PSNI cannot investigate the Past

PFC reject the news today that the PSNI is to form a new Legacy Investigative Unit to investigate conflict related deaths.

DCC Finlay has announced the closure of the Historical Enquiries Team by Christmas due to Department of Justice cuts of 7% to policing. He said that this unit would conduct investigations when there is "new and compelling evidence" and "responding to the requirements of coronial inquests."

He is missing the point that it is the PSNI who is withholding the evidence now, and it was the RUC who didn’t collect the evidence in the first place. They are complicit in the previous and current cover-up and failure to deal with the past.

A PSNI investigation cannot, in our view, be Article 2 compliant. It lacks the necessary "independence" required on a number of levels, for example:

• PSNI rejection of the Police Ombudsman’s Reports into McGurks Bar & the Good Samaritan cases;
• Legacy Support Unit, responsible for providing documents to the Coroner, staffed by ex RUC Special Branch and members of NI Retired Police Officers. NIRPOA tried to judicially review the Police Ombudsman’s report into the Good Samaritan bombing;
• Seven year delay by LSU in handing over files to the coroner in the "shoot to kill" inquests;

The Pat Finucane Centre rejects this proposal outright. We believe that "budget cuts" are being manipulated to shut down a proper examination of the past, with current policing under threat as a result.

Paul O’Connor from the PFC said:

"The HET has been dead in the water for over a year, and it is correct that there is no attempt to resuscitate it, but what has been proposed is completely unacceptable. We also have to think about those families who were waiting on reports into the death of their loved ones. This includes over 50 families we work with who had received draft HET reports but were waiting on final issues to be addressed before accepting final reports. These families are left out to dry again. The past will continue to poison present day policing arrangements if this proposal is implemented.

What is needed is a new body, completely independent from the PSNI that can secure the confidence of the whole community."