Interesting intervention from the Attorney General who calls for an end to any investigations into the troubles related offences before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. As RTE News notes he also highlighted the fact that the post GFA deal effectively buried a huge tranche of evidence of paramilitary murders:
He said part of the weapons decommissioning deal was that no forensic evidence was gathered when guns were being put beyond use.
He said no forensic evidence can be gathered if information is provided that allows the recovery of the remains of The Disappeared.
And the BBC quotes the man himself:
At present we have very good tools, subject to the point I’ve made about the passage of time, for critiquing the state, but we don’t have them for bringing to account those who have committed offences against the state.”
And on victims:
“At the same time, individual families should be facilitated in their access to documents and archives that the state holds, so that they and historians and journalists who are interested in these issues can find out more than may be possible at present.
“I think that’s an important part of that. I’m not in favour of any particular institution … but that families individually be assisted through the opening up of archives and records to a possibly greater extent than is currently possible.”
Updated with Vincent Kearney’s interview with the Attorney General John Larkin from Good Morning Ulster and some of the responses.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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