Statement by TUV West Tyrone candidate Trevor Clarke:
“On the 24th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement, often referred to as the ‘Good Friday’ Agreement it is opportune to reflect. There is little good about it, but based on the unofficial title preferred and used by some, a certain inference is intended that is virtuous and wholesome. It is not.
“The Belfast Agreement was only ever about one thing: appeasing the most ruthless terrorist organisation in western Europe to the extent it would agree to step away from a horrific, illegal terror campaign that devastated lives and enshrined division here.
“The interests of people who lost everything during the Troubles, through no fault of their own, have not been served by this bad agreement. Irish republican terrorists have been the principal beneficiaries of an agreement that shortened the jail time of terrorist bombers and murderers, limited sentences to two years for those subsequently convicted of pre-1998 terrorist crimes, and delivered Tony Blair’s amnesty for wanted IRA criminals.
“As the so-called “peace process” has unfolded, the Belfast Agreement and subsequent side deals have ensured IRA murders remain uninvestigated, unsolved, and the prospects of truth, justice and accountability have slipped further away.
“Whilst the British state and its security forces are constantly in the courts, those who imposed the terror in an attempt to circumvent democracy enjoy the luxuries of political office here, and the Dublin government evades all culpability for the significant role the Irish state played in facilitating the IRA terror campaign. All of this whilst an implicit threat of a potential return to violence remains. The Belfast Agreement has looked after the wrongdoers and punished their victims.”