Mr. Padraig Yeates:

It is a profound piece by someone who worked in the process and revised his opinions of what should happen and what happened as a result. There are many criticisms in it, including of institutional failings. Looking back, he feels they should have begun with the institutions and worked their way back rather than starting with victims or former combatants and dealing with them first. By the time they finished that process they had run out of steam.

In a way, this echoes the Irish experience. We have had a series of continuous legal cases involving individuals, whether soldiers who have been accused or victims who have brought cases or people seeking reviews of inquests. This is what we have had. We have not had that big block, that institutional constituency, if you like, that has to be addressed. We believe our process is a way of doing this. As we fully admit, and as we have said to the committee, we rely on the British and Irish Governments to achieve it. It is out of our hands. We can only appeal for it but politicians North and South and in the UK are the people who can put pressure on the two Governments to set up something in line with the Good Friday Agreement that will call to account the institutions and will also allow non-state actors to be called to account.

The more information we have, the more information will flow and this is an important point. It is like a brick wall. If we take out one brick we will have a bit of a view through it. Sergio Jaramillo made the point that when they began the process in Colombia they did not expect a lot of engagement from state actors or the army, whose members were the prime suspects for many cases. As time went on and more information became available, many people in the army and other organisations began to think they should tell their version of events before someone came knocking on their door. This is a very important part of the process. We have to have these institutional questions addressed. The only people who can do it are the politicians.