SAOIRSE32

BreakingNews.ie

IRA shooting McCartney killers ‘unacceptable’ to SF

08/03/2005 - 18:59:47

Sinn Féin would have opposed any shooting by the IRA of Robert McCartney’s killers, leading party member Gerry Kelly said tonight.

“The shooting did not take place. It would not have been acceptable,” the North Belfast Assembly member said.

“Sinn Féin’s position on shooting is very clear, they should not happen and the IRA has accepted and supports the family on this.”

He said the McCartney family did not want a shooting to take place and the IRA did not do it.

Mr Kelly added: “Whatever people think of the the IRA they have their own disciplinary code or whatever. In this case they said this to the family and did not act on it – that is a changed situation in itself.”

Elsewhere there was condemnation across the board from politicians who said the IRA was still wedded to its violent past.

Democratic Unionist Party leader the Rev. Ian Paisley said the offer to shoot was the kind of “so-called justice” the IRA was used to dispensing.

“It is their declared intent to murder. The Sinn Féin/IRA machine has murdered and maimed the citizens of Northern Ireland for 35 years,” said Mr Paisley.

The offer to shoot those responsible for the murder of Mr McCartney confirmed again that “terrorism is the only stock and trade of Sinn Féin/IRA,” he said.

“Their intention to terrorise is as clear today as the day they were formed. The Sinn Féin/IRA commitment to terror and criminality is total,” said Mr Paisley.

And he said when the offer to murder was considered, people needed to remember those who were named by the Irish Government as leaders of the IRA.

Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell recently named Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness as IRA army council leaders.

“It is time for the government to arrest Sinn Féin/ IRA leaders,” said Mr Paisley.

The IRA statement was branded as appalling by the Ulster Unionist Party which said it showed the Provisionals had learned nothing over the recent weeks.

Senior party member Sir Reg Empey, MLA, said: “The fact that this group is offering murder as a form of justice should be the wake-up call that the governments urgently need.

“These are the people that they would have democrats share power with.”

Sir Reg added that the latest statement proved unequivocally how far Northern Ireland was from the completion it had been calling for. Only the intervention of the McCartneys had prevented further murders.

“It is a sick and desperate statement that will be completely beyond sense to all rational human beings,” he added.

The Alliance Party’s Naomi Long, MLA, said the “barbaric and sickening offer” to shoot the men “shows that the IRA is still wedded to the idea of street ‘justice’ and human rights abuses as a means of resolving issues”.

She said the IRA kept making offers that did not constitute natural justice and it was a real credit to the McCartney sisters that they had rejected the outrageous offer.

“Whatever flaws republicans believe exist in the judicial system, at least there is always the right to a trial before a jury and the option of appeal.

“The IRA’s perverse form of justice offers none of that, two wrongs do not make a right.”

If the IRA wanted the witnesses to feel comfortable going to the police, why didn’t they lead by example, she asked.

“They know who the killers are and if they are genuine in their support of the McCartneys and want to see justice done and convictions secured, they should give whatever information they have that could help the family to the PSNI,” she said.

The SDLP MP Eddie McGrady said he was appalled by the IRA’s words.

“This is gun law at its worst and this community cannot afford to let itself slide into this abyss of unknown people taking the law into their own hands by way of so called, so called, justice.”

He said if this was the type of policing the IRA and Sinn Féin were talking about for the future “may God help us all.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said he was appalled by the IRA statement.

“Any sort of punishment ought to come through the courts, through due process of the law. There is no place for arbitrary justice, there is no place for kangaroo courts or capital punishment in this country,” he said.

Mr Murphy said there was no place for those who signed up for the Good Friday Agreement for “the kind of arbitrary justice and murder that has been suggested here.”

BBC

Agency can seize LVF man’s assets

Stephen Warnock was shot dead in his car

Assets of £200,000 owned by murdered LVF man Stephen Warnock can be seized by the Assets Recovery Agency, the High Court has ruled.

