SAOIRSE32

By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 23 January 2009

The families of Shankill bomber Thomas Begley and LVF leader Billy Wright would receive a £12,000 payment if proposals by the Eames-Bradley group on the past are accepted, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

In a £40m costed plan, all families who lost a loved one in the Troubles — security force, republican, loyalist and other — would be entitled to the new payment. The proposal — from the Consultative Group on the Past — will be viewed as the most controversial recommendation as it will pave the way for families of terrorists killed during the Troubles to receive money.

Begley died in 1993 while planting a bomb in a fish shop on Belfast’s Shankill Road which killed nine others. Wright was murdered in 1997 by the INLA in the Maze Prison where he had been serving eight years for threatening to kill.

The plans aimed at dealing with Northern Ireland’s violent past also propose that victims should be able to discover more details on how and why loved ones were killed.

Over 30 recommendations will be made in a nine-chapter, 200-page report due to be unveiled by Lord Robin Eames and former Policing Board vice-chairman Denis Bradley in Belfast on Wednesday.

The document will be presented as The Report of the Consultative Group on the Past, which was formed in June 2007 by then Secretary of State Peter Hain.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was briefed on the plan in Downing Street yesterday.

Today, the Telegraph reveals key elements of the Eames-Bradley blueprint — its plan and proposals for dealing with the past. The recommendations also include:

lThe Legacy Commission — three commissioners including an international chairman appointed by the British and Irish Governments after consultation with the First and Deputy First Ministers.

lInvestigations Unit — part of the new Legacy Commission and headed by one of the three commissioners. The proposal is confirmation that there will be no amnesty. It will continue to investigate unsolved killings.

This replaces the Historical Enquiries Team and some of the Police Ombudsman’s work.

• Information Recovery Unit — Part of the new Legacy Commission and headed by one of the three commissioners. Its role will be to draw out information from republicans, loyalists, security forces and intelligence services as requested by families. The aim is to provide families with as much information as possible on past killings.

• Reconciliation Forum — will work alongside The Legacy Commission. It will include the International Chairman of that commission, the Victims’ Commissioners and the Community Relations Council.

The Belfast Telegraph understands there is a 12-page chapter on Remembrance, but no proposal for a single memorial to remember all victims of the conflict.

Big goals in the recommended process will include combating sectarianism and creating a story-telling process on the conflict. Eames-Bradley will set out aims and criteria for this.

Yesterday in Downing Street Mr Brown and Secretary of State Shaun Woodward were briefed by the co-chairs of the Consultative Group on the Past.