150+ killings by British soldiers in NI never fully investigated

Guardian wrote:

More than 150 killings committed by soldiers during Northern Ireland's Troubles were never fully investigated because of an informal understanding between the police and the army.

The inadequacy of official examinations into fatal military shootings emerged in the wake of last week's Saville inquiry report on the "unjustifiable" deaths of 13 civilians on Bloody Sunday and in findings by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's historical enquiries team (HET).

The effect of the practice – under which soldiers who shot civilians were questioned by the army's Royal Military Police (RMP) rather than police detectives – has been highlighted by a Derry-based human rights organisation, the Pat Finucane Centre, which works closely with HET investigators.

It meant, according to the centre's Paul O'Connor, that between 1970 and 1973 soldiers were unlikely to be held responsible for the consequences of their actions. During that period they shot dead more than 150 people in the province.

The agreement made in 1970 between the chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the army in Northern Ireland was revoked in September 1973 because it was "unsatisfactory". "RMP investigations into killings then were known as tea and sandwich inquiries," O'Connor said.

He claimed the RMT often did not obtain statements so soldiers who killed civilians were not cross-examined. "This was therefore a deeply flawed procedure," he added.

"In effect, there was no investigation. The RMP did not take weapons and examine them. Sometimes the paperwork would not even be handed over to the RUC. There were 150 people killed by the army in this period and they were never fully investigated."

This failure encouraged a culture of impunity to develop among troops who felt they were above the law, according to O'Connor.

Flaws in the agreement are acknowledged in an HET report, released this month, into the killing of William McGreanery by Grenadier Guards in Derry in September 1971 – five months before Bloody Sunday.

It said the policy meant that "RUC investigators were to have gathered all relevant civilian witness and forensic evidence, and furnish it to the RMP prior to an interview being conducted with a soldier. It clearly envisaged that soldiers would face a thorough investigation, and was designed to enable the RMP to provide effective support in the difficult times that existed."

But the result, the HET said, was that "this policy was not followed; in any event it negated any possibility of independence and it is questionable whether the chief constable had the legal authority to devolve his responsibilities in this manner, notwithstanding the immensely difficult security situation that existed at the time. These arrangements meant that in practice, soldiers were not interviewed by civilian police officers at all".

The MoD has defended the practice in recent correspondence, claiming that it was "acting as the civil power bearing the lion's share of law enforcement" in Northern Ireland until police primacy was restored in 1976.

The Saville report draws attention to the same problem and the way in which RMP questioning was conducted for "managerial" purposes rather than in pursuit of independent "criminal" investigations.

The report quotes a lecture given in 1973 by an unidentified RMP major to a provost marshal's study session. "Back in 1970 a decision was reached between the GOC [general officer commanding Northern Ireland] and the chief constable whereby RMP would tend to military witnesses and the RUC to civilian witnesses in the investigation of offences and incidents," it noted.

"With both RMP and RUC sympathetic towards the soldier, who after all was doing an incredibly difficult job, he was highly unlikely to make a statement incriminating himself, for the RMP investigator was out for information for managerial, not criminal purposes, and, using their powers of discretion, it was equally unlikely that the RUC would prefer charges against soldiers except in the most extreme of circumstances."

Lord Saville's critical conclusions about soldiers' behaviour on Bloody Sunday will encourage relatives of those shot dead by the army on other occasions to press for the revival of police investigations.