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Troubles group highlights issues State 'let innocent people die'
(about 5 hours later)
The group set up to examine the legacy of the Troubles will outline later key areas that need to be addressed if Northern Ireland is to move forward. The state must admit to illegal activity which led to the deaths of innocent people, the consultative group on the past has said.
The Consultative Group on the Past will touch on issues such as state violence. Lord Eames said the security forces had on occasion acted outside the law.
They will also report on whether the legal system can provide answers for victims' families. He and co-chair Denis Bradley have outlined key areas that need to be addressed if NI is to move forward.
Lord Eames said that "through handling of intelligence it could even be said innocent people were allowed to die".
Lord Robin Eames and Denis Bradley will deliver a formal report in the summer to the secretary of state, including a number of recommendations.Lord Robin Eames and Denis Bradley will deliver a formal report in the summer to the secretary of state, including a number of recommendations.
The group have held a series of public meetings around Northern Ireland to get different perspectives on how to deal with the past.The group have held a series of public meetings around Northern Ireland to get different perspectives on how to deal with the past.
Would the republican community like to have to tell an ageing mother that her martyred son was actually an informer? Denis Bradley
Lord Eames said what many had great difficulty in coming to terms with was that "the state not only sought to be an honest broker during the conflict but also played a combative role and, in this context, sometimes went beyond their own rules of engagement".
He added: "We cannot ignore that, in fact, the state sometimes acted illegally."
"If we are to move out of the past in a healthy way then the state itself needs to acknowledge its full and complex role in the last 40 years."
'Reconciliation elusive'
The group's final report would make suggestions on how that could be done, he said.
Mr Bradley said intelligence gathering and using informers was almost inevitable and had saved lives and stopped atrocities.
However, he added: "The scale of the use of informers throughout the conflict corroded the fabric of our communities and the constant pressure now exerted for information about informers to be revealed only serves to further undermine the well being of communities to a degree that could be poisonous.
"Would the republican community like to have to tell an ageing mother that her martyred son was actually an informer? That is what full disclosure could mean."
He said the group was committed to addressing the legacy of the past "in a way that will promote a greater goal of reconciliation within and between our people".
"We recognise that reconciliation remains an elusive and contested concept.
"For some of us this will mean being reconciled to the fact that our future is together, that we do share the land and its resources and a common sense of belonging to this place."