Sir, – The story of those killed and secretly buried by the IRA, is one of the great tragedies of the conflict. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable. The IRA has apologised for this.
Miriam Lord (Dáil Sketch, November 6th) repeats completely erroneous assertions made by Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith that "The IRA still refuse to accept responsibility for the murders and legitimate questions are not answered by Gerry Adams and others". None of this is true. The Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin knows this. He was a senior member of the government which established the commission for the location of victims remains at my request.
As a republican leader I have never shirked my responsibility on this issue. I have met the families involved many times. I have worked with the commission and I will continue to do so.
I agreed to participate in the RTÉ/BBC programme to raise awareness of the issue and to assist the search for the remaining bodies. That has been my focus for many years and I intend to honour the commitment I gave to the families to continue with my efforts.
The special forensics team, working to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, was established as a result of a proposal from Father Alec Reid and myself.
The forensic science consultant Geoff Knupfer, who leads the forensic team for the commission, acknowledged several years ago the co-operation they received from the IRA. He said: “In a spirit of co-operation and reconciliation they [the IRA] are trying to help in every way they can. I am absolutely convinced that they are doing everything they can to assist. The support we have had from them has been absolutely 100 per cent from day one.”
In July this year Geoff Knofer’s deputy Jon Hill reiterated this.
As a result of the work of the last 12 years, nine bodies have been recovered and the sites of four of the six remaining bodies have been identified. The failure thus far to find the remaining bodies is not due to any lack of resolve or co-operation by me or other republicans.
So attacking me from the ivory tower of the press gallery or the Dáil benches might make good copy – that’s easy when it relies on gossip, smear and the accusations of political enemies, but it will not help the families. Nor will resolving this injustice and recovering the bodies be assisted by political point-scoring, felon setting or snide ill-informed newspaper articles. What is needed is information.
I therefore appeal again for anyone with any information whatsoever, including anyone who was previously in touch with the commission, to contact them again on the basis of absolute confidentiality, in order to assist the commission in reassessing the information available to it.
Any information passed to the commission cannot be used in a court of law or transmitted to any other agency and those passing on this information have absolute immunity in relation to this information. – Is mise,
GERRY ADAMS TD,
Teach Laighean,
Baile Átha Cliath 2.