{"id":32465,"date":"2017-03-15T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/32465-northern-ireland-ictj-conflict-relatives-justice.html"},"modified":"2017-03-15T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T07:00:01","slug":"northern-ireland-ictj-conflict-relatives-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/32465-northern-ireland-ictj-conflict-relatives-justice.html","title":{"rendered":"A Foundation of Lies: \"Relatives for Justice\" Unpacks the Truth about the Irish Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On February 12th, 1989, sledgehammers smashed through Pat Finucane\u2019s front door in north Belfast. Paramilitaries stormed<\/a> his family home and found the 39-year-old human rights lawyer eating Sunday dinner with his wife and three children. They shot him 14 times and fled.<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 years after Finucane\u2019s killing, questions persist. Who commissioned the murder? Was the British government involved in some capacity? And when will justice for victims finally be served?<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/td>\nMark Thompson<\/i><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

These are the questions Mark Thompson grapples with every day. Thompson is one of the co-founders and CEO of Relatives for Justice (RfJ), a Belfast-based organization that demands truth, accountability and reparations for violence perpetrated during the Irish conflict. It supports families both emotionally and legally in their struggle for justice.<\/p>\n

Thompson knows this struggle all too well. In 1990 his brother, Peter, was killed by the British army as part of a shoot-to-kill operation. Police never properly investigated the murder, and Thompson\u2019s efforts to spark a thorough inquiry were met with ridicule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police and British army raided our home. They returned days after the funeral in the early morning hours with an arrest warrant for my dead brother. Soldiers mocked my parents for speaking out. The police didn\u2019t care, they facilitated the process of impunity despite the prima facie evidence indicting soldiers,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes [in other cases], they\u2019d take the body and leave bullets in walls, spent cartridges \u2013 it was a treasure trove of forensic evidence, yet it was ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shattered by the loss and stonewalled by the legal system, his family was desperate for recourse. Some, including his cousin, joined armed Irish republicans and was later killed. Thompson, though, took a different route: he knew about Finucane\u2019s death and contacted the murdered activist\u2019s family and longtime legal partner, Peter Madden. In 1991 Madden, Thompson, and the Finucanes joined with a number of other victims and allies in founding RfJ as a way to support families in the search for answers and redress.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim is for a restoration of dignity, for accountability for the violations that have been perpetrated, reparations and to deal with these issues in a very open and honest way,\u201d Thompson explains. \u201cWe can\u2019t build a society on a foundation of lies for the future. We have to address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A vigil for Pat Finucane in Dublin on the 20th anniversary of his murder. (Sinn F\u00e9in\/Flickr)<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

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Impunity in Ireland<\/h3>\n

Addressing the past in Northern Ireland means coming to terms with the 30-year conflict beginning in 1968 between the mostly Protestant unionist side, which sought to remain loyal to the British Crown, and the predominately Catholic republicans, who advocated for an independent Ireland. The region had been under British control for over 400 years, and as the conflict grew increasingly violent, the British government deployed the army, leading to mounting tensions: at the height of the conflict there were 27,000 military personnel<\/a> and 13,000 police officers<\/a> patrolling a population of just 1.5 million.<\/p>\n

In addition to the official state presence, paramilitary organizations \u2013 like the one that killed Finucane \u2013 worked in conjunction with government personnel to harass, intimidate and often times kill republicans. At the same time, the armed group Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed hundreds of lives on the unionists\u2019 side. The conflict resulted in deaths of some 3,600<\/a> people during this time.<\/p>\n

The violence committed in Northern Ireland against republicans was often not investigated by the British-controlled police or judiciary. Victims\u2019 families received superficial inquiries and faced scorn from officers.<\/p>\n

Thompson was raised at the crossroads of this conflict: born to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father, and with relatives in the IRA, he and his family was a frequent target of unionist violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the context I grew up in, militarization and so forth,\u201d he said. \u201cWe moved houses on several occasions, there were attempts to kill my parents when we were quite young, which thankfully didn\u2019t succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

These early brushes with the sectarian violence pushed Thompson towards activism, but his brother\u2019s murder affirmed his commitment to the struggle for justice. He saw firsthand the extent of impunity in the country, and the ability of the British government to suppress the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was motivated by this deep sense of injustice that was being perpetrated not just to me, but it also affects hundreds if not thousands of people across the religious and political divide,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cSo how do we address that?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe don\u2019t separate the healing and recovery program of trauma from the issue of justice...Trauma can only really be addressed and understood in the context of accountable justice.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Trauma and Recovery<\/h3>\n

The answer, according to RfJ, is a multi-pronged approach that holistically addresses victims\u2019 emotional needs and their legal right to justice. Its twelve full-time staff members work alongside victims to advocate for an independent truth recovery mechanism which would investigate crimes committed by both sides of the conflict, and to coordinate legal efforts meant to end impunity and expose the truth. But this work is built on a platform of community-based support for victims.<\/p>\n

RfJ recognizes that unearthing the truth has costs: victims face resistance in trying to uncover the truth, and they are asked to speak publicly time and again about the most painful moments of their lives. Moreover, if the truth is to be uncovered, that too can prove traumatic to some victims.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why RfJ operates a parallel program to its truth and accountability efforts. The program employs between 20-30 mental health workers who operate from around a dozen trauma centers it has established across the country. Its program is modeled after Judith Herman<\/a>\u2019s work with Holocaust survivors, which linked treatment for violent trauma to the need for justice and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t separate the healing and recovery program of trauma from the issue of justice,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cThe perpetual impunity has a knock-on effect on continuing trauma adding further harms through perfunctory processes. Trauma can only really be addressed and understood in the context of accountable justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program treats stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, alcoholism, and other manifestations of trauma common in Irish communities, using everything from traditional talking therapies, complementary therapies to social treatments like art therapy, social support and activities. In the last calendar year, 3,400 victims received some sort of support from RfJ.<\/p>\n