MEP slams Victim Commissioners over press release insult
01 February 2008
Following the insult to innocent victims in the first official Press Release of the four new Victims' Commissioners in Northern Ireland, when the terrorist brother of Commissioner McBride was referred to as an "IRA volunteer who died on active service", Jim Allister is writing to each of the other three Commissioners in the terms below. The Traditional Unionist MEP said he was staggered and appalled that Commissioners McDougall, McAllister and Nesbitt were aware of this sanitising use of language and consented to it, and that OFMDFM lent itself to the propogation of this insult to innocent victims by posting it on its website.
Letter to 3 of Victims Commissioners: Nesbitt, McDougall & McAllister:
Dear Commissioner,
I write to express how appalled I am that you - having been shown, it appears, a copy of Ms McBride's profile before it was published, raised no concern about the gratuitous reference to an "IRA volunteer" "killed on active service".
Surely, you must know how such sanitising references to a wicked terrorist, who met his end going about his dastardly deeds, offends the greater number of innocent victims, being seen, as it is, as part of a process to equalise and equate all who lay claim to the title "victim".
Why did you consent to this description?
May I also ask if you are content with the current definition of "victim" in the 2006 Order as anyone affected by "a conflict-related incident"? I suggest to you this definition is a travesty, in that it puts the terrorist, who blows himself up planting a bomb, on an equal footing with the innocent victim of Kingsmills or Teeban etc etc. Is this where you stand? As a public representative I would like to know precisely where you personally and officially stand on this important issue.
I request and suggest that as a Commission you recommend forthwith that the statutory definition of victim be amended to remove the obscenity of equating the innocent victim with the perpetrator of terror.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Released: 31st January 2008
