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| Richard Haass unveils the Intl Ind Legacy Body (IILB) |
Haass Talks Result: The International Independent Legacy Body
The IILB will be introduced by Richard Haass after Christmas and will consist of these strands:
1. Legacy Body
Led by ex-police types (perhaps Boston's former Police Commissioner?) from random places around the world that mainly no one has heard of but everyone is assured are respected in their field, the Legacy Body will oversee the truth recovery and justice process. It will be populated by safe academics and journalists who will dig for the truth of the past but only so much and their work will be dominated mainly by discussion of what is and is not 'helpful' to the process rather than what did and did not happen.
2. Freedom of Information Plus
Legislation will be introduced in the UK and Ireland that allows the IILB access to state archives, but gives the state latitude to restrict information on the basis of safety and national security issues. An appeal process will be written into the legislation which will give the impression that this can be successfully challenged but will never be tested.
3. Confidentiality
Participation in the process conducted by the IILB will give individuals legal protection - anything they tell researchers who are part of the IILB cannot be used in any manner and is told in complete confidentiality. This will be part of the IILB legislation. Those who do not participate, or refuse to, will be subject to the law, provided a case can be made against them. Given that access to anything that could possibly be used as evidence will be restricted under various peace process legislation, including the IILB remit, no one bar really annoying dissidents of whatever persuasion will ever be hauled before a court.
4. Funding
The Legacy Body will be funded by monies diverted from what is now currently pissing away in the piecemeal historical policing approach.
5. Investigative Procedure
The formal procedure for the IILB will follow along inquest lines, and a schedule of investigation and presentation will be drawn up and followed over a period of X amount of years.
6. Victims Role
Victims will be empowered and given recognition to their central standing in two manners:
- Firstly, they will be able to choose whether to allow their case to be processed by the IILB, or to take their chances in the criminal or civil courts. If they choose not to participate in the IILB, their ability to pursue criminal or civil cases will be restricted by the existence of the IILB and all the legislation that protects the information that results from it, and will only be championed by headcases and oddballs outside the great and the good of society.
- Secondly, an important section of every Legacy report will be the victim's statement, coupled with an examination by the Legacy Body of the impact of the event on the victim's life. This will validate the hurt felt by victims, and give them closure with the ability to express their feelings and experience while being recorded for history, ensuring they are not forgotten.
7. Accountability
At designated points along the way the IILB will issue reports of its work, detailing the cases it has handled and the outcome of their investigation. At the end of its shelf-life a comprehensive report will be issued that simultaneously blames everyone and no one specifically for the conflict.
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| Richard Haass and the conclusion of All Party Talks |
Mark my words. We've seen it all before, right down to the choreography of release currently ongoing. The end result of the Haass initiative won't be any different than what has already been agreed to and will be concluded in the same manner. Everyone will rattle their sabres for now, go have their Christmas dinners, then come together in the New Year with a new round of peace to process. Larkin's proposals are the roadmap the Haass talks are going down, and we'll end up with an IILB.
Will a Legacy Body bring any sense of truth, or justice? Who knows. Its real test of success for future generations will be whether or not it can stop the past from corrupting the present and provide the room for people to move on. Do we want the legacy of the past laid to rest, or do we want to hand on the legacy of the conflict? The choices made now will ensure we get what we deserve.
From Antaine Mac Coscair
ReplyDeleteFollowing the recent Panorama documentary regarding the role of the MRF, and on reading the various comments on the Daily Mail web site in relation to that documentary, I submitted the following post which the Daily Mail staff have declined to publish:
"In response to the article regarding the British MRF attacking and killing innocent civilians in the north of Ireland, it’s remarkable that whilst it’s accepted certain atrocities were committed by the IRA, some media fail to accept atrocities were also committed by the British forces and/or agents acting in collusion with them."
Carrie-
ReplyDeleteYou don't give us enough chances to have a dig at you-
" Gerry tell the truth "-
The same one who wrote that on a brick wall would never write MRF tell the truth-brits tell the truth-
That Panorama programme tried to
make out the big monster's were Taff
who fired the shots and Hamish who owned the Tommy guns-but while those two yellow brit soldiers were to scared to take on the IRA they went on to kill innocent catholic civilians instead- the real monsters were those brit leaders who ordered that carry on and sanctioned such killings-the brit state is to blame-
The same Brit state you's are now part and parcel of Mickey, lest ye forget that
ReplyDeleteMichael no harm to you but you have a very skewed version of the conflict. While no one is going to deny that the BA (in all its forms) killed innocent people, so too did republicans & loyalists..
ReplyDeleteAs for the picture, I think it's on a wall in Beechmount. And in most (if not all republican areas in Belfast)there are murals that say 'collusion is not an illusion'.
Well Sean bres had nothing to say about the MRF-he is still sticking with the 1916s Societies line of blame everything on the Shinners-
ReplyDeleteThe MRF and loyalists were the same Frankie-the MRF never fired on any of the loyalist barricades-
the MRF were opposed to law and order-
Michaelhenery,
ReplyDeletehe was asked to tell the turth not the truth.
I think people believe him to be so crooked that turth is just the way he would spell truth!
A different sort of take from the Cedar Lounge Revolution
ReplyDeleteIn response to the comments about the Panorama show, which I will watch later today.
ReplyDeleteThe PUP have a few members on FB and Twitter banging on about the IRA and asking if the IRA fought their war in line with the Geneva convention and also noting human rights. Very facetious and ironic coming from the UVF's inarticulate mouthpiece who are fueling the sectarian fire to hopefully gain a vote in the coming elections.
