She said: "No-one should rely on them any longer to regulate their behaviour. If they drew some comfort from those letters in the past they should no longer draw comfort from them in the future."
The 'on-the-runs' programme was a critical part of the Irish Peace Process, the Villiers statement is a coded conclusion and confirmation, that the British will no longer fulfill its obligations under the Agreement.
BelfastTelegraph
There have since been a number of investigations into the incident, including a judge-led review which was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Lady Justice Hallett found serious failings in the 'on-the-runs' administrative scheme - but also that letters sent to terrorism suspects "did not amount to an amnesty".
Hundreds of immunity letters given to IRA members are
'not to be relied' on, Theresa Villiers has told a
Westminster committee.
said the letters 'could not be
relied' on, as she gave evidence in
front of MPs during a sitting of the
Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee, this afternoon.
"No-one should rely on them any
longer to regulate their
behaviour," she told members of
the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee.
"If they drew some comfort from
those letters in the past they
should no longer draw comfort
from them in the future."
Lady Justice Hallett said a
"catastrophic" error had been
made in the Downey case; she
insisted the letters of assurance
did not amount to amnesties or
get-out-of-jail-free cards.
Under the scheme, which started running in 2000, almost
190 republicans who had left the UK jurisdiction received
assurances they were not being sought by British
authorities. A number who applied for assurances were
not granted them because they were considered as
wanted.
The judge also noted that a number of generic letters
issued did not include a caveat that prosecutions could be
mounted in the future if further evidence emerged.
Ms Villiers said her announcement would not 100%
guarantee that abuse of process bids could not be made
in the future but she said she was going as far as she
could to provide clarity on the status of the letters.
The Northern Ireland Secretary has consistently insisted
the letters never amounted to amnesties and were only
factual statements about an individual's status in regard
to the authorities at a particular point in time.
In that context she has stated on a number of occasions
that any sense of general "rescinding" of the letters was
not applicable.
Ms Villiers repeated that interpretation today while giving
evidence to the committee's own inquiry into the on-the-
run scheme.
"I'm not sure rescind is the appropriate term but they
should not be relied on," she said.
Ms Villiers had pledged to take legal advice in the wake of
the Hallett report to deal with any of the specific issues
flagged up by the judge.
She told MPs today that individuals with letters would be
treated by the authorities in exactly the same way as
individuals who did not have one.
"The Hallett report concludes that errors of fact were
made, and errors of judgment may have been made, in
cases considered under the scheme," she said.
"The serious systemic failures in the way the scheme was
run which are highlighted in the Hallett Report must
mean that there is a very real possibility that mistakes
were made in other cases which have yet to come to
light.
"In the light of this, no one should take any comfort from
these letters. No one should rely on them.
"Decisions of the independent police and prosecuting
authorities on whether individuals are prosecuted will be
on the basis of decisions made now, not decisions made
at some point in the past. And those decisions will be
made on the basis of all the available evidence.
"To all those who have a letter I say - if the police or
prosecuting authorities have evidence which is available
today or becomes available in the future to pursue you,
they can and will pursue you."
Ms Villiers said she would make a fuller written statement
to Parliament in "the coming days".
"This will set out my decision and the reasons for it and
set out next steps," she said.
"I would urge anyone affected by the administrative
scheme to read that statement when it is published."
They were granted to individuals suspected of terrorist
crimes committed before the signing of the Good Friday
Agreement in 1998. They told suspects whether they
were being sought by police over any past offences.
More to follow
Irish Peace Process is Dead. Time to Move On !
Speaking with many people from across the political divide in Ireland currently , the general consensus privately, is that Irish Peace Process, is currently dying a slow death. One of its principal architects Gerry Adams in a statement recently stated, “The political process is in trouble. I believe that the political process faces its greatest challenge since the Good Friday Agreement negotiations in 1998. The anti-Good Friday Agreement axis within unionism; the pro-unionist stance of the British secretary of state Theresa Villiers; the refusal of Downing Street to honour its own obligations, are combining to create the most serious threat to the political institutions in the North in recent years.
“The result of all this is directly undermining power-sharing and partnership government. The unionist leaderships have been encouraged in their posture by a British government that has not been fully engaged with the political process for four years.” He added, that traditional pro-British Unionist were unwilling to participate positively in any of the Agreement's institutions, stating that “Instead it has adopted a tactical approach aimed at serving the political agenda of a fundamentalist rump in their party rather than the needs of the whole community,”
Again yesterday, Adams made a veiled attack, on the current Fine Gael regime in Government in the South of Ireland, which has traditionally protected the Unionists in the North, stating, "An anti-agreement axis has now emerged. There needs to be a pro-agreement axis and the two Governments need to be very, very focused on delivering on the agreement.”
The Irish Government has been too passive in my view and the Taoiseach(Irish Prime minister) could well emulate the example of Albert Reynolds (Another Peace Process architect who died last week) to get involved and press ahead but particularly to keep the British Government to its obligations.”
The traditional Unionist Leader in the north Peter Robinson statement in reply, "Once more we see the self-serving attempt by Sinn Fein to distract public attention from real problems by blaming everyone, except itself, for what it asserts is a crisis that impacts on the political institutions."
Last week Hilary Clinton's aide Nancy Soderberg said, “Today, too many in Ireland take two decades of a ceasefire for granted. They still focus on their own sense of victimhood of the past and fail to forge a new united community that can not only solidify the peace, but even build shared prosperity. A look back at the hard-fought ceasefire may encourage some broader thinking about the responsibility of leadership to build a better shared future for the people of Ireland.”
