Northern Ireland crisis: I knew nothing about IRA fugitives deal – Lord Trimble
 Ex-first minister, who played key role in peace process, says: 'I would dearly love to know who signed off those letters' Secret letters giving an amnesty to fugitives accused of terrorism have undermined the Northern Ireland peace process, former unionist leader Lord Trimble has said. Trimble, an ex-first minister of Northern Ireland, who was instrumental in the peace process, said he knew nothing about the deals, which became public during the collapse of the Hyde Park bombing trial when suspect John Downey produced a letter from police claiming immunity. The existence of the letters, effectively granting pardons to some of the 187 IRA suspects still wanted for crimes during the Troubles – known as on-the-runs, has prompted a crisis in Northern Ireland, where the first minister, Peter Robinson, has threatened to resign unless there is a judicial review into how it happened. His resignation would trigger the collapse of the devolved five-party coalition dominated by Robinson's Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Féin. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Trimble said politicians were kept in the dark. "All I knew was that there was a lot going on over the question of on-the-runs and it culminated at the end of 2005 with the then Labour government introducing legislation into parliament and it became very clear soon afterwards that that legislation had absolutely no hope of passing through parliament. It was also a question of the process and the procedures with what was going on." He said at some point during the peace process "an administrative process that operated independently of government" came into operation."I would dearly love to know who signed off those letters," he added. The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said the government was looking urgently at Robinson's call for a judicial inquiry, but warned against allowing the Downey case to escalate into a "full-blown political crisis". Clegg told the Sky News Sunrise programme: "It is a very serious issue. We are looking urgently at what Peter Robinson has said and demanded. We are doing a very quick review of all the other letters in existence. We are urgently considering his view that there should be a full inquiry. "We don't want this to escalate into a full-blown political crisis in Northern Ireland, however much we totally understand the strength of feeling around this, and that's why during the course of the day we will of course seek to respond to a lot of the very strongly held views expressed by Peter Robinson and others." Robinson has called for an emergency debate on the issue in the Northern Ireland assembly on Friday. He said he was consulting other parties about a motion in the Stormont parliament. After talks with the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, at Hillsborough Castle on Wednesday night, Robinson also claimed that some of the 187 IRA on-the-runs wanted by police for past Troubles-related crimes had been given royal pardons, effectively granting them amnesties. Robinson had earlier warned that he would quit unless there was a judicial review into how the case against Downey collapsed. The DUP leader said: "We are not on the brink of a crisis – we are in a crisis." The scheme had created "a crisis of confidence that the people of Northern Ireland will have on the policing and judicial processes. And they are right to be angry." The judge's decision to free Downey at the Old Bailey on Tuesday has resulted in the most dangerous political destabilisation at Stormont since devolution was restored in 2007. North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds said the amnesties, kept secret from unionists in negotiations leading up to the 2006 St Andrew's agreement, would have "very, very serious implications for Northern Ireland devolution". Downey, from County Donegal, had been charged with the murders of four soldiers who died in the Hyde Park bomb in 1982, after his arrest at Gatwick airport last year. He strongly denied all the charges put to him and pointed out that he was a strong backer of the peace process. The case against him collapsed after it emerged in court that he had a letter from 2007 that mistakenly suggested he was immune from prosecution over the Hyde Park atrocity. Deputy first minister and Sinn Féin negotiator Martin McGuinness appealed for unionists to calm down over the controversy, saying: "No sensible person will thank anyone for threatening these institutions." His party colleague Gerry Kelly, who bombed the Old Bailey in 1973, accused unionists of electioneering over their threats to pull out of the regional government. Kelly said the letters to the on-the-runs, which also include high-profile fugitives such as Sinn Féin's former press director Rita O'Hare, had been a pragmatic and necessary move to push the peace process forward. Security sources in Northern Ireland told the Guardian the on-the-runs scheme was part of negotiations aimed at winning support within the IRA for the decommissioning of its arms – a key unionist demand during talks leading up to a political settlement. But even strong supporters of the peace process, such as the former deputy first minister and Foyle MP for the nationalist SDLP, Mark Durkan, criticised the covert nature of the deal for on-the-runs. In a pointed reference to former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, Durkan told the House of Commons the deal had "proved that some of us were right when we warned the right honourable member for Neath [Hain] and others that they were blighting the peace process with their penchant for side deals, pseudo-deals, sub-deals, shabby deals and secret deals – which are now doing major damage to the process more widely." Before the meeting with Robinson, Villiers said: "I do hope, despite the long shadow this case is likely to cast, that the Northern Ireland parties will continue to work together to see if a solution can be found to the issues of the past." Loyalist paramilitaries have also entered the controversy with the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association demanding that all historical Troubles-related cases involving loyalists and members of the security forces be scrapped. The West Belfast Branch of the UDA-aligned Ulster Political Research Group said all loyalists and security force members caught up in historical inquiries should be granted amnesties. The UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force along with their political allies have claimed that investigations into past Troubles-related crimes have focused in the main on loyalist groups as well as the security forces with the authorities less inclined to pursue ex-IRA members over unsolved murders from the conflict. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
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