Statement by TUV leader and European election candidate Jim Allister:
“I am disappointed but not surprised that the DUP and their Euro election candidate Dianne Dodds have failed to back the Contract with innocent victims. When your party is in coalition with the victim makers it is difficult to pretend you are standing up for victims.
“The DUP document issued yesterday is a very poor substitute to the Contract. When one compares the two documents it is evident that the DUP are dodging the key issues.
“For example, there is no commitment by the DUP to ensuring that government documents reflect the reality that what happened during the Troubles was, in the words of the Contract, “a terrorist campaign motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatreds”.
“As for their claim that they will support “a permanent memorial for innocent victims in the grounds of the Stormont Estate” if this is now DUP policy why, in December 2012, did DUP Finance Minister Sammy Wilson decline my request to have a memorial to victims of terrorism erected in Stormont? (see footnote).
“There is also a dodging of the key issue of the Maze Shrine. The contract states: “I along with my Party give an undertaking that we will not support the development of any ‘Conflict Transformation/ Peace building Centre’ or any other project associated with the ‘Troubles’ at the former Maze prison site whilst the listed buildings connected to the former prison and hospital wing remain”.
“TUV, having campaigned for many years against the Maze shrine, has no problem with this. However, the DUP document fails to rule out a U-Turn on the Maze merely saying that “there shall be no Peace Centre at the Maze unless there is broad support across the community for any such proposal”.
“In her full term as an MEP I am unaware of a single word from Mrs Dodds on this issue. This is exceedingly odd given that no European issue has been more debated in Northern Ireland. Remember that the centre was to be funded with European money.
“A few months ago Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness posed with shovels to announce the commencement of work at the Maze Shrine. Mrs Dodds said nothing.
“The DUP have still failed to admit that they were wrong on this issue.
“Three DUP DOE Ministers have refused to de-list the listed buildings at the Maze.
“Their failure to endorse the contract in full reinforces the suspicion in many quarters that the DUP plan to roll over on this once the elections are out of the way.”
Note to editors
Mr Allister’s question to DUP DFP Minister Sammy Wilson and his response in December 2012 were as follows:
Tabled Date: 14/12/2012
Answered On Date: 28/12/2012
Priority Written: Yes
Question:
To ask the Minister of Finance and Personnel, given the approach of the centenary of The Great War and the Battle of the Somme, whether he will make arrangements for a permanent Garden of Remembrance, or other suitable memorial, in the Stormont Estate to commemorate citizens from Northern Ireland who fell in the 1914/18 War and subsequent conflicts, including the victims of terrorism.
Answer:
There are two existing commemorative areas on the Stormont Estate which reflect on conflict, one of which relates specifically to the Battle of the Somme.
There are no plans for the creation of a further memorial.