Britain proposes ending prosecutions related to N.Ireland’s ‘Troubles’
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The British government has proposed halting all prosecutions of British soldiers and militants involved in three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, sparking an angry response from victims’ families and politicians in Belfast and Dublin.
London has said prosecutions linked to the bloodshed are increasingly unlikely to result in convictions, but allegations over unresolved crimes from Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” remain a contentious issue 23 years after a peace deal was struck.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the move towards what he described as amounting to a general amnesty for those accused of murder and other crimes was not the right way to go “for many, many reasons”.
The Irish government had urged London not to push ahead with the move and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the proposals were “very much not a done deal” and that the two governments had previously committed to try to find a consensus.
However, Britain’s Northern Ireland Minister pledged to bring forward legislation underpinning a statute of limitations in the autumn while also proposing establishing a new independent body to help victims’ families find out the truth.
