BBC shows truth and reconciliation in Northern Ireland

By staff writers

March 7, 2006

-07/03/06

The BBC screened remarkable scenes last night, involving the ideas of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as Desmond Tutu brokered a meeting between a former Protestant paramilitary and the widow and brother of a man he was convicted of murdering.

The programmes, the last in a three part series, brought together victims and their attackers in the Northern Ireland conflict.

The 'Facing the Truth' meetings was chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the crimes of the apartheid era.

Tutu was helped by experienced negotiators Donna Hicks from Harvard University and Lesley Bilinda, whose husband was killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and who later went on a journey to try to find his killers and learn the truth about his death.

Psychologist and trauma counsellor Nomfundo Walaza, former director of the South African Trauma Centre for victims of violence and torture, also offered advice.

Recalling the filming, Tutu said: "We had some extraordinary moments in the week or so that we were here, where it was like something divine had intervened, and it was exhausting but eminently exhilarating.

"I think human beings are incredible ... and I've seen examples here of the fact that it really is possible that we will see a resolution of the problems and people will say, as we did in South Africa, why were we so stupid for so long?

"I have a good sense that Northern Ireland is going to be held up one day as a place where we thought the problems were intractable and you see they were intractable - just look at how well they're getting on together (now)."

Last night's Facing the Truth featured a meeting between former Protestant paramilitary Michael Stone and the widow and brother (Roddy and Sylvia Hackett) of a man he is convicted of murdering (Dermot Hackett).

Dermot Hackett was gunned down and murdered in cold blood. The 37-year-old Castlederg man was shot 15 times as he drove his bread van along the Omagh-Drumquin road in May 1987.

Stone became notorious when television cameras captured his gun and grenade attack on mourners at an Irish Republican Army funeral at Belfast's Milltown cemetery in 1988. Three people were killed.

Michael Stone is now revered as a cult hero in loyalist communities for slaughtering Catholics; a man who triumphantly waved his arms in the air when he was saluted like a returning warrior by thousands of cheering supporters on his release from the Maze Prison in 2000.

"I suppose I was a wee bit apprehensive but I was there to support Sylvia because she wanted to ask Stone face-to-face why he had killed her husband," Roddy Hackett said.

"I was expecting him (Stone) to come to the meeting acting 'the big man' but he looked pitiful when he hobbled in with his walking stick and I found myself feeling sorry for him," he said.

Towards the end of the meeting Sylvia stunned Stone, Archbishop Tutu and the watching television crew when she stood up and reached out to shake Stone's hand.

"It really took the wind out of everyone's sails," said Roddy. "I got up then and I shook his hand. I told him I did it to prove there is a bit of humanity left in this country.

"He replied that I was a better man than he was because if the roles were reversed he would not have done the same."

"At the end of filming, the participants all said it had been a worthwhile, even helpful, experience," said BBC executive producer Jeremy Adams.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to the one in South Africa, has been considered by the government.