The suffering of the victims of Irish terrorism is to be recognized by the creation of a Victims' Commissioner to help heal the wounds of three decades of bloodshed.

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said in an interview this weekend that the perpetrators of terrorist acts on both sides must acknowledge the pain they caused to victims' families and survivors.

New hopes have been raised over the search for "the disappeared" -- people abducted and murdered by the IRA and never seen again.

Sinn Fein is understood to have given assurances of fresh cooperation to identify their unmarked graves, allowing their families to lay them to rest.

In addition, the British and Irish governments are working with forensic archaeologists in the search for bodies, thought to be buried mainly south of the border.

The government has been consulting on a new strategy for victims, their carers and children who may have grown up traumatised by what happened.

"It is vital to moving forward that those who have lost loved ones or suffered injuries themselves get access to the support and services they need," Hain said.

It is about official acknowledgement on the part of those responsible. The idea of a Victims' Commissioner has a lot of merit.

South African concept

Hain said this plan would draw on experience in South Africa, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission collected testimony from victims and confessions from perpetrators, who were granted amnesty from prosecution.

However, it would be impossible to copy the South African idea exactly because the Northern Irish community was divided in a totally different way, he added.

Nevertheless, the plans would involve directly confronting a painful past: "We will be looking at processes by which people can get at the truth and have some acknowledgement for their pain and suffering."

Hain will also make a statement today outlining detailed plans for "the normalisation" of the province. This is expected to involve halving the number of troops there, subject to security assessments, and dismantling military bases.

He is also expected to extend the devolution of decisions on policing, but only if Sinn Fein formally recognises the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, unionists have raised fresh questions over the true significance of the IRA calling an end to its 35-year war. They have pointed out that the Provisionals did not explicitly promise to disband.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist MP for Lagan Valley, said his party would play a "long game" before entering any new coalition in a revived Northern Ireland Assembly.

It would wait first for details of the IRA's destruction of its weapons, which will be witnessed by two churchmen, a Protestant and the priest Father Alex Reid, who is confessor to Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

Talks will begin in September on reviving the assembly. However the DUP is expected to impose a timetable lasting at least six months to test the IRA's intentions, and insist on fresh elections to ratify any new deal.

The IRA "subjected Northern Ireland to the Long War so we will subject them to the Long Wait," Donaldson said.

(China Daily August 1, 2005)