APPENDIX 45
Memorandum submitted by Hugh S Rowan
HISTORY
I make this submission to the NI Affairs Committee
as a Victim/Survivor of the NI Conflict. I like so many other
Victims/Survivors in Northern Ireland am not represented by a
Victims Support Group (VSG) and very dissatisfied at the way Victims/Survivors
have been treated by the Government and Direct Rule Ministers.
I became a Victim/Survivor in the early hours of 23 August 1972.
I arrived home from work at approx 01:15 on the morning of the
23 and went upstairs to speak to my wife who was asleep and had
wakened her when I came in. I had a brief chat with her and said
that I would be up to bed shortly as I was having something to
eat and a drink. I went downstairs and proceeded to make a sandwich
and a drink. I have just returned to the living room with these
when I heard a knock at the front door. I left my sandwich and
drink on the coffee table and went to answer the door. I opened
the door and was faced with two young men pointing guns at me.
I just froze on the spot and they started shooting. My wife had
heard the shooting and had came down the stairs to find out if
I had heard it only to find me lying at the bottom of the stairs
in a pool of blood. I was rushed to the RVH. Only for the skill
of the surgeons in the Royal that morning I would have been another
fatality of the Troubles.
I recovered but not without problems. I have
been left with a disability as one of the five bullets that hit
me entered through the stomach and ended up in the spinal column.
This causes me constant pain and discomfort regardless whither
I walking, sitting or lying there is no getting away from the
pain and discomfort and as I am getting older this problem is
getting worse. I have lived with this and other problems relating
to my injuries for 33 years. As there weren't any VSG's around
in those days. After I was discharged from hospital I was left
to fend for myself without any help or support from any quarter.
When the VSG'S did start to come along I could not become a member
as I did not fit into their remits, but once funding came along
the VSG's had to widen their remits to obtain funding but still
as I had came a very long way on my own I did not see the point
in joining a VSG just like many other Victims/Survivors who Bloomfield
in his report "We Will Remember Them" describes them
as escaping the VSG net, but that isn't the case its just that
there was no help for the early Victims of the troubles that they
developed their own coping mechanisms such as prescribed drugs
and alcohol or felt that they had no need for VSG's when they
did come along.
BLOOMFIELD WE
WILL REMEMBER
THEM
I spoke to Sir Kenneth Bloomfield during his
consultations with Victims and explained what I had been through
and how I felt about the way I had been treated. Bloomfield told
me he had heard the story so many times before and what Victims
have had to suffer he also assured me that the Victims/Survivors
of the 70s (1968-1974) had been unfairly treated and poorly compensated
and that he would be making recommendations to address that issue.
When his report "We Will Remember Them" was launched
in 1998 with great euphoria by the then Secretary of State for
NI Dr Mo Molam she said that this was only the tip of the iceberg
for Victims/Survivors. The iceberg that she spoke about at the
launch was to very quickly disappear once the prisoner releases
were secured which was a kick in the teeth for many Victims/Survivors.
Furthermore Bloomfield failed to address the issue of the victims
of the 70s . He stated in the report that Victims/Survivors of
the 70s were unfairly treated and poorly compensated but he added
that these cases could not be revisited which was at odds with
what he led me and many others to believe. He did lead us up the
garden path. I met with Bloomfield sometime later and asked why
he stated the cases of the 70s could not be revisited and he told
me that was not part of his remit. One wonders why he was appointed
Victims Commissionaire when he wasn't given a full remit to carry
out the report fairly on behalf of Victims/Survivors and why he
visited different parts of the world to consult on how other countries
were dealing with the victims of conflict.
Looking back at the Victims/Survivors report
"We Will Remember Them" it was Government manipulated
to keep Victim/Survivors quite while the powers to be got on with
the underhanded business of prisoner releases. If the Law can
be changed to facilitate prisoners out of prison early then the
Law can be changed to facilitate the Victims compensation. The
old adage what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I
feel that We Will Remember them was a whitewash to placate victims
while the Government proceeded with prisoner releases. A copy
of Bloomfield's report is available on the NIO website. These
prisoners are free to get on with their lives back by government
Victims/Survivors who have been left injured/disabled haven't
been as fortunate.