They include a £100,000 insurance policy, over £40,000 found in his car on the day he was shot and the proceeds of the sale of a house in Newtownards.

Warnock, 35, was shot dead in his car in September, 2002, in Newtownards.

The judge said the agency was relying on the police belief that Warnock was a major supplier of cannabis and ecstasy.

Mr Justice Girvan said the evidence had entirely satisfied him that Warnock was pursuing a criminal lifestyle which generated significant sums of money obtained from illegitimate sources.

Mural

“The evidence establishes that he was a senior figure in the LVF,” the judge said.

“An LVF mural in Holywood depicts him as a brigadier in that organisation which is an unlawful paramilitary organisation involved in various criminal activities.”

The judge said the PSNI believed that Warnock had become involved in drug trafficking on a significant scale.

Commenting on the £40,000 found in the LVF man’s car he said: “The lack of any explanation as to a lawful source, the criminal background and associations of the deceased, all point to the overwhelming conclusion that the money was the proceeds of crime and recoverable property.”

Also included in the assets which can be seized is a home entertainment system worth £6,000.

Warnock was driving his three-year-old daughter to school when he was murdered. She escaped injury when a gunman on a motorcycle pulled alongside and fired 15 shots into her father’s car.

Sinn Féin

Paul Murphy has no right to discriminate against those who vote Sinn Féin

Published: 8 March, 2005

Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Mitchel McLaughlin reacting to the announcement that Paul Murphy will block financial assistance to Sinn Féin’s Assembly team has said, ‘Paul Murphy has no right to discriminate against democratically elected Irish politicians’.

Mr McLaughlin said:

“Paul Murphy has no right to discriminate against democratically elected Irish politicians. He has no mandate here in Ireland. The people of Ireland elect us and we are accountable to them. We reject these anti-democratic actions by a British government against an Irish political party. This is an act of discrimination against the people who vote Sinn Féin.

“We will fight this discrimination politically, legally and through an ongoing campaign of democratic resistance. We will go to the nationalist and republican people in elections in May.

“The IMC upon whose report this action is based is not independent. It has no credibility. It is the tool of the securocrats whose stated aim is to prevent the further growth of Sinn Fein and the further development of the peace process.

“The British government has no right to act unilaterally if this is a partnership arrangement. More importantly, the Irish government has a duty to defend the rights of Irish people and their political representatives.” ENDS

RTE

Govt may take case over 1974 bombings

08 March 2005 16:12

The Government is to consider taking a case to the European Court of Justice if it does not receive co-operation from the British authorities on investigations into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil this afternoon that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wrote to him in January on the issue.

He said that Mr Blair claimed that his government had co-operated as much as it could with the Barron inquiry into the bombings.

Mr Ahern said the letter continued to say there was not enough evidence to justify a public inquiry into the matter in the UK and that it would not be possible to carry out another major search of documents in relation to other matters under investigation by Mr Justice Barron.

Sinn Féin’s Caoimghín Ó Caoláin claimed that this amounted to a ‘point blank refusal’ by the British authorities to co-operate.

Mr Ahern said that he and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, had continued to raise the matter with the British authorities, but it did not appear likely that they would co-operate.

The Government had not yet considered going to the European Court of Justice, but it would do so if co-operation was not forthcoming, Mr Ahern said.

The Blanket

The Butcher of Derry

Anthony McIntyre • 4 March 2005

Derry knife killer, shaven headed Bart Fisher, filmed walking from a court appearance, could easily have passed for any neo-Nazi skinhead on his way to one of the many gatherings of racist gangs that infest modern Germany. His conviction for stabbing to death a young Derry man, Jimmy ‘DeDe’ McGinley in October 2003 further reinforces the view that Fisher is a pathological skin head thug who gets his kicks from plunging knives into the hearts of men twenty years his junior. Last week one newspaper report under the emblazoned headline ‘Caged Brute had Killed Before’ detailed the death of Mark Robinson in April 2001…

>>>Read on

IOL

IRA ‘was prepared to shoot McCartney killers’

08/03/2005 - 17:07:17

The IRA was prepared to shoot the men blamed for the murder of Robert McCartney, the Provisionals said tonight.

