Victims' Report 'unacceptable'

BY LAURA FRIEL

Sinn Féin General Secretary Mitchel McLaughlin has described the report published by Bertha McDougall as “disappointing” and “unacceptable”.

“All of the British government’s initiatives to date around ‘victims’ have been geared towards unionists, reinforcing the hierarchy that exists,” said the Derry MLA.

“The award of the George Cross to the RUC, the separate and exclusive award of £11 million to RUC families, the recent memorial service for the UDR/RIR, apart from being insulting to the families of their victims, fuels the feelings of Republican and nationalist victims that no one is batting for them,” said McLaughlin.

“Bertha McDougall’s recommendation that a special fund be established for UDR families underlines the reasons why her appointment was successfully challenged in the courts. There can be no hierarchy of victims.”

“The British government needs to start acknowledging and taking on board the feelings and sensitivities of the more than one thousand victims of state violence. No where in this report is there any mention of either collusion or an acknowledgement of the corporate responsibility of the British state for, and its role as a primary protagonist in the conflict,” said McLaughlin.