DEFINITION OF
AN INNOCENT
VICTIM
I feel that some of the other issues to be addressed
is The Definition of a Victim as Bloomfield failed to do this
as he said that was for someone else some other day. The Office
of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister attempted to do
this in their Victims Stratagity paper and I like many others
find this definition which can be found in section 3. As you are
aware there are Victims and there are Innocent Victims. I as a
person who has been seriously injured feel insulted to think perpetrators
have the same entitlement to victimhood as I and thousands of
others who have been killed injured or maimed at the hands of
either republican or loyalist paramilitaries. I feel that the
families of paramilitaries who were killed injured or imprisoned
should not have the same rights to victimhood as the people who
were going about their Legal and Lawful way of life when victimhood
was bestowed upon them. The majority of people who were to become
victims did not want any part of the Troubles until we were dragged
into it. We did not choose to be Victims/Survivors.
COMPENSATION
This is a very important issue and needs to
be addressed especially for the Victims of the 70's as explained
were unfairly treated and poorly compensated. Bloomfield mentioned
this in his report but Government conveniently didn't address
this as they feared it may cost top much. You know that from common
knowledge that when you get a festering sore you go to the doctor
or hospital and get it seen to, and it is exactly the same with
the Compensation Issue it has grown into a bigger festering sore
since 1998 because Government failed to address this Issue then.
I have said before that if the Government can change the law to
let convicted terrorists/murders out of their prison sentences
early they should have changed the Law to address the Victims
Compensation Issue. I know that we all have to move forward but
the Government are moving prisoners on a lot further than the
Victims and have given more money to prisoners than they have
to Victims. Where is the Justice in that? Remember that it has
been the Victims/Survivors who have lost most and have paid the
highest price in the peace process and have been treated rather
shabbily by successive Governments. Victims themselves need financial
help and not just money thrown at the problem which Government
has being doing in the past and `the one size fits all' attitude
that Government has adopted towards Victims doesn't work.
UNSOLVED CRIMES
OF THE
TROUBLES
With Hugh Orde being given £30 million
to solve the 1,800-2,000 murders of the troubles whither this
brings Justice/closure for the families who have lost loved ones
remains to be seen. What bothers me now is the unsolved Crimes/attempted
murders during the Troubles. Cases such as mine where nobody was
ever brought to Justice. Are these cases just to be ignored or
am I not entitled to Justice such as the families of the bereaved
are. I could say without any fear of contradiction that the guys
who called to my door at 01:30 and put five bullets into me and
left me like a dog in a pool of blood meant to kill me. To me
that is an unsolved crime of the troubles.
MEMORIAL
Again another topic from "We Will Remember
Them" where Bloomfield talks about a Memorial Garden. I am
in favour of a Memorial but not in the shape of a Garden as the
families of Republican & Loyalist perpetrators/killers would
high-jack this and this would become a shrine to the killing machines
of both republican and Loyalist organisations leaving it uncomfortable
to the families of Innocent Victims to visit. I would suggest
a large Water Feature with a seated area around it to be erected
at the Front entrance of Stormont. That would remind the Government,
politicians and the general public on a daily basis the price
that was paid in human life, suffering and pain for the privilege
of a Northern Ireland Devolved Assembly. I would also suggest
that if this suggestion is acted upon all flags, symbols and emblems
would have to be banned to ensure that a safe area is created
so as it is free from intimidation /harassment for the families
of Innocent Victims visiting this Memorial.
TRUTH COMMISSION
I feel that an NI Truth Commission is not applicable
at the moment. The way certain political parties are behaving
and bending the TRUTH to suit their own political and personal
agendas stinks. We have had examples such as Martin Maguinness'
testimony to the Bloody Sunday Enquiry. |that he would rather
die than divulge information in the questions he was asked so
if we are to have TRUTH it must be the full TRUTH and not someone
else's half baked perceptions of what the TRUTH is.
One wonders where the "ICEBERG" Mighty
Mo spoke about went to. As for We Will Remember Them I think that
has long gone out the window. The report was launched in 1998
it is now 2005 and Victims/Survivors are still fighting to have
their Issues fully addressed. I hope that the Affairs Committee
will be able to address the issues I have outlined here as this
incident has totally changed my life and left me a life of pain,
suffering, hardship, trauma and other problems. As a person who
has suffered over the years I eel that I can only set out what
affects me in this submission but I know from hundreds like myself
who were killed or injured in isolated incidents throughout the
troubles feel that both the Compensation issue and the definition
of an innocent Victim would be of major importance to us.
I would be prepared to meet a representative
for the NI Affairs Committee to re-enforce and prove what I have
said in my submission is true and correct.
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