Need 'to heal NI wounds'

A consultation process on how best to deal with the past is beginning

The government has launched a consultation process on how best to heal the wounds of Northern Ireland's violent past.

Secretary of State Paul Murphy told the House of Commons on Thursday that there was a need to deal with the pain, grief and anger caused by the Troubles.

"I have reflected carefully on what role I might play," Mr Murphy said.

"This is a complex and profoundly sensitive subject. There are no ready-made solutions. Opinion is divided on some aspects of the way forward. And the pain of victims and their families remains very real."

The secretary of state said he would be having discussions with a wide range of people with relevant experiences and expertise over the next few weeks.

He would also be commissioning work on relevant international experience, drawing on the sort of processes which others have used in seeking to come to terms with the past.

He said the work carried out by Victims' Minister Angela Smyth would continue.

"She has been speaking to victims and survivors, their representative groups, experts, academics and practitioners in the field. That work will continue and be brought to fruition," Mr Murphy said.

Paul Murphy to consult with senior figures in Capetown and Pretoria

He is consulting with senior figures in Capetown and Pretoria to hear their views on the country's Truth and Reconciliation process.

It is understood that the first steps will be two phases of consultation - in the early summer and then in the autumn - in which the nuts and bolts of the process will be discussed.

This will include who is best equipped to take it forward - people from Northern Ireland, others with wider international experience, or both.

In February, the chairman of the Policing Board, Professor Desmond Rea, said a commission should be set up.

Professor Rea also suggested an amnesty for those involved in more than 30 years of violence, as part of a move to "reconcile the losses of the past and embrace the future".

Last June, Chief Constable Hugh Orde suggested that a type of truth and reconciliation process may be needed to bring closure to the past.

At that time, more than 1,800 killings, half of those carried out during 30 years of the Troubles in the province, remained unsolved.

Mr Orde said the perpetrators of hundreds of unsolved murders were unlikely to be brought to justice.