WHEN WILL HONESTY PREVAIL?
When will honesty prevail?
It is now almost two weeks since the leaking of the Ombudsman's report into the police investigation of the bombing of Omagh. The investigation exceeded its remit and discovered more than the government wanted uncovered.
There followed a round of frenetic activity on the part of the government, the Unionist party, the police, the security services, and loyalist terrorist organisations, all designed to blight the report and bury its damning findings. The truth has never been so despised or so dangerous.
No one can return the lives lost in that hate-filled affair; no one can restore the limbs lost; no one can undo the heart break. The government and all other parties are powerless in these respects - but they can deliver on the truth.
The time has long passed for the government to come clean on this affair. The alternative is to resist and deny; to cover-up and pretend that there was no wrongdoing.
The families of those who have been put through this ordeal have a basic human right to know the truth. If the government's hands are dirty and there is a cover up, there will be unbridgeable gap in faith. If the matter is not openly, even painfully, scrutinised, there will be a chasm in trust. If the past is to be laid to rest and we are to proceed together into the future, these chasms must be spanned once and for all by honesty and accountability.
If John Reid or Tony Blair imagine that it is possible to gloss over this matter, to 'spin' it away, they may pull down everything that has been built since 1994.
Following the collapse of apartheid in South Africa one of the mechanisms for preventing social implosion and sectarian blood-letting was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There is a huge need for just such a body in Northern Ireland at present, but who would trust the government to set it up?
In the early stages of the peace process the British and Irish governments went through the motions of saying sorry for all that went before. That tokenism rings rather hollow now. The British government has got an opportunity now to build bridges to the future but they must be founded on honesty; moreover, there must instantly be an end of subversive activities by the security forces.
The families of Omagh have suffered twice. They have lost their loved ones or watched their loved ones get maimed in the atrocity and they have suffered the trauma of learning that it may all have been avoided.
Clearly, there has been much disinformation since the atrocity, but there has been one piece of truth and that it Ms O'Loan's document. Nor is it the end product; rather it is the starting point. The government can forget about allowing the discredited and disgraced Peter Mandelson to speak for it. Blair must come out clearly on the side of the Omagh families, on the side of truth.
It is now almost two weeks since the leaking of the Ombudsman's report into the police investigation of the bombing of Omagh. The investigation exceeded its remit and discovered more than the government wanted uncovered.
There followed a round of frenetic activity on the part of the government, the Unionist party, the police, the security services, and loyalist terrorist organisations, all designed to blight the report and bury its damning findings. The truth has never been so despised or so dangerous.
No one can return the lives lost in that hate-filled affair; no one can restore the limbs lost; no one can undo the heart break. The government and all other parties are powerless in these respects - but they can deliver on the truth.
The time has long passed for the government to come clean on this affair. The alternative is to resist and deny; to cover-up and pretend that there was no wrongdoing.
The families of those who have been put through this ordeal have a basic human right to know the truth. If the government's hands are dirty and there is a cover up, there will be unbridgeable gap in faith. If the matter is not openly, even painfully, scrutinised, there will be a chasm in trust. If the past is to be laid to rest and we are to proceed together into the future, these chasms must be spanned once and for all by honesty and accountability.
If John Reid or Tony Blair imagine that it is possible to gloss over this matter, to 'spin' it away, they may pull down everything that has been built since 1994.
Following the collapse of apartheid in South Africa one of the mechanisms for preventing social implosion and sectarian blood-letting was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There is a huge need for just such a body in Northern Ireland at present, but who would trust the government to set it up?
In the early stages of the peace process the British and Irish governments went through the motions of saying sorry for all that went before. That tokenism rings rather hollow now. The British government has got an opportunity now to build bridges to the future but they must be founded on honesty; moreover, there must instantly be an end of subversive activities by the security forces.
The families of Omagh have suffered twice. They have lost their loved ones or watched their loved ones get maimed in the atrocity and they have suffered the trauma of learning that it may all have been avoided.
Clearly, there has been much disinformation since the atrocity, but there has been one piece of truth and that it Ms O'Loan's document. Nor is it the end product; rather it is the starting point. The government can forget about allowing the discredited and disgraced Peter Mandelson to speak for it. Blair must come out clearly on the side of the Omagh families, on the side of truth.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0897
Published Date: 20-Dec-01
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