Hundreds of millions have been spent on individual payments to former members of the UDR, RIR, RUC, and now the RUC Reserve yet the victims of these same forces are forgotten.
When the Eames/Bradley Group recommended that all victims should get a recognition payment it was former members of the so called 'security forces' that reacted most in opposition to it because it would have included the families of the people that they killed.
The overwhelming majority of those involved in the conflict within these same forces never suffered bereavement or injury and were among the highest paid 'security forces' in the world.
Whilst these former members now live in financial security, and amnesty for their actions, their victims continue to suffer in silence, economic hardship and without truth or justice for human right violations perpetrated against them.
Sinn Féin allowed this latest payment as part of the political negotiations at Hillsborough. In my view this was politically and morally wrong on their part. From the perspective of the DUP they have delivered for victims within their community and those within their 'security forces'.
I wish I could say the same for former political prisoners and victims of state violence in the nationalist community.
Josephine Larmour
Belfast
