Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly last night called on the British government to provide a memorial garden to victims of terrorism during the Troubles like the one promised in London for victims of the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Making the proposal, Mr Sam Foster (UUP, Fermanagh and South Tyrone) said the motion was inspired by the campaign by Ms Rita Restorick, the mother of the last soldier to be killed by the Provisional IRA, for a memorial garden for soldiers.
Urging MLAs to distinguish in their motion between those who died in Northern Ireland having perpetrated acts of terrorism and those who suffered innocently at the hands of paramilitaries, he argued: "There is a difference between those who were murdered at Greysteel, Kingsmills, Narrow Water Castle, Claudy and Omagh and, regrettably, a host of other atrocities and those who committed such crimes."
Dr Joe Hendron (SDLP, West Belfast) agreed the idea of a memorial garden was good "in principle". In a speech where he recalled tending to a dying soldier and attending many funerals as a GP, Dr Hendron said: "That political consensus should involve nationalists and republicans, unionists and loyalists - otherwise it just becomes a point-scoring exercise."
Mr Pat McNamee (Sinn Féin, Newry and Armagh) queried the definition of terrorism in the motion. "Now we know what the Ulster Unionist Party and others mean by the victims of terrorism," he claimed.
"They focus firstly on the victims of IRA actions and republican actions and then selectively on the victims of other paramilitary groups.
"But in doing so they exclude the victims of British state forces and British collusion in this part of Ireland and the rest of Ireland."