“How can we faith in a process that is designed to protect the government?”
The Birmingham pub bombs families have slammed the “liar government” for hiding the truth about their loved ones’ murders.
Last month the government rejected calls for a public inquiry into the 1974 atrocity, instead directing the families to the controversial Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) set up under the terms of the contentious Legacy Act.
The families of 21 people slaughtered in two IRA no-warning explosions at the Top of the Town and Mulberry Bush pubs in the UK’s second city say the slap down is yet another callous denial of justice.
Julie Hambleton of the Justice4The21 campaign group said the decision was the latest in a 50-year trail of lies and deceit by successive administrations.
“This started in the immediate aftermath of the bombings,” she told the Sunday World yesterday.
“We now know that the police knew this was going to happen and did nothing, by 1975 they knew who had carried it out yet allowed six innocent men go to jail for 16 years.”
She said the families had no faith in the ICRIR despite promises from UK Justice Minister Ed Jarvis that it would be able to do what any public inquiry would do.
“They must think we are stupid, referring us to the ICRIR is like the government marking their own homework. How can we faith in a process that is designed to protect the government?” Julie said.
“The Home Office is heavily implicated in our case, how can we expect an impartial and independent inquiry? The hypocrisy and downright lies are incredible.”
The families have been repeatedly told all evidence and files relating to the bombings have been either lost or destroyed.
They were told in 1994 by counter-terrorism chiefs that there would be no further investigation because all files had been destroyed.
It was a similar message when Julie wrote to then head of the Crown Prosecution Service Keir Starmer who didn’t even reply but passed it down the line.
In 2014 the Home Office said crucial evidence including about a third unexploded bomb had been “lost”.
“They’ve been telling us for years there is no evidence or files so how on earth can the ICRIR adequately investigate our case? They are clearly lying, many many historical cases are resolved many many years later because they’ve keep evidence,” Julie said.
She pointed to the conviction in June of a 92-year-old man convicted of a rape in 1967 because they retained DNA evidence.
“We will never engage with the ICRIR, it would be a complete and utter waste of time,” she said.
She said the families of the Grenfell disaster, Bloody Sunday massacre and the Manchester Arena bomb had all been granted public inquiries.
“And rightly so, bless them, but why not us? Because the Home Office is deeply implicated in our case and they will do anything to cover their tracks. ICRIR has no power to hold the Home Office to account.”
She said the government was desperate to recruit them to the ICRIR cause and follow suit with the families of the Guildford pub bombings and those who lost loved ones in the M62 bus bomb in 1974.
“This is the largest unsolved mass murder case in England and they are desperate to bury it with some non-consequential report from the ICRIR so they can tick a box and pat us on the head,” she said. “It won’t happen, we won’t go away.”
Twenty-one people, including Juli
e’s sister Maxine, were murdered on November 21, 1974. No one has ever claimed responsibility for the incident but it has widely been attributed to the IRA.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said while he had deep sympathy with the families, “after careful consideration” the government would not commit to an inquiry, because it feels an ongoing independent commission investigation will be effective.
Julie said: “It is as if they are quite literally spitting on the graves of our loved ones.
“As long as there is breath in my body I will fight for justice.”
The news comes after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking to the BBC during Labour’s conference at the end of September, said the families of the victims “will never be forgotten”.
“It might be that it needs to go into the new legacy arrangements, because they’re designed to get to the bottom of all the legacy issues, including the Birmingham pub bombings, so that’s the route that this should now take,” he said.
“I hear families’ case.”
Now, just a month later, in a statement, Mr Jarvis has said it was the government’s “firm belief” the ICRIR could effectively investigate the atrocity.
The government later confirmed the decision was delegated to Mr Jarvis because of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s role as MP for Birmingham Ladywood.
