Minister weighs up truth and reconciliation commission for Northern Ireland
-2/6/04
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy has been hearing from opponents of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, on his visit to South Africa.
The government launched a consultation process on how best to heal the wounds of Northern Ireland's violent past, last week.
Secretary of State Paul Murphy told the House of Commons last Thursday that there was a need to deal with the pain, grief and anger caused by the Troubles.
"I have reflected carefully on what role I might play," Mr Murphy said.
"This is a complex and profoundly sensitive subject. There are no ready-made solutions. Opinion is divided on some aspects of the way forward. And the pain of victims and their families remains very real."
The secretary of state said he would be having discussions with a wide range of people with relevant experiences and expertise over the next few weeks.
He would also be commissioning work on relevant international experience, drawing on the sort of processes which others have used in seeking to come to terms with the past.
Amongst the opponents of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paul Murphy heard from Shirley Gunn, a member of the ANC's military wing, who was tortured by the apartheid government. Gunn now works with the main victims' group in South Africa, Khulamani (which translates as Speak Out).
Shirley Gunn is a passionate advocate of reconciliation, but believes the South African process "short-changed" the people.
She thinks it did not run for long enough, that not enough was done to inform people of their rights - especially rural communities in a country of 44 million.
Due to the amnesty for those giving evidence, it favoured the perpetrators not the victims, she says. People have also pointed out the lack of reparations to victims.
Although Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chaired the Commissionbacked calls for reparations they were not heeded.
Reports say that Gunn and Paul Murphy had a long and animated discussion. But despite an acknowledgement of the imperfections of the South African process, Mr Murphy believes Northern Ireland could still benefit from some kind of reconciliation system.
Whilst there is no suggestion of adopting what was put in place in South Africa in its entirety, after talking to the architects of the system, he is said to be bringing home some key themes.
He has been told again and again on his trip, that whatever is constructed must have cross-community consensus in terms of both what is done and the people responsible for doing it.
The move toward a South African style commission also came in for criticism from Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has claimed it is absurd to talk about the conditions which allowed a truth and reconciliation commission to operate in South Africa when the government denies rights at home.
The West Belfast MP said at the launch of his partyís European Parliament election manifesto in Dublin: ìThe British Government are belligerents. They are combatants.
ìThey are not referees. They are not neutral and they cannot come out any more than (PSNI Chief Constable) Hugh Orde has to come up with some plan or protocol for dealing with these issues.
ìI think that there has to be a holistic, comprehensive approach to it and given the history of the British Governmentís refusal to co-operate with the Barron Inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombs, the Saville Inquiry and to hold an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, I think we have an awful lot of work to do to convince that government that it needs to take a positive and constructive role.
ìI also think it is absurd that Paul Murphy or at least a statement in his name in South Africa should talk about the people there being able to reconcile because they wanted to.
ìHe conveniently left out the fact that they had democracy restored when certainly in the north of Ireland it is still just a good idea.
ìThey had an end to apartheid and still here we have partition.î
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