“Does (Baroness Anderson) agree that it is fundamentally important that wherever they are in the world, our armed forces behave within the rule of law, and that if we are to build a safe and stable future for Northern Ireland, then it must be on the basis of the rule of law?”.
Former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster has called for a probe into a coroner’s finding that the use of lethal force against four Provisional IRA members was not justified.
Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee said on Wednesday the coroner’s finding – that a British military unit unreasonably killed four men in Co Tyrone 32 years ago – was “perverse”.
An inquest led by Mr Justice Humphreys, which opened in 2023, found that the soldiers fired up to 570 rounds but had made no attempt to arrest any of the members of the IRA unit, even as they lay seriously injured and incapacitated.
Non-affiliated peer Baroness Hoey had earlier told peers Mr Justice Humphreys’ findings went “way beyond the role of a coroner’s powers, to guess what the soldiers were thinking”.
