(Bloomberg) -- The UK has announced a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, a lawyer who was shot dead in Northern Ireland during the region’s conflict, which previous investigations showed the British state colluded in.
“This government takes its human rights obligations and its responsibilities to victims and survivors of the Troubles extremely seriously,” Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn told the House of Commons Wednesday. “Two decades on, the commitment made by the Government – first in the agreement with the Irish Government, and then to this House - to establish an inquiry into the death of Mr Finucane remains unfulfilled.”
Finucane was shot in his home in Belfast in 1989 by a British loyalist paramilitary group in front of his wife and three children, one of whom is now a Member of Parliament. They have campaigned for answers in relation to his death since.
In 2003, an investigation led by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens into alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries concluded that there had been state collusion in Finucane’s death. However, the British government of the day decided against an inquiry in 2011.
The decision to open an inquiry now is symbolic of Labour’s drive to repair relations with the region that was embroiled in violent sectarian conflict until a peace agreement in 1998, in part achieved by Labour’s Tony Blair. Benn’s appointment boosted optimism among Troubles survivors and victims’ families, since he has already committed to repealing and replacing the controversial Legacy Act ushered in by the previous Conservative government that effectively gives an amnesty to those who killed during the Troubles.
“I know that the prime minister is committed to finding a new approach to legacy issues in Northern Ireland, and today’s decision by the British Government is in keeping with the spirit of that commitment,” Simon Harris, Ireland’s prime minister, said in a statement. “I have indicated to the prime minister that we stand ready to work with him and his government on legacy issues.”
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