Expressing Support for Good Friday Agreement and Continued Police Reform In Northern Ireland

EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT AND CONTINUED POLICE REFORM IN NORTHERN IRELAND -- (House of Representatives - April 04, 2006)

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Chairman LEACH, for yielding me time and for his leadership on this and on so many other resolutions and initiatives as well on behalf of human rights.

Mr. Lantos, it is great to see you again on the floor, not unexpected. You are always here fighting the good fight on behalf of human rights.

Madam Speaker, I especially want to commend Chairman Hyde for offering this resolution. I am very proud to be one of the original cosponsors of it. It is a collaborative effort that strongly restates U.S. support for the Good Friday Agreement signed 8 years ago this month.

Madam Speaker, the Hyde resolution also underscores our unyielding support for the establishment of peace, justice, reconciliation and prosperity in Northern Ireland which we have all hoped for and we have all prayed for. While we are not there yet there has been some very encouraging signs.

On March 15, Madam Speaker, I chaired my eleventh hearing on the Northern Ireland peace process. All of these hearings have been comprehensive and insightful but this one was the first since the IRA's full renunciation of arms struggle and the decommissioning of its weapons.

Our resolution today makes note of that historic milestone, a remarkable development in the path to peace. Of course, equally significant for the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement is true, durable and transparent police reform. Here, too, Madam Speaker, there has been progress.

Today there is a vigorous and fiercely independent Police Ombudsman's Office, whose chief, Nuala O'Loane, has been a catalyst for reform. There is now a Policing Board in Northern Ireland composed of independent and party representatives to design and provide civilian control and fair nonsectarian policing. The Chairman, Sir Desmond Rea, and retiring Vice Chairman, Dennis Bradley, testified at our most recent hearing. There is a new Historical Enquiries Team established by the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde, which will provide a thorough and independent examination of unresolved deaths that occurred in connection with the troubles from 1968 to 1989.

H. Res. 744 rightly commends Nuala O'Loane, Sir Hugh, and the new policing institutions for the progress that they have made, often under very adversarial conditions. Even with these improvements, Madam Speaker, significant work further remains to be done in order to ensure acceptance by all the communities of the PSNI. A key stumbling block to that greater acceptance has been the lack of resolution of charges of official collusion in the murder of human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane. In 2001 the British and Irish governments jointly appointed Judge Peter Cory, a preeminent retired justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, to determine whether independent commissions should investigate possible state-sponsored collusion in six notorious and horrific murders. They also pledge to abide by his recommendations.

Two years ago Judge Cory, and he too testified at one point before our committee, 2 years ago he issued his report; and it called for five of the six murderers to be investigated independently. Yet, I am sorry to say, the British government has still not appointed an inquiry commission into the murder of the human rights attorney, Pat Finucane, who was gunned down in his home in front of his wife and three small children in 1989.

Every one of the 11 hearings that I have chaired on human rights and police reform in Northern Ireland has dealt with Pat Finucane's murder in whole or in part, yet still nothing has been done. The U.K. government must find a way to institute a credible inquiry which will be stepped by all, by Judge Cory, the Irish Republic, by the world community, but most of all, by the Finucane family.

If the population of Northern Ireland is to cease relying on paramilitaries for protection, which they absolutely must do, they must never rely on that, and transfer its trust to the police, it must have the confidence that the police and the authorities deserve trust. That is the major reason why these inquiries must be done and done right as soon as possible.

Again, I want to commend Chairman Hyde, Chairman Gallegly, Mr. Walsh, Mr. King, of course Mr. Lantos again, and Chairman LEACH, and also many of our staffs, including Mary Noonan, Richard Mereu and Dennis Curry for their work in writing and crafting this resolution which will put us in a bipartisan way on record for saying that the peace process must continue and the Good Friday Agreement must be fully implemented.

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