Dear Madam - Innocent Victims United (IVU) has consistently warned of the flawed nature of the envisaged Information Commission on Information Retrieval process. The confirmation that the body will not provide the means for killers to be named comes as no major shock.

Supporters of the ICIR process point to the success of the Location of Victims Remains process where some families have now had a loved one’s body recovered so that they may be afforded the dignity of offering their murdered relative a Christian burial.

But let’s be clear - there was an outcome to that process, families did in some cases get their loved one’s body returned and whatever of IVU’s fundamental problems with immunity in that process we acknowledge that some families have received a form of closure - but it falls well short of Justice.

With the ICIR process, what is the end outcome for families? To be told your father, brother, mother, sister was murdered because they were a ‘legitimate target,’ or that your relative was collateral damage in a War and was not our principle target?

The very idea that the ICIR can bring closure for victims/survivors is a patronising insult for the overwhelming majority of those directly affected.

Sections of the ‘Establishment’ along with terrorism and its political voices have colluded to subvert justice ever since the ‘so-called Peace Process’ was initiated.

Terrorism was rewarded through political concession after confession when it delayed and fudged decommissioning - the irony of course was that when they decided to do so, they did so on their terms and with it the ballistics connecting killers to crimes was permanently destroyed. Then we had; the OTR Administration scheme, Royal Prerogatives of Mercy - there has been no let up.

It’s disingenuous to point to the low percentage likelihood of perpetrators being convicted of crimes without contextualising the way in which Justice has been subverted.

Those who are attempting to sell the structures contained within SHA as a good deal for victims need to wise up - you are cruelly raising the expectations of those who have already been hurt most within this Society.

There is no political mandate for SHA or piecemeal elements of it to be implemented.

Only two out of the five N.I Executive parties who were involved in the political discussions which led to the document being produced have ratified the ‘Agreement’ within their own Party’s structures - Sinn Fein and Alliance. And we are all aware that Sinn Fein has reneged upon the Welfare Reform element of the accord.

To date the DUP, SDLP and UUP have not. Has this position changed? Have Party leaders been sanctioned by their own Parties to allow SHA to proceed, (whether in complete form or through enabling individual elements to be proceeded with?) There are those who suggest that there are perpetrators within the community who are riddled with guilt and require to unburden themselves of what they have done. A mechanism currently exists for such individuals to do so - present yourselves at a Police Station, confess your crimes, serve the paltry two year prison sentence applicable under the terms of the Belfast Agreement and then come out and contribute to rebuilding this society.

Remorse, Repentance and Restitution must exist in the hearts of those who inflicted violence upon their neighbour. Without this we will continue to have a ‘phoney Peace.’ And yes that also means that those who owe their livelihood to the current system being courageous enough to realise that the terms of the ‘Peace settlement’ require re-calibrating.

It’s time politicians exercised their power to apply the brake pedal - the accelerator pedal is about to snap. Their failure to do so will tell its own story.

The political Agreement referred to as ‘SHA’ in shorthand might more accurately be described as - ‘SHAM.’ Yours faithfully, Kenny Donaldson Innocent Victims United Lisnaskea, South Fermanagh