Probe launched into unsolved Northern Ireland killings

BELFAST - The government has said it is launching a police review of hundreds of unsolved killings during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, in a move aimed a at drawing a line under the province's bloody past.

A team of 100 investigators will examine around 1,800 unsolved cases -- roughly half the total number of killings during the 30-year political and sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics.

"For many victims and survivors the prospect of being able to come to terms with what happened in the past is made more difficult because there remain significant unanswered questions about the fate of their loved ones," Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy told a news conference.

"The government recognises there is a need to address, in a systematic and a comprehensive way, all of the unsolved deaths in Northern Ireland's recent, troubled past."

Murphy stressed the work of the review unit, which is expected to take six years to complete, should not be seen as a Northern Irish equivalent of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

He said the government was committing 32 million pounds to the unit, which will be staffed by serving and retired police officers from Northern Ireland and Britain, but admitted its work is unlikely to lead to many new prosecutions.

"This is a massive policing challenge -- no police service, certainly in Europe, has ever tried to work through such a complex group of unsolved crimes spanning over 30 years," said Northern Ireland's Chief Constable Hugh Orde.

"The objective of the unit will be to examine those cases and try and achieve closure where concern remains for the families ... it is, I guess, a way of drawing a line under the difficult history in relation to these crimes."

The cases being re-investigated span the period from 1969 to 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement largely ended violence between Protestants and Catholics.

Although the Good Friday deal ushered in a shaky peace it has failed to provide political stability, with the regional government it set up to share power between the two sides suspended since 2002 because of disputes over guerrilla disarmament.

- REUTERS