There will be enormous concern that, as the 30th anniversary of the massacre at the Sean Graham bookmakers' shop in south Belfast approaches, further delays have prevented the publication of a crucial report by the police ombudsman Marie Anderson into a series of loyalist murders at that time.
Loyalist and republican groups were both responsible for equally evil killings as violence escalated before the negotiations which eventually led to the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994 and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 were able to develop.
However, firm evidence that the forces of the state, rather than protecting vulnerable citizens, may actually have facilitated their deaths through acts of collusion must be treated with the utmost seriousness.
The shooting carried out by the UDA at the Ormeau Road bookies in February, 1992, killing five innocent Catholics and wounding nine others, was always surrounded by considerable suspicions that the perpetrators had received assistance from official sources.
Two gunmen were able to walk into the shop on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares in broad daylight at a time of high tension and fire powerful weapons to inflict carnage on everyone present before escaping from the scene as easily as they had arrived.
It emerged much later through an investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) in 2010 that a Browning pistol used by the UDA gang had been given to them by elements within the Royal Ulster Constabulary as part of a complex plot to facilitate the maintenance of agents and informers.
Astonishingly, HET officers were told by police that an assault rifle deployed in the same outrage had been disposed of, only for it subsequently to be found on display in the Imperial War Museum in London.
The full report by Ms Anderson into a total of 12 murders during the same period will carry major significance but it is alarming that, as we have been revealing over recent days, a number of obstacles have been placed in the path of its scheduled release this autumn.
There have been detailed suggestions from lawyers that the PSNI is considering the issue of a public interest immunity certificate to withhold what it regards as sensitive information.
We are in a new era for policing and it would be deeply disappointing if the Ombudsman is not able to publish all aspects of her report as soon as possible.
