Most people have an opinion on the John Stevens report in
which collusion between the army, police and paramilitaries
appears to have been proved and with the names of the guilty
passed on to the Public Prosection Service. Concentration
on the Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson murders has brought
the reaction - what of the very many others who were murdered
and for them no one has been made accountable, though their
murderers are known? While it is especially abhorrent to have
the evidence of police malpractice, law keepers who became
law breakers, it leaves the question, why is the concentration
on their victims when murderers freely walk our streets and
their victims suffer on, often carrying courageously heavy
burdens when they should have husband, wife, children; sons
and daughters to share their lives with them? There is reason
for them to be deeply aggrieved that those who are demanding
public inquiries into the murders of republicans are silent
when attention is drawn to the many murders for which republicans
were found guilty and the many others with their guilt known
but not proven in a court of law. The pressure for public
inquiries by the bereaved and other interested individuals
and groups, produces mixed reactions. The Saville Inquiry
into Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, costing a huge expenditure
of public money, and enriching lawyers with what could have
been spent in so many ways for the benefit of this society,
is now being seen, by original pleaders for it, as incapable
of reaching a conclusion which will satisfy those personally
affected by the happenings of that day. The results of any
such inquiries are likely to be no more conclusive and satisfactory.
It is very hard to close the book on the past, but the feeling
is growing among the victims that those who have moved on
and are no longer tied to the pursuit of the elusive truth
of what happened, and who made it to happen to their loved
ones, are on a better, happier and more effective course.
That is not to suggest that the search should be discontinued
for those guilty of crimes that need names and faces and trials
to ensure that murderers are caught and punished. We add this
- it is a travesty of the truth, a refusal of reality, to
use the Stevens Report to condemn a police force in total,
for the misdeeds of the few. The indebtedness of this society
to the RUC is freely acknowledged by all those who recognise
their contributions, and their sacrifices, in a country where
divisions religious, cultural and political make policing
most difficult and exceedingly, dangerous. A fact that needs
no amplification here.
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