It followed their own investigation into the killing outside a Belfast bar in which they admitted some of their members were involved.

Father of two Mr McCartney, 33, died after he and a friend were attacked with a knife which was later destroyed along with CCTV evidence, according to a new IRA statement.

They Provisionals claimed they had a five and a half hour meeting with the McCartney family during which representatives gave a detailed account of their investigation into the murder.

The statement claimed: “The IRA representative detailed the outcome of the internal disciplinary proceedings thus far and stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney.”

But the family raised concerns with the IRA representatives.

The statement added: “The family made it clear that they did not want physical action taken against those involved. They stated that they wanted those individuals to give full account of their actions in court.”

Nobody has yet been charged with the January 30 murder, but three IRA men, alleged by the organisation to have been involved have been expelled.

Seven members of Sinn Féin have been suspended, amid demands by the party president Gerry Adams that all those inside and outside Magennis’s bar at the time of the attack should come forward and make statements.

Sisters of Mr McCartney are due to travel to Washington next week for talks with the Bush administration as part of their sustained campaign to help bring the killers to justice.

IRA STATEMENT IN FULL

Here is the full text of the IRA statement:

“Representatives of Oglaigh na hEireann met with Bridgeen Hagans, the partner of Robert McCartney and with his sisters before our statement of 25 February was issued.

The meeting lasted five and a half hours. During this time the IRA representatives gave the McCartney family a detailed account of our investigation.

Our investigation found that after the initial melee in Magennis’s bar, a crowd spilled out onto the street and Robert McCartney, Brendan Devine and two other men were pursued into Market Street.

Four men were involved in the attacks in Market Street on the evening of 30 January. A fifth person was at the scene. he took no part in the attacks and was responsible for moving to safety one of the two people accompanying Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine.

One man was responsible for providing the knife that was used in the stabbing of Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine in Market Street. He got the knife from the kitchen of Magennis’s Bar.

Another man stabbed Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine.

A third man kicked and beat Robert McCartney after he had been stabbed in Market Street.

A fourth man hit a friend of Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine across the face with a steel bar in Market Street.

The man who provided the knife also retrieved it from the scene and destroyed it. The same man also took the CCTV tape from the bar, after threatening a member of staff and later destroyed it. He also burned clothes after the attack.

Reports in the media have alleged that up to 12 IRA Volunteers were involved in the events in Market Street. Our investigation found that this is not so. Of the four people directly involved in the attacks in Market Street, two were IRA Volunteers. The other two were not. The IRA knows the identity of all these men.

The build-up to the attack and stabbings was also outlined to the family and subsequently set out publicly in the IRA’s statement of 25 February.

The IRA representatives detailed the outcome of the internal disciplinary proceedings thus far and stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot the people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney.

The McCartney family raised their concerns with the IRA representatives.

These included: Firstly, the family made it clear that they did not want physical action taken against those involved. They stated that they wanted those individuals to give a full account of their actions in court.

Secondly, they raised concerns about the intimidation of witnesses.

The IRA’s position on this was set out in unambiguous and categoric terms on February 15 and February 25. Before and after this meeting with the family, the IRA gave direct assurances on their safety to three named individuals who the family believe were the targets of intimidation.

Since we met the family, at that time, the good offices of an independent third party have been employed to reinforce these assurances with two of the three men. To this point the third party has not been able to contact the other man.

We have urged any witnesses who can assist in any way to come forward. That remains our position. The only interest the IRA has in this case is to see truth and justice achieved.

