
In South Armagh, "the scene of some of the cruelest atrocities", Mr Donaldson said victims' group Fair had received to date pounds 102,000 in Government and European funding.
He compared this with a republican ex-prisoners' group in the same area which has to date received pounds 166,000 in Government and European funding.
Mr Ingram said he was not unsympathetic to Mr Donaldson's suggestion of a Victims' Commission.
He said he understood that the peace process had been difficult for many
victims and painful, not least because of the early release of prisoners.
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