Victims should be consulted on Omagh bomb inquiry, Bill Clinton says

James Cox

Citizens and victims groups need to be consulted in advance of the establishment of the Omagh bomb inquiry.

That is the view of former US president Bill Clinton, who was speaking on a new podcast - As I Remember It: Bertie Ahern & The Good Friday Agreement - which launches on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the UK government announced the establishment of a statutory inquiry into the atrocity in 1998 which resulted in the deaths of 29 people.

Bill Clinton said any new inquiry should not be unilateral and reflect just what the British want done.

“That [Omagh] was a mass murder that occurred after the agreement had been reached,” Mr Clinton told As I Remember It.

“So they can't say, ‘Well, we were out here fighting for truths, justice and the Irish dream.’

“And I think that there has to be some system set up… I don’t think there'll be mass firing squads.

“Nobody thinks about that but the trials that have occurred since Omagh have, some of them have been vacated because… the appellate courts found errors in the way the trial was conducted. “One of them fell apart because the principal witness changed his testimony.

“These things have happened; there needs to be something just for Omagh, I think.

“It may not be throwing 30 people in prison for 30 years and I think the victims groups need to be consulted.

“The citizens need to be consulted, and I think the process should not be unilateral; that is, it can't just be what the British think should be done - the people in the community have to be considered.”