Seize Opportunity to stand up for innocent victims, urge UUP
Tom Elliott MLA, Ulster Unionist Assembly Member for Fermanagh & South Tyrone and member of the Committee of OFMDFM, believes that Ulster Unionist Leader Sir Reg Empey and his Ministerial colleague Michael McGimpsey will tomorrow call upon the Executive to use their devolved powers to change the unsatisfactory definition of ‘victim’ that exists in current legislation. Under the current Victims and Survivors (Northern Ireland) Order (2006) a victim can mean anyone who has been affected physically and psychologically as a result of a conflict-related incident. This leaves the door open for former terrorists to claim that they are ‘victims’ of the Troubles. The opportunity to change the definition has arisen due to the need to introduce legislation that will accommodate four Victims’ Commissioners.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Executive meeting today Mr. Elliott said:
“I believe Ulster Unionist Ministers Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey will propose an amendment on the legislation’s flawed definition of a victim of the Troubles. Under the current definition a perpetrator of acts of terrorism is given the same legal status and potential compensation as an innocent victim of an act of terrorism; common sense and decency says this is wrong. The Ulster Unionist Ministers will therefore request that the proposed OFMDFM amendment of the 2006 Order include a further amendment, making clear that the Order’s provisions for ‘victims and survivors’ do not apply to those injured or killed while undertaking criminal acts or those who have received terrorist-related convictions. OFMDFM are already committed to altering the legislation to accommodate 4 Commissioners instead of 1. The quickest and most effective way of changing the flawed definition of ‘victim’ is to merely add this further amendment.
The Ulster Unionist Ministers will be expecting support from the DUP Ministers. The newly appointed Junior Minister in OFMDFM, Jeffery Donaldson, has frequently stated his position on this matter. In February of this year, he said:
The DUP is engaged in advancing the victims’ agenda and we will continue to fight for victims and will resist any efforts to rewrite or sanitise history to suit republicans. That includes any attempt to equate terrorist perpetrators with their innocent victims. (Jeffery Donaldson News Letter 8th February 2008)
This echoed his statement of 2005:
We will also be making it clear to government that it must not equate innocent victims with the perpetrators of violence and that any definition of victim must exclude those engaged in acts of terrorism. (BBC News 1st March 2005).
Nor is this merely a personal view held by Mr. Donaldson. A DUP policy paper makes clear that party’s stated position on the definition of victim:
There is a fundamental distinction between those who have suffered at the hands of terrorist gangs and those terrorist gangs and former terrorists who contributed to the terror campaign… The DUP simply demands a fair and sensible recognition of the victims of terror. Clouding the issue or applying a one-fits-all definition merely concedes to the principle of political expediency. (DUP Policy Paper ‘A Voice for Victims’2003)
And as recently as this week’s Assembly debate on the Eames-Bradley commission, DUP MLA Gregory Campbell explicitly declared:
The past must be dealt with in a manner that does not encapsulate everyone who died under one heading … There are murderers and there are the murdered, and there is no equivalence between them. (Gregory Campbell MLA, Northern Ireland Assembly 10.03.08)
In light of these statements, I was obviously greatly disappointed that the DUP members of the Committee of OFMDFM refused to support my calls in the Committee last week for the Victims and Survivors 2006 Order’s flawed definition of victim to be amended at the same time as the Order is being amended to allow for four Commissioners. With Sir Reg and Michael McGimpsey I would hope that the DUP Ministers will exercise better judgment and use any opportunity to ensure that the legislation adequately recognises innocent victims.”