DUP SELL OUT ON MAZE SHRINE CONFIRMED
24 November 2008
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister MEP
“The fact that today the Joint First Ministers lobbied EP President, Hans Gert Pottering, in support of a so called “conflict transformation centre” at the Maze, confirms that in the recent DUP/Sinn Fein deal the DUP has conceded the Maze Shrine.
I have long warned this would happen, not least since Ian Paisley, when First Minister, sanctioned inclusion of the Maze project in the EU Task Force Report – something which I invited Peter Robinson to reverse, when he came to office. Instead in a recent letter to me he has even endorsed the Provo lingo by calling it the Maze/Long Kesh site!
With or without the stadium, it is now clear that the DUP has caved in to Sinn Fein’s key demand over the Maze Shrine. This is shameful, particularly since delisting by the DUP Minister of the remaining Maze buildings could have permitted their demolition and an end to the Provo dreram.
This “conflict transformation centre” will indeed be a site for the glorification of terrorism, particularly of the suicide hunger strikers, and the rewriting of history at which republicanism excels. The recent BBC documentary was a clear indication of just how Sinn Fein will exploit and use the shrine centre which the First Minister is now ready to gift them.
As an MEP I will do my utmost to thwart the misuse of EU funds on this project, but it is clear the First Minister is prepared to endorse such wastage as part of his latest deal with the Shinners, which is made all the more appalling by the total failure to date of PEACE III funding to give one penny to victims’ groups.”
