Victim lobby wants truth forum to be foreign-led

Victims' groups have called for an international independent truth commission to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.

Victims' groups have called for an international independent truth commission to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.

Organisations claiming to represent more than 1,000 victims of the conflict said a truth commission would provide resolution for the greatest number affected.

More than 30 victims travelled to Stormont yesterday to outline their plans. Those present were Relatives for Justice, Pat Finucane Centre, Justice for the Forgotten, An Fhírinne, Fírinne and the Ardoyne Commemoration Project.

The groups said: "British and Irish state policies and actions and those of non-state actors and the role of civil society in both jurisdictions should be examined." The recommended truth commission would not be based on the model used in South Africa, where public hearings were used to investigate crimes during apartheid.

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Paul O'Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre said: "We are not calling for a South African-style confrontational truth and reconciliation commission with public hearings with alleged perpetrators getting up in rooms in front of hundreds of victims and saying I did x, y and z.

"We are calling for a process that is tailor-made to our circumstances, we are talking about largely private hearings ... about an organisation that can mediate that process of truth recovery from those who have it to those who need it and deserve it: the families who have lost loved ones right across the board."

The group said: "The criminal justice system has frustrated rather than facilitated the truth," adding that the system offered "no realistic prospect of truth recovery of bereaved families." The groups agreed the sole focus should be on truth recovery.

Margaret Urwin from Dublin-based Justice for the Forgotten said: "The focus of such a commission should be on truth and acknowledgment rather than prosecutions."

Mr O'Connor said he would not advocate a full amnesty but suggested that the use of immunity certificates, which would allow evidence given in a truth commission to be immune from criminal proceedings, might encourage people to co-operate.

The groups said: "All combatant groups, British, republican and loyalist should co-operate in good faith and have a moral duty to do so."

An international dimension was backed by all the groups. Mr O'Connor cited the successful intervention of US senator George Mitchell during the Belfast Agreement talks and the work of John de Chastelain on arms decommissioning.

The Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past, now involved in its final public consultations on the past, insisted yesterday it was fully independent and not guided by "any sectional interest, political philosophy or government department".

The group's work was "complex, sensitive and highly emotive" and "went beyond unionism or nationalism, victim or survivor".

Lord (Robin) Eames, Denis Bradley and the other six members of the group flatly denied any suggestions that an "interim report" had been written by them. They also rejected notions that any decisions had been taken.