PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns has said the party will vote against British Government proposals for 42-day detention and secret inquests when the Counter-Terrorism Bill comes before Westminster this week.  

Mr Burns said: “It is clear that the Government wants to salami slice our civil liberties. First they wanted detention for 7 days, then 14, now 42. And it won’t stop there. One of the most senior police officers in Britain has called for people to be detained without charge “for as long as it takes.” That’s internment by any other name.

“Instead of inching towards internment, the British Government should be reforming the law so that those who are involved in terrorist atrocities are charged and tried.

“It stands justice on its head to lock people up for weeks without charge – and flies in the face of human rights.

“People in the North know that lengthy detention without trial saw people confess to crimes that they did not commit. It created the anger and resentment that fuelled the conflict. Instead of repeating the mistakes of the Troubles, the British Government should learn from them.

“The SDLP has also put down amendments opposing Government plans for secret inquests. There are 20 inquests still to be held in the North from the Troubles and it is as clear as day that the British Government are planning to use these new powers in at least some of them.

“In a throwback to the old Stormont regime’s Special Powers Act, these proposals mean that a Secretary of State can sack a jury at an inquest at any time for almost any reason. So families who suffered secret state murders now face secret inquests into them. This only adds further insult to the very deep injury that these families have already suffered.”

ENDS

10.06.08