| RSAUB | Date: Wednesday, 2011-10-26, 11:43 PM | Message # 1 |
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| Maze ‘shrine’ row in assembly
PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 21/9/98: Inside the Maze prison- entrance to H7.
Published on Wednesday 26 October 2011 08:45
CONCERNS that a conflict resolution centre at the former Maze prison could become a “shrine to terrorists” have caused angry exchanges in the Stormont assembly.
During yesterday’s stormy debate, prompted by a motion proposed by the UUP, First Minister Peter Robinson said TUV leader Jim Allister still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that the province is in a new era.
He compared Mr Allister to a Japanese soldier emerging from the jungle many years after the end of the war.
However, Mr Allister rounded on the first minister, saying the only reason the centre was still being proposed at the Maze was because “Sinn Fein won’t support it anywhere else”.
Mr Allister joined the Ulster Unionists in attacking the DUP over their stance — claiming the latest proposals were a far cry from the original multi-use site proposals.
The TUV leader said the DUP had transformed its position on the issue and were now in favour of allowing a section of the H-Blocks — including the prison hospital — to remain as part of the overall regeneration.
Mr Allister said: “If we need a conflict resolution centre, why do we need to put it somewherewhere it will be blighted and branded?”
First minister Peter Robinson defended his party’s position and said he was “absolutely determined that there will be no terrorist shrine in the Maze”.
Mr Robinson added: “If it was ever the proposal of the Ulster Unionist Party to have a terrorist shrine — because it was their proposal — it will be stopped when it comes to the office of first minister and deputy first minister.”
Following the debate, UUP leader Tom Elliott said his assembly motion — which raised concerns over the Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Centre — was a reminder that the site in question was unacceptable.
“Let’s not forget this is the site where perpetrators of acts of terrorism were sent as punishment.
“It is without doubt to the Ulster Unionist Party that the proposals for this centre are offensive to many victims and survivors of the Troubles and the backlash from victims to the location of this centre at the Maze site is evidence of this.”
Mr Elliott added: “I would stress that we are not opposed to the concept of a peace building centre but we do not
want to see it built on such a divisive site.”
However, Lagan Valley MLA Trevor Lunn said “people were fed up” with the delay in redeveloping the Maze site.
“This issue has been stuck in limbo for years and people are fed up with the lack of progress. So far all we have
done is demolish some old buildings, put in a nice new entrance and abandon an excellent stadium proposal,” the Alliance MLA said.
“The conflict resolution centre has been cited as a reason for lack of progress, but I cannot see why we would not want to tell the story of what happened at the Maze site as well as more widely across Northern Ireland over the past 40 years,” he added.
Alban Maginnis of the SDLP said: “If it is done properly in terms of a neutral site; if it’s done in terms of everybody telling their story about the conflict, then I see no problem with it.”
Just what we need, a shrine to the hunger strikers, in the mold of the prison hospital, right in the middle of the loyalist countryside.
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