'Time to move on'

A summary of responses formulated during a consultation on the proposals on how to deal with the legacy of the troubles was published by the Northern Ireland Office on Monday.

The Consultative Group on the Past, spearheaded by the former Church of Ireland Primate, Lord Eames and Londonderry based former Catholic priest Denis Bradley, sparked controversy when it suggested paying 12,000 to each of the families of victims of violence, including paramilitaries.

That particular proposal was scuppered by former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Shaun Woodward. And, it has now emerged that of the 174 people who responded to the consultation on the group's report, the majority rejected it in its entirety without making any comment.

The consultation also received 72 responses from organisations, political parties, academics and medical experts.

Of the organisations that gave a clear view on the recommendation, 22 supported it while 15 opposed it. Out of the 174 individual responses, 165 were against the proposal.

Speaking on the outcome of the consultation on the Eames/Bradley report, which was launched in January 2009, the East Londonderry MP said he regarded the results as "unsurprising."

Gregory Campbell continued: "The Eames/Bradley proposals on the past must now be assessed to ensure that the curtain drops on the past for good and we all look forward.

"There are only two realistic options open to Northern Ireland. Either we reach agreement on how to devise a process that brings closure to the relatives of the deceased and those living with injuries as a result of the violence, or we conclude that there is no satisfactory means of doing it this that does not re-open wounds for many who have moved on in their personal lives. Given that two-thirds of those killed in the troubles died between 1969 and 1981, while one third died in the almost 30 years since, it is inevitable that for many the painful chapter is already closed."

There has also been great variance of political opinion on how to underpin a united mechanism for dealing with Northern Ireland's past. Whilst nationalists have mainly favoured a commission headed up by an international figure, akin to the post conflict South African Truth Commission, unionists have largely rejected this notion on the basis that it creates 'equality' between those who killed and their and victims.

Gregory Campbell said: "One of the problems of trying to reach agreement on a system to bring closure will automatically have to address the difference of innocent victims and those guilty perpetrators who also died. Any system that permits a false sense of equity between murderer and the murder victim would be repugnant and totally counter productive. Rather than bring closure it would re-open wounds from the distant past. If that system also allowed surviving perpetrators to justify their past deeds rather than beg for forgiveness for them would add insult to injury.

"However difficult it might be for some, it may well be the case that the time has come to decide that the pain in moving on and leaving the past in the past is not as great as the certainty of a process which inflicts more pain on relatives of innocent victims because it provides a platform for the guilty to justify their crimes in the name of 'closure'."