Northern Ireland: End of New Lawsuits Regarding "Period of Troubles"?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking to Parliament on September 10, 2019 (Illustration).

HO / AFP / PRU

Text by: Emeline Vin

3 min

Queen Elizabeth II is due to present her annual speech to Parliament on Tuesday.

A customary speech written by the Prime Minister to detail the political orientations for the coming year.

This year, according to the British press, the government plans to no longer allow the opening of new lawsuits relating to the period of the Troubles.

A project which has a heavy meaning in Northern Ireland.

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From our correspondent in Dublin,

The Troubles is the period of civil war in Northern Ireland between Republican Catholics and Unionist Protestants. During these thirty years, between 1969 and 1998; over 3,000 people were killed, half of them civilians. According to reports from the very serious British daily

The Times

and the

Telegraph

, the British government anticipates that it will now be impossible to prosecute for crimes committed during this period. Neither against paramilitaries on either side of the conflict, nor against British soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland.

On the other hand, investigations already opened remain so;

there are currently seven targeting former British servicemen.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be set up, on the model of post-apartheid South Africa.

"Boris Johnson tries to deprive our family of justice"

In Ireland, in the North as in the South, the reactions are unanimous.

The Irish government immediately expressed its deep concern.

Let us recall that Ireland and the United Kingdom are co-guarantors of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

And another agreement, signed in 2014, by Northern Irish officials, and which provided for the establishment of an investigation unit to settle the still unresolved murders.

This project would therefore be a unilateral violation of this 2014 agreement.

In the North, similar disapproval.

Amnesty International speaks of an insult to the victims.

The families are angry.

Michael O'Hare lost his sister Majella at age 12;

she was shot dead in 1976 by a soldier.

" 

No one has ever been held responsible

," said the now sixty-year-old, "

there has never been an investigation, let alone a prosecution and now Boris Johnson is trying to deprive our family of justice forever

 ."

2,000 unsolved murders

The British government has not denied, nor has it confirmed.

A source gathered by the

Telegraph

within the Ministry of Defense simply refused to speak of a proposed amnesty.

This especially since the 1998 peace agreement did not provide for an amnesty.

This Good Friday agreement provided for disarmament, the dismantling of paramilitary organizations, and the reduction of certain sentences, on a case-by-case basis.

Today, there are still many unresolved deaths, the example of Majella O'Hare is far from isolated.

The Northern Irish police, who feel they are under-resourced, take time, a lot of time to process these cases.

Twenty-three years after the peace agreement, which is already short of judicial time, 2,000 murders remain unsolved.

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