Never mind all the murders and crime committed over the past 15 years by these people. Pot kettle syndrome.
McDickhead
ReplyDeleteSean Bres is pointing out to you, that, the party you belong to is now administering Brit rule in the north of Ireland. I can't speak for the 1916 Societies, but I would say for a fact that they don't blame everything on SF. They lay the blame for what is happening here at the door of the British establishment, you know, something that SF ran away from in 1998 when they signed that agreement. SF then carried on administering Brit rule here with the proviso that it was only by consent that this place would break the Brit connection. Ergo, SF are and have been a Unionist party just like the Alliance Party.
The likely outcome of the Haas talks will be comical to all those who are promoting themselves as peace makers, people who took huge political risks. lol. It wont be comical for every single person who suffered as a result of the conflict here.
ReplyDeleteWatching the program lastnight did not leave me shocked or surprised, simply because like many people I knew this state sponsored terror happened. The only people who do not wish to admit this happened and do feigh shock are those ultimately responsible, political careerist who feel it is thier responsibility to bury the truth, rather than be honest.
The brits are giving the two fingers to all Irish people everytime some of the truth is exposed and by their continual denials. The whole process of arriving at an admission of truth and acceptance of responsibility takes years, as was the case in Kenya for those people who suffered at the hands of the brittish murder machine.
I cant help feeling that the whole proccess of denial and procrastination led by senior politicions and military will only bennefit republicans who have not surrendered. The brits for a long time have tried to cast themselves as being nuetral but their actions have always been at odds with their spoken lies.
At some point in the future republicans are going to start having what they regard as successes against brit occupation and again loyalists and brits will be drawn into carrying out yet more of what went before, the wheel will continue to turn until there is a genuine effort to address the real problem, brit occupation. Yes the troops are no longer here enforcing brit will at street level. After getting the IRA to surrender there was no longer a need for troops, they just needed to let their proxxies on the hill do their bidding.
The deeper into the current process of normalisation we get, the more glaringly obvious it becomes clear that although much has changed in actual fact nothing has changed. More people in the future will be murdered,maimed or imprisoned and this cycle will continue until the core issue of brit involvement in Ireland is confronted by the brits.
There will have been young impressionable men and women who watched panoramma lastnight that will add that baggage to other baggage acrued from living in the 6 counties and one day they will wake up in a prison cell or worse. That is one of the reallities of occupation and not the surrender process adapted by shameful Irishmen/women.
Carrie
ReplyDeleteA very insightful piece. Personally, I don't think anything will come out of those talks. I just heard on the radio news that Fr. Alex Reid has died. I've no doubt that Adams will jump on the bandwagon and say how sorry he is that Fr. Reid has died, because he'll be able to make up more lies about how he wanted peace and so on, seeing that the person is now dead.
Belfastgit,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to learn of the death of Alex Reid. He was a friend to the blanketmen.
Adams will now claim he told him about Liam but doesn't know why Alex did nothing. The bollix we weill hear and the lies now that Alex is not here to dispute them.
That said, I am not convinced Alex would have disputed them. He bought into the line.
But the man is dead and the the haunting image of him bending over the two combatants that died at Casement will always stick in the memory as an act of human compassion.
Good piece Carrie:
ReplyDeleteI have to sadly say, nothing is going to come out of the talks, Its just a massive money splashing exercise , The Unionist will want nothing but domination over the Nationalists , as always. SF have made sure that we will be still under John Bulls Tyranny for at least another 50 years or more.
I have no doubt that the MRF continued well beyond 1973 , mixed in with the Loyalist.
R.I.P. Father Reid.
Firstly, Thank you Carrie for that piece, it was "golden". We all will be sitting about now this piece in front of us ticking off what Dr Hugo hauss has said or will likely happen from the talks.
ReplyDeleteI agree with it all. It simply is a case of "Know you enemy, Know their history, Know their goal" and all the rest falls into place, on the talks about talks.
It is truly Orwellian were we are at, thank Christ I can see it.
I once was in favor of an independent truth and reconciliation commission, or whatever they call it these days. But not anymore, if there is one lesson from the peace process its the UK government wrote the script, produced the play, and hired jobbing local actors to star in it.
ReplyDelete(As its been mentioned,some of its producers would have been the very same people which recommended bringing into existence the MRF)
I cannot see any rational reason, beyond self interest, why republicans would become embroiled in the type of setup Carrie envisaged.
The make up of any process which emerges from Haas will be as independent as Gen John de Chastelain's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
' a new round of peace to process '
ReplyDeleteHow totally true! How many people have one ounce of confidence in any this.
Easy money for Haass and his entourage and I'm sure at the end the desired accreditation that he too brought peace to the tribes in Ireland.
Nuala,
ReplyDeleteI thought that was a brilliant line she came up with.
Mackers,
ReplyDeleteIt was brilliant but then Carrie always has her finger on the pulse.
She would need to put her finger on his pulse more often. He is show all the signs of accelerated aging and his heart palpations are off the scale.
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds well and good in theory but in practice I would assume the road blocks will be thrown up by both the British and Irish governments with the impassable phrase withheld for national security reasons.
ReplyDeleteWill it become another case of selective investigations’ and will it protect the States secrets? It can hardly be viewed as an impartial body if they are not willing to start at the top of the murder chain and work their way down.
I am sure it all looks very equal on paper but in practice that will soon be filled with blacked out lines under top secret and national security in the end another empty box under the justice tree.