The First Minister of Scotland should issue a “clear and unambiguous apology” over comments urging people to “move on” from the Troubles, the leader of the DUP has said.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said John Swinney’s comments caused “genuine hurt among victims and survivors”.
Mr Swinney was speaking to The Herald newspaper after his party’s election victory and was asked about potential dealings with Sinn Fein as a result of the three devolved administrations of the UK having pro-independence parties in leading roles.
The leader of the SNP recognised his dealings with Sinn Fein, whose vice president Michelle O’Neill is First Minister of Northern Ireland, had caused some “media consternation”, but he added: “I really do think people have got to move on.”
He said he had “no intention” of apologising for the comments, telling the Press Association earlier this week that: “The issues that are involved in the peace process have involved people moving on, people have had to move on, that’s exactly what they’ve done, and I’m simply reflecting what’s happened.”
However, the leader of the DUP has questioned whether he would consider the same “deeply hurtful” language appropriate for the Lockerbie bombing, the attack at Glasgow Airport or Dunblane shootings.
In reference to Scottish soldiers killed by the IRA, Mr Robinson said no political arrangement or coalition with those “who have never honestly confronted the IRA’s brutal campaign can ever erase the truth about what has done”.
He urged Mr Swinney to “reflect seriously on the offence” his comments caused and “apologise publicly to those victims and survivors who feel insulted”.
In a letter to the Scottish First Minister, Mr Robinson said: “Whilst I appreciate your subsequent efforts to clarify those remarks, the language used has caused genuine hurt among victims and survivors, many of whom continue to live daily with the consequences of terrorism and violence.”
He added: “The passage of time does not diminish the need for sensitivity, nor does it erase the legitimate pursuit of truth, justice and accountability.”
Mr Robinson told Mr Swinney that victims of terrorism are “not an inconvenience to be brushed aside because their pain sits awkwardly alongside today’s political arrangements”.
He added: “They deserve honesty, respect and the assurance that those who lead will never minimise what they endured.”
He told the First Minister that leadership requires “the courage to say difficult things plainly” rather than to “manage relationships at the expense of those who suffered most”.
Mr Robinson said: “No victim should ever be told – directly or indirectly – to simply get over the murder of their loved ones.
“I urge you to reflect seriously on the offence your comments have caused and to apologise publicly to those victims and survivors who feel insulted and abandoned by your remarks.”
The Scottish Government highlighted Mr Swinney’s remarks that there was “nothing” in his comments that “in any way denigrates the suffering that individual families have suffered as a loss of loved ones as a consequence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland”.
A spokesperson pointed out that Mr Swinney had said: “I would want to reassure them of my sympathy and my empathy with them on that particular issue, but I think we’ve got to look at the fact that we’ve had a period of prolonged peace in Northern Ireland that’s required many people to move on and to seek a democratic course of action, and in a democracy it’s important to co-operate with other governments, and there’s a Sinn Fein-led government in Northern Ireland, and I think it’s incumbent we need to co-operate with them and take forward our agenda.”