Press Release
The Pat Finucane Centre supports the Bloody Sunday families in their concerns about the proposals to submit the report of the Saville Inquiry to the Ministry of Defence prior to releasing it to the families.
The Pat Finucane Centre work with families engaging with the Historic Enquiries Team (HET). These include people whose relatives were killed by the British army.
Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre said “These families receive reports from the HET of their findings on the circumstances of the death and the investigations carried out after the killing. The HET reports are not submitted for vetting to the Government or for approval to the Ministry of Defence. We are deeply concerned that the Bloody Sunday Inquiry report is to be submitted for what amounts to vetting by the Ministry of Defence. We are concerned that the Government is apparently implying that Saville and his team are not competent to article 2 proof the report.”
Tuesday, 23rd February 2010
Statement from Bloody Sunday Families and Wounded
It is now more than 12 years since the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was announced by Tony Blair in 1998. It could be only a matter of weeks until the report from that Inquiry sees the light of day. Lord Saville has indicated that the report will be ready in the week beginning 22nd March. Time and timing are now very much of the essence.
The public will know that we have had discussions in recent months with the northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward, An Taoiseach Brian Cowan, and officials from both the Irish and British states regarding the timing and modalities of the release of the report. We have kept Lord Saville appraised of the content and import of these discussions at all stages.
At this moment in time we are gravely concerned regarding two critical issues:
Firstly, the NIO Secretary of State has indicated that he expects to hold the report for a period of up to 14 days to scrutinise it for breaches of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act 2000 and for breaches of ‘national security’ before he publishes it. This means that the securocrats within the NIO and other government departments will see the report before we do.
Our second grave concern is around timing: with the proximity of the Easter Parliamentary recess and the imminence of an announcement of a general election in the week of or close to 22nd March, should the report be given to government at that time for the above-stated purpose, there is little or no chance of the families receiving it this side of an election. To make matters worse, the report will be in the hands of officials within the NIO for a period of several months without any political control from above. This is a frightening prospect for the families as we believe that the report will fall victim to selective leakage and other partisan usage long before the full report sees the light of day.
In short, the Inquiry process, detailed, meticulous and painful as it was, could become a total mess and a travesty in the final few weeks before it becomes public. To compound matters for the families, we have heard not a word from the Secretary of State since we met him in Derry last October despite having written a detailed letter to him in mid November. A lapse of three months without contact is no way to do business.
We believe, in the first instance, that there is no necessity or precedent for the government to expect to receive this or any report commissioned under the 1921 or 2005 Tribunals of Inquiry Act. Indeed, recent precedent in relation to both the Shipman and Hutton Inquiries clearly points to the tribunal chair taking full responsibility for the timing and modalities of the release of such reports to interested parties and to the public.
After a meeting with a representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the weekend, the families sent a letter by e-mail yesterday morning to Lord Saville strongly urging him to follow established precedent by taking full responsibility for the release of the providing the report to all interested parties at the same time. At the same time and in the same manner we wrote to Shaun Woodward demanding that he assent to Lord Saville taking full responsibility for the publication of the report.
We are calling on Lord Saville to Set the Truth Free!
We are calling on Shaun Woodward to agree that Lord Saville should Set the Truth Free!
We are now calling on all of the above-name individuals, as well as Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Foyle MP Mark Durkan, Paul Fleming the Mayor of the city, as well as MLAs, to act now to prevent the Saville Report from becoming a total debacle and to assist in setting the truth free.