NIVM press statement after meeting Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
18 August 2021
In 1998 and 2001 The British Government granted immunity to terrorists with the introduction of a two year maximum sentence for their crimes including murder. Blair and Reid then negotiated secret deals with Sinn Fein/IRA and introduced Royal Pardons and letters of comfort for over 200 IRA terrorists. These criminals were the hard core of the republican movement that abducted, tortured and murdered innocent people across the United Kingdom and Europe for forty years.
At the same time Blair deliberately failed to provide protection for security forces who upheld the rule of law in an act of shocking appeasement to the IRA.
Having received immunity from prosecution the republican movement adopted and corrupted current Human Rights Legislation and formed non-governmental organisations. They rebranded their criminal defence-lawyers as Human Rights lawyers. Then they infiltrated government bodies and the criminal justice system within Northern Ireland so that the only public narrative was republican atrocity propaganda.
They managed to place a solicitor closely associated with the IRA as Director of Public Prosecution for Northern Ireland.
In 2015 the republican movement launched a ‘Lawfare’ offensive funded wholly from the NI Legal Aid budget. This currently stands at 500 million pounds. The target of their attacks were all members of the security forces.
That offensive continues today with a growing list of legal attacks on those that defended the whole population of Northern Ireland against organized crime gangs.
Truth and justice left Northern Ireland when the government granted murderers immunity from prosecution.
The NIVM are sensitive to the feelings of the innocent victims of terrorism and the hurt that a statute of limitations will cause them, but the simple and painful truth is that no terrorist will ever be convicted. That battle was lost with the signing of the GFA.
The Statute of Limitations proposed by the SoS NI Brandon Lewis offers a way forward for those who served in Northern Ireland.
This Statute of Limitations combined with an end to legal aid and funding for legacy cases will stop this expensive and deeply flawed propaganda offensive.
There will be no more show trials, no more legacy inquests costing millions of pounds, no more hugely expensive police enquiries directed at the security forces. With that guarantee in place, we will bring our full strength and influence to bear in support of this proposed legislation.
The NIVM will scrutinize every detail of the proposed bill to ensure that the legislation truly offers the protection for which Veterans have been campaigning. We will consult and lobby members of parliament from all parties to support this legislation to ensure that the bill has a swift passage through the house.
Let us be clear – our single mission for five years has been to defend veterans who were previously cleared of wrong-doing from repeated, vexatious prosecution by representatives of Sinn Fein IRA. It is time for the UK tax payer to realize that hundreds of millions of pounds of their money has been used to persecute our own people on behalf of professional criminals. This legislation will put an end to that
In a Q&A with the press after the meeting we explained that we only have one agenda, other parts of the bill are legacy issues and are the concern of the people of Northern Ireland. The soldiers being persecuted are as far as we know all from mainland Britain.
The Secretary of State NI said that this bill will come before parliament in the Autumn and should become law in the next year if it is passed. Labour are speaking out against the bill but with an 80 seat Conservative majority in the House it should pass.
If it does it will be a major blow to Sinn Fein/IRA and a genuine victory for those who served in Northern Ireland.
Robin Horsfall
Paul Young
Northern Ireland Veterans Movement.
Who Dares Shares!