Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

The quest for justice must certainly continue and no Government of any political colour could ever believe it right to neglect the raw grief of victims and their families. The sense of loss and injustice remains for many years after murder or attack by terrorists, whatever the paramilitary organisation. The IMC commented on not only loyalist but republican paramilitary groups. It described the so-called Real IRA as ““violent, dangerous and determined””. Given the events of recent months and the responsibility of the Provisional IRA for the majority of the murders in Northern Ireland over three decades of the troubles, perhaps the IMC’s most significant comments were about PIRA. I take slight issue with the Secretary of State’s comment—which I paraphrase—that no one could deny that there had been a fundamental change in the security situation in Northern Ireland over the past few months. I certainly hope that the IRA’s statement and the act of decommissioning will herald such a fundamental transformation, but I am still waiting for additional evidence of it. Paragraph 3.13 of the IMC report states quite plainly that"““the leadership of the republican movement has shown a capacity in the past to turn on and off the tap of violence.””" Paragraph 3.18 goes on to say of the provisionals that"““it is too early to be drawing firm conclusions about possible overall changes in behaviour””." The attitude of the British Government towards the normalisation programme and towards other measures—particularly those that the republican movement itself wants to see happen—should be conditioned by those words of caution and scepticism uttered by the Independent Monitoring Commission. Before we can be convinced that the transformation that the Secretary of State described is complete, we need clear evidence of further changes—some practical and some ideological in character. On the practical side, we need to see the decommissioning not only of weapons—important though that step undoubtedly was—but of the paramilitary organisations and the paramilitary command structure. If the republican movement has fundamentally changed, and if that change is indeed permanent and irreversible, it should have no need of a private army. If, on the other hand, the republican movement tells us that it needs the structure of the IRA in order to impose discipline on its followers and to ensure that everyone is signed up to the move towards democracy, what does that tell us about the hearts and minds of its many followers? At the very least, it surely leaves a question mark over the extent and genuine nature of the move by the republican movement towards democracy.