A former ‘red beret’ Para, who organised last month’s spectacular military parade through Bangor, is calling on all local Veterans to show him their support again after scoring a direct hit on Government ministers.
Last week, he received a letter from House of Commons staff confirming that his campaign to have Government overturn proposed legislation threatening former soldiers with prosecution is to be re-thought.
Working with former Parachute Regiment officers, Mark Roberts of Glanrafon, Bangor, launched into a national campaign to generate 100,000 signatures to a Parliamentary Petition to force MP’s to return to the House and re-debate the Government’s ‘U-Turn’ on the Northern Ireland Agreement which would draw a line on prosecuting both soldiers and terrorists from actions during the 30-year ‘Troubles’.
“We not only got the 100,000 signatures but a few score thousand more,” said a delighted Mr. Roberts. “The Government was so concerned that we might succeed and force a debate that it even got the Ministry of Defence to forbid any serving troops from supporting it. But public opinion backing the law of justice prevailed”.
The debate which the lobby – backed by former SAS officer and Conservative MP the Rt Hon David Davies – have forced on the Government will now take place on July 14th.
“This proves the power of public opinion and pressure”, said Mr. Roberts, “but the thrust now has to be on ensuring that local MP’s not only attend the debate but also help to vote the Government’s proposed U-turn on the prosecution of retired soldiers down. It’s one which not only impacts on hundreds of soldiers sent to Northern Ireland to confront terrorists over 30 years, but diminishes any trust current serving soldiers have for the rule of law if ever they are placed in similar situation. Morale in HM Forces is already at low ebb.
“I’ve already spoken with Bangor MP Claire Hughes and she’s assured us that despite her politics, she’ll be open minded. But there are also the MPs for Ynys Mon and other North Wales constituencies from whom similar assurances need to be gained. I can only hope that other former Servicemen and women will remind them how Wales’s 150,000 retired and voting Veterans think.”
In 1994 while at the Paras Regimental Headquarters in Aldershot, Mr. Roberts was key part in a lobby of senior military officers which fought to have former Para Private Lee Clegg released from prison and acquitted of the murder of a West Belfast joyrider who had smashed through an army checkpoint. ‘Curiously enough, the junior lawyer at the Court of Appeal in quashing Lee Clegg’s conviction and life imprisonment was none other than Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Now, it appears, he’s intent on reneging his own previous Prime Minister Tony Blair’s ‘Peace Agreement’ as well as U-turning his own courtroom argument’.
Across Wales, the local authorities with the highest percentage of households with Veterans is the corridor between Conwy (10.2%) and Ynys Mon (9.9%) mostly of army Infantry age who will have served in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007.
‘It was terrific to see so many of them in regimental association blazers and berets and Standards parade through Bangor last month where they again demonstrated the enormous pride they still have from their service days. Most, of course, were former members of the Welsh Guards, Fusiliers and Royal Welsh Regiment. Mr. Roberts, a member of Bangor City Council, was almost wholly behind the military planning of the event.
“But sadly, the general perception of the Northern Ireland debate regarding historic prosecutions is that this is a Para Regt or SAS problem; but it isn’t. It just happens the Paras and SAS were almost constantly there and tasked with the more difficult operations. The issue has impact on the entire Armed Forces ‘family; past and present’” said Mr. Roberts.
Last night, former Parachute Regiment commanding officer Lt. Col. Simon Barry said: “I well remember Mark from his days at RHQ in the 1990’s where he proved tenacious and typical of our Regimental motto: ‘Utrinque Paratus’ – Ready for Anything. We were lucky to have tracked him down to Bangor and recruited him back into this latest campaign. I very much hope that his ‘shout-out’ to all former service personnel will add to the Government’s realisation that they have got this one wrong’.
Mr Roberts joked: “Oddly, July 14th – the day listed for the likely clash between former soldiers and Parliament – also marks the Fall of the Bastille which triggered the French Revolution. I very much hope it doesn’t come to that”.
Photo: British soldiers on duty at a vehicle checkpoint near the A5 Omagh/Armagh road junction.
