UUP Document "Utterly vapid and insulting to victims"
01 April 2006
DUP Member of the European Parliament, Jim Allister QC has described a recent document produced by leading members of the Ulster Unionist Party as “utterly vapid and insulting to victims”. The document entitled “Drawing a line under the Past” was produced by a collection of UUP members operating under the name “The Unionist Group” and claims to be aimed at addressing victims' issues.
Jim Allister said:
“Drawing a line under the Past" is a telling insight into the shallow attitude of some within the Ulster Unionist Party towards the innocent victims of terrorism. Sponsored by no fewer than 24 UUP members, three of whom are local government representatives, one of whom is a past chairman of the UUP’s Youth Wing and several of whom have party spokesperson portfolios, it is no maverick production.
Headed up by new Policing Board member, Trevor Ringland, it holds in respect of "the Troubles" that the truth is "subjective"! There is nothing subjective about the objective fact that vicious IRA and other terrorists, for no justifiable reason, wantonly made victims of thousands of innocent people throughout Northern Ireland. Yet, amazingly, the representatives of the innocent victims are the very people this UUP group avoided speaking to. According to their own document, they sought out Coiste na n-Iarchimi, a republican prisoners group, at Clonard Monastery, an Official Republican Group and the IRSP, but they ignored groups like Saver/Naver, West Tyrone Voice and Fair.
Little wonder their document is so out of touch with genuine victims and their needs. It is utterly vapid and indeed insulting to victims for Ringland, Garland and Co's prime suggestion to be "a common act led by the Sovereign and President" - presumably this is the President of the Republic of Ireland who so gratuitously insulted the entire Protestant population - and the planting of a copse of trees, under which personal histories could be buried, in "shared spaces" in towns and villages throughout Northern Ireland. Is that all the sacrifice of the innocent means to these Ulster Unionists? I am appalled. Such cliché-ridden stunts might pander to the extreme liberal agenda of the authors of this document, but they do nothing to heal the hurt of the innocent, particularly since its proponents do not even make an adequate distinction between innocent victims and perpetrators.
I note Sir Reg Empey has claimed this group was acting on its own behalf. Does he or does he not, however, agree with the contents of this report? More particularly, given his personal acquaintance with the depths of trauma caused by terrorism in his home area of South Armagh, where does the Deputy Leader, Danny Kennedy, stand on this report? "
