Victims of violence on 'emotional roller-coaster'

The IRA's move on disarmament has put victims of paramilitary violence and their families on an "emotional roller-coaster", with…

The IRA's move on disarmament has put victims of paramilitary violence and their families on an "emotional roller-coaster", with feelings ranging from hope to a sense of futility.

"I would so much like to believe that this is the end of it but I think it will take many years for my fear to disappear," said Ms Janet Hunter, who is involved in the victims' group FACT (Families Against Crime by Terrorism).

"The feelings of fear and pain are like a cancer. Some people die of it while others take years to get over it."

Ms Hunter's 20-year-old brother, a UDR soldier, was killed by the Provisional IRA 14 years ago as he walked into his local golf club. In her opinion it was "way too early" for a South-African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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"If 20 people were in a bomb explosion there are probably 20 different versions of what happened. So what is the truth?

"People are expecting too much from victims. For most of us it is difficult enough to admit to ourselves what has happened and how hurt and angry we are."

Ms Mina Wardle, who heads the Shankill Trauma Group in Belfast, shared the sentiment. "In a 300-square-feet district we have had 45 people killed over the past 30 years.

"For most people here it is hard enough to deal with their daily lives in the aftermath of losing loved ones - the problems involved in having to bring up orphaned grandchildren, the humiliation of the compensation system.

"Maybe in 20 years' time, some of us would be ready to look the perpetrators in the eye and listen to their version of events - most of us don't hate republicans, we only hate the killers of our loved ones. But truth is how people remember it and justice would have been for any of the killings to never have happened."

Ms Wardle said many people on the Shankill had originally been upset about the timing of the IRA's decision - Tuesday having been the eighth anniversary of the IRA's bombing of Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road, in which nine Protestants and one IRA bomber died.

"As the day progressed we felt that there was a strange irony about the timing. Several people said to me they wished the IRA had made the announcement on October 22nd 1993 - a day before the Shankill bomb."

Some of the relatives said it was hard not to feel cynical. Mr Willy Fraser, whose group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) is based right in the heart of south Armagh, said he wanted to see more than one-off gestures.

"Whenever I see the RUC's traffic branch in the centre of Crossmaglen rather than a British army helicopter then I know the war is over. Before that forgive me if I am not jumping with joy."

Those who had lost loved ones at the hands of other organisations than the IRA felt there was now a greater urgency than ever for those groups to disarm.

Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the "Real IRA's" bomb in Omagh three years ago, said he hoped Sinn FΘin president Gerry Adams would now put pressure on dissident republicans to follow suit.

The Director of the Relatives for Justice group, Mr Mark Thompson, whose cousin was shot dead by British soldiers in 1990, said Tuesday had been a day of truly mixed emotions.

"Many republicans would feel uneasy about the IRA's decision, courageous as it was. I think the least the British state can do now is to reciprocate by righting the wrongs it has committed.

"There can be no real reconciliation in the absence of truth. Both republicans and loyalists have admitted that they were participants in this conflict. It is now time for the British government to come down from its moral high horse and admit the same if our families are ever to come to terms with what happened to their loved ones."