The British Conservative Government and their Vice Royal in Ireland, since coming to power, other than enforcing a heavy censorship of international media coverage of the ongoing low intensity war In Occupied Ireland, have irresponsibly taken a hands off approach with the Peace Process and essentially have failed to understand the critical small print of the dying Good Friday agreement.
In a recent statement the leader of Republican Sinn Fein, the traditional Irish Republican voice, leader Des Dalton stated, "We are being asked to abandon the high ideals, that inspired that revolutionary generation of a century ago and instead embrace the mythology of empire. It is evident that in the decade of centenaries, the political establishments of Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster, are determined to draw a line under Irish history. By demonising and isolating Irish Republicanism and refusing it access to public debate, they hope, that it will simply fade from the public consciousness, robbed of historical or political legitimacy. Quoting from a Ronan Fanning article in the Irish Times, he added, “…the propagation of a bland, bloodless, bowdlerised and inaccurate hybrid of history, which if carried to extremes, is more likely to provoke political outrage than to command intellectual respect, let alone consensus.”
The Freemasonry of the Orange Order are now front and centre in Unionist, Fine Gael and British politics. Its Chaplain, Rev Mervyn Gibson, the most influential person in all-party talks on flags, parading and the past, is even more influential after the DUP and UUP scuttled the talks by the recent US Government to try move the dying process on, with its envoys Richard Haas and Meghan Sullivan sent packing by the Orange Order, exercising its trump card, the Orange veto.This is one of many critical factors, that was not dealt with by The Peace process. Another was the issue of large numbers of political prisoners still languishing in British Gaols, in both parts of Ireland. This threatens to explode again at any moment, in the same way that, the Hunger Strike of Bobby Sands and the 11 other Irish Republicans, who starved to death on Hunger Strike, changing the face of Irish politics and giving the platform to the Adams voice, to be serious player he now is in Irish politics.
Now however, as the Orange Order have demonstrated themselves to be the real voice of traditional Unionism, while Adams clearly does not speak for traditional Irish Republicans. What Nancy Soderberg and the British Conservative Party in London have failed to grasp, is that the Good Friday Agreement will not stick, without a proper foundation, in the context of both the Orange and Green traditions of Ireland. These traditions are deep in the psyche of the majority of Irish people's consciousness. One of the principal lessons of the last 800 years of Irish History, which Ms Soderberg in the context of Ireland and many American citizens in the context of their own short history, fail to understand is "Old Europe."
In light of all of this, one does not have to be particularly bright to observe, that the Peace Process is past its sell by date on the ground in Ireland. It clearly needs to evolve into something more comprehensive and inclusive, with respect to the matter of Orange/Green traditions and their real voices. Clearly again for a more permanent solution, the "Peace Process needs to evolve from a superficially contrived short term solution into a bedded down Comprehensive Settlement Process.
Settlement Process
The English Oxford dictionary defines "settlement"as "An official agreement intended to resolve a dispute or conflict." Obviously in any permanent settlement, compromise is critical and nobody is going to achieve their ideals.This needs to be first accepted by everyone at the negotiating table, however painful.The alternative is a war for total victory, the consequence of which, no sane mind can countenance. Most fair minded traditional Irish republicans will acknowledge, that the Orange tradition has made considerable sacrifices, with respect to their identity, particularly in the context of both World Wars and the recent ongoing war in Ireland, with tens of thousands losing their lives in all of this. This is a considerable factor in their tradition and identity. Any agreement that ignores this reality is doomed.
Likewise within the "green tradition," millions of Irish have died, as a result of British colonialism. This reality cannot simply be airbrushed out of Irish history by revisionism, because it is deeply embedded, consciously or unconsciously, within the Irish psyche, on the same scale as the Jewish Holocaust is with Israelites. It also must be addressed within any credible settlement.There are many other pressing, critical social issues within Ireland, such as a Bill of Civil Rights, People before Profit, transparent genuine Immediate Democracy, with modern technology, such as internet democracy, with checks and balances, that ensure ordinary people have real voting power, against unregulated corporate monopolies hijacking the constitutional process, with political bribery and the current endemic corruption of the present system, in all parts of Ireland.
To any objective political view, of the small island of Ireland, with its current political realities, it is crystal clear, that a Federal solution, similar to many other European countries, is really the only feasible solution to the current reality, with an arrangement where Unionists in Ulster keep their identity and traditions, within a British Commonwealth arrangement, customized specifically to facilitate their specific traditions and arrangements to protect them, along with their British brethren, from the creeping, fascist monopoly of Europe. This of course will be anathema to many traditional Irish republicans, but it will take compromise, fair mindedness and sacrifice, in any credible settlement, that is based on reality, as opposed to the horrific alternative.
Of course many will argue, that the changing demographics on the ground will change this, but in a spirit of true reconciliation, all minorities, including immigrant aspirations, must be respected in any genuine modern democracy. Traditional Irish Republicans like Ruarai O'Bradaigh, recognized this and presented drafts for a comprehensive agreement, that factored in much of this compromise, in a Spirit of Genorosity, which has traditionally been a much acclaimed Irish characteristic, at least until recently. It is time for everyone to get real, put their ego's and personalities to one side and make this comprehensive, inclusive, settlement a reality, based on civilized principles of human progress.
The author formally does not belong to any political organization and offers this proposal in a spirit of unity not division. Because of fascist censorship in Ireland presently, I also ask those readers who agree with the outlines of this proposal, to share it wherever you can. If you belong to a political party, trade union or political forum or platform, please take up this proposal and make it as inclusive as possible. If you are overseas or non Irish, we still need your help for a comprehensive, inclusive settlement.
