TEEBANE: MLA calls for perpetrators to be brought to justice on 30th anniversary of bombing
On the 30th anniversary of the Teebane Massacre, DUP MLA Keith Buchanan has called on anyone with information t come forward.
On Friday the 17th of January 1992, a roadside bomb was detonated at a rural crossroads between Omagh and Cookstown, destroying a van carrying 14 Protestant workmen from Antrim-based company Karl Construction on their way home from work.
The explosion killed seven of the workers instantly - they were William Gary Bleeks (25), Cecil James Caldwell (37), Robert Dunseath (25), David Harkness (23), John Richard McConnell (38), Nigel McKee (22) and Robert Irons (61).
The van's driver, Oswald Gilchrist (44), died of his wounds in hospital four days later.
The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack, arguing that the men were 'legitimate targets' as they had been working to rebuild Lisanelly Army barracks in Omagh.
It was then the highest death toll for a single attack during the Troubles since 1988.
Speaking in the Assembly on the anniversary of the attack, DUP MLA for Mid-Ulster Keith Buchanan said 'justice should be done'
"They were honest men doing an honest day's work," he stated.
"Many within the community that I represent still bear the hurt and carry the pain of that day - and many feel that justice will not be done until those who perpetrated and facilitated these murders are brought to justice.
"There cannot be a hierarchy of victims.
"Innocent victims, survivors and their families must not be forgotten."
"There are those who now sit in public office who or may not know what happened on this day 30 years ago. I would appeal to those people and others in the community to give any information they have to the PSI and this could bring the perpetrators to justice," he added.
"What I would say to those who sat on the hill overlooking the scene, those that planted the bomb, those that planned it, those who watched the workers leave Omagh or those that supported any of them - you too have family and friends. You may have tragedies in your life and when they happen, or have happened, ask yourself 'the actions that I was part of that murdered eight innocent men, did that play a part in my misfortune?'
"To all those involved, think deep and hard of your actions.
"From when you open your eyes in the morning, each morning, to when you close your eyes each night - think hard, think deep and hard about your actions."
Nobody has been convicted of the murders.