When the investigation into the unsolved murder of Sean Brown during the Troubles in Northern Ireland was restarted last year, his family was given new hope. But a controversial British law, which came into force on Wednesday, risks, they say, destroying their quest for justice and truth.
The “Heritage and Reconciliation” law aims to turn the page on the three decades of the Northern Irish conflict which left more than 3,500 dead.
Denounced by its opponents as an “amnesty”, it must end investigations, civil cases and criminal prosecutions for crimes linked to the conflict and will grant immunity to veterans on all sides.
More than 25 years after the signing of the peace agreement in 1998, 1,200 deaths are still under police investigation, according to the British government.
For the victims’ relatives, some of whom demonstrated on Wednesday in Belfast carrying, for example, a black coffin bearing the word “justice”, the law destroys this hope.
It is criticized by victims’ rights groups as well as by Northern Ireland’s political parties, the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
The UK has also been sued by the Irish government at the European Court of Human Rights.
Redacted documents
In 1997, Sean Brown was kidnapped by loyalist, pro-UK paramilitaries in Bellaghy, 50 miles west of Belfast, as he closed the doors of his sports club. This 61-year-old father of six was shot dead a few minutes later in a nearby village.
His body was later identified by his brother Chris.
“He was just an innocent man, a pillar of the community. He was kidnapped to intimidate this community,” Chris Brown told AFP.
The family is still waiting to find out what really happened.
Opponents of the new law say it is primarily aimed at protecting former soldiers of the British army and security forces who served in Northern Ireland, as well as paramilitaries.
After the investigation into Brown’s case was restarted, the family learned this year that more than 25 people, including state agents, were connected to his killing.
“We were completely stunned,” said Clare Loughran, Sean Brown’s daughter.
“We suspected state involvement, but when we heard it loud and clear in court, we were devastated. Why did so many people want to hurt my father? “.
British state agencies have requested that sensitive files relating to the murder be redacted.
Niall Murphy, the Brown family’s lawyer, showed AFP the intelligence files at his Belfast office. Most have been deleted.
“This is the method by which the state hides its secrets,” the lawyer said, leafing through one of the files.
“Even documents that are not completely redacted are so heavily redacted that they are completely incomprehensible, which deprives families of access to justice,” he criticizes.
The new law is “the act of thugs, rejecting the principle of the international rule of law, in flagrant violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
little hope
After the 1er May, all so-called legacy cases will be transferred to a new body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).
But the families have little hope.
“We do not believe that the ICRIR will truly, openly and honestly examine individual cases […] because the British government appears to have a long history of hiding information and facts from families, investigators and the public,” explains Clare Loughran.
According to the director of ICRIR, the new organization will prove that the skeptics are wrong.
The Commission will strive to be “independent and impartial” and will be dedicated to seeking “the unvarnished truth”, Declan Morgan told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper this week.
Clare Loughran says her family will not give up seeking the truth.
“People will say ‘Why don’t you try to move on, the Troubles are over?’, but we can’t, we will continue to seek justice, to respect the memory of the victims.”
The Troubles pitted Loyalists, mainly Protestants, against Republicans, mainly Catholics, with the participation of the British army.