FAMILIES affected by state violence have stood in solidarity with the families of Daniel Hegarty and those killed on Bloody Sunday after the PPS dropped prosecution cases against Soldiers B and F.
 
The families gathered outside Laganside Courthouse in Belfast on Saturday in a show of support while other demonstrations took place in Newry and Derry.
 
Mark Thompson, CEO of campaign group Relatives for Justice, whose brother Peter was killed by the British Army in 1990, explained why he and others came out in support of the families.

“We were out to express our opposition to the decision by the PPS not to prosecute or put it before the courts” he said.
 
“The British Government have continued to show bad faith. They had an international agreement which involved the Executive parties in 2014 to address legacy. It provided options including effective, independent human rights compliant investigations.
 
“It is clear that the British Government don’t want any scrutiny of their role in the conflict. They seek to protect British soldiers and state agents involved in illegal organisations around collusion and they don’t want the truth about that emerging.
 
“They have used secret courts, they have stopped families in civil cases from obtaining information, they have used public interest immunity certificates which are effectively gagging orders and the PSNI have been in the vanguard of this along with the MoD and the NIO.”

Mr Thompson detailed the obstacles that the families have faced when dealing with the PSNI.
 
"Over the last decade and a half, the PSNI have robustly challenged families continuously such as the family of Jean Smyth who challenged the PSNI's independence in the Belfast High Court, which was upheld.
 
“Just last week the PSNI went to the Supreme Court to say that it was independent and we are awaiting that judgement currently.
 
“Families have faced obstacle after obstacle placed in their way by the MoD, the PSNI and the NIO and there is political agreements about dealing with legacy in a human rights framework. Whether it is in civil litigation in the courts or whether it is on trial.
 
“We have also seen this during the Joe McCann trial where the PSNI failed to also caution the British soldiers involved and they are relying upon an abusive process in that when the Royal Military Police initially questioned them, they were questioned as witnesses even though they were suspects.

“They were never cautioned and therefore that is being used as a technicality. That pertains to an agreement that existed between the General Officer Command in the British Army and the RUC Chief Constable in the early 1970s.
 
“That agreement stated that where soldiers were involved in shooting and taking life that the RUC would not investigate, rather the Royal Military Police would. That ended in late 1972 and during that period you had the murder of Joe McCann, Daniel Hegarty and Bloody Sunday.
 
“What we can’t understand is that you had an inquiry into Bloody Sunday then you had an extensive PSNI investigation and are we somehow led to believe that in a PSNI investigation in modern times that they did not caution those soldiers?”

Mark said that the families no longer have confidence in the PSNI or the Public Prosecution Service.
 
“The families don’t have any confidence in the PSNI or the institutions. The only thing that the families have in their favour which is holding the British government to account is the fact that they signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights,” he added.
 
“That stipulates under Article Two that if the state are involved or suspected of being involved in the taking of life through third parties, there must be an effective, robust, independent and impartial investigation.
 
“The British government have to try and abide by those rules and what we are seeing is that they are trying to reverse them. They tried to use the Overseas Operations Bill that pertains to the British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan then they realised that they could be challenged in court.

“Now we have got to a stage where in order to placate a minority of right-wing military lobbyists within the Tory party, what they are prepared to do is bring forward some form of amnesty to shield the truth from emerging about their role in the conflict.
 
“The Irish government, through the Intergovernmental Conference have proposed to stop the British government from going off on a unilateral solo run and bring it back under what was agreed at Stormont House.
 
“What we were doing on Saturday was coming out as families in solidarity, who are also battling for truth, justice and accountability, that want proper processes around legacy and we believe that these issues should be put directly before the courts.”