'Risk' to rule out more Bloody Sunday-style inquiries
Shaun Woodward
Ruling out any more public inquiries like that into Bloody Sunday could shake the North's peace process to its foundations, an MP warned today.
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward attacked the British government for promising no further expensive tribunals.
The House of Commons is debating Mark Saville's £200m (€229.4m) report into events in Derry in 1972 when soldiers opened fire during a civil rights march killing 13 people.
Mr Woodward said: "To state unequivocally there will be no more open-ended and costly inquiries into the past is in my judgment rash and it is a huge risk. It is not just a risk to the political process but it is a risk which could yet shake the foundations of the peace process itself."
The British government has apologised for Bloody Sunday but said the expense of probing all controversial killings could not be undertaken. It has also queried whether the end results even satisfied bereaved families.
Mr Woodward said the family of murdered Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane had also been promised a public inquiry.
"Where does this leave the Finucane Inquiry, committed to by a British government?" he asked.
A public inquiry into the 1989 loyalist murder in north Belfast has been delayed because the family was unhappy with legislation governing the probe.
Mr Woodward added US President Barack Obama was among those pressing for an inquiry into the Finucane killing.
He said mechanisms had to be devised to deal with the Real IRA Omagh bomb in 1998 which killed 29 innocent shoppers or the Ballymurphy shootings by soldiers in west Belfast.
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