Since we issued our statement on February 25 there has been much political and media comment on what we had to say. Predictably our opponents and enemies who have their own agendas have used this brutal killing to attack republicans and to advance their own narrow political interests. The public will make their own judgment on this.

We sought and held a second meeting with the McCartney family in the presence of an independent observer.

In the course of this we reiterated our position in respect of witnesses, including our view that all witnesses should come forward. We also revisited details of the incident.

We disclosed the following to the family: The conclusions of the IRA’s investigations are based on voluntary admissions by those involved.

The names of those involved in the attacks and stabbings of Robert McCartney, Brendan Devine and the assault on another man in Market Street were given to the family.

This included the names of the two men responsible for providing the knife, using the knife, destroying the knife, destroying the CCTV tape and burning clothes.

In addition we informed the family that: We have ordered anyone who was present on the night to go forward and to give a full and honest account of their actions. That includes those who have already been subject to the IRA’s internal disciplinary proceedings.

We are continuing to press all of those involved in the events around the killings of Robert McCartney to come forward. The IRA is setting out all of the above at length because it is important that those issues of truth and justice are successfully resolved.

We are doing our best to work with the family and to respect their wishes.”

Belfast Telegraph

Killer moved to republican wing in prison
But he has denied being a member of the IRA

By Brian Hutton
08 March 2005

The killer of a Derry man who has denied being a member of the IRA has been moved to a republican wing of Maghaberry Prison it was confirmed today.

Bart Fisher, 43, was jailed for three years at the High Court in Belfast, just 11 days ago, for the manslaughter of father-of-one James “Dee-Dee” McGinley, 23.

Fisher plunged a 12-inch dagger into Mr McGinley’s heart outside the Sackville Court flat, on the edge of Derry’s Bogside, where the accused lived, in October 2003.

The dead man’s family claim that the IRA have been shielding Fisher and intimidated them in the run-up to the trial.

Eileen McGinley, James’ mother, said her family were told by republicans the day before his sentencing that the man convicted of killing her son is in the IRA.

However, in a statement released through his family last week, Fisher said he was a republican but denied being a member of the IRA.

Sinn Fein have said that he is not a member of the party.

Security sources confirmed today that Fisher has been moved to Roe House, a segregated wing of HMP Maghaberry, affiliated to republicans.

Mrs McGinley said today that Fisher’s move vindicated their stance that he is a member of the IRA.

“Why would he be in the republican wing if he was not a member of the IRA?” she asked. “This proves that we were right all along. Those who said he wasn’t are lying through their teeth.”

The McGinley family are today preparing to launch a campaign of justice against what they see as a lenient sentence handed down to Fisher.

Last night, Fisher’s family in Derry issued a fresh statement claiming that they have been subjected to threats and abuse during and since the trial.

Meanwhile, the family of another Derry man, Mark ‘Mousey’ Robinson, have alleged Fisher was also involved in his killing.

Mr Robinson died after being beaten and stabbed in the city in April 2001.

Daily Ireland

Policing report slammed

click thumbnail to view - photo by CRAZYFENIAN

Relatives of people murdered as a result of police collusion with loyalist paramilitaries have slammed the PSNI after the publication of a report highlighting the service’s recent human rights record.
The report was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
It claimed that the PSNI had outperformed all British police forces as it struggled to comply with basic human-rights demands.
Last night, the families of people murdered as a result of RUC and British military collusion with loyalists branded the report “hypocritical”.
Despite praise for the PSNI from the report’s authors, Keir Starmer QC and Jane Gordon, the families of those murdered as a result of collusion are angry that the vexed issue was not raised once.
During a press conference to launch the report, a member of the relatives group An Fhírinne took to the podium to highlight their grievances.
Group spokesman Robert McClenaghan said the PSNI had failed to uphold the rights of victims’ families desperate to uncover the truth about the murder of their loved ones.
“Under the third Stevens report published in 2003, a recommendation was made to prepare files on 20 RUC Special Branch and military intelligence officers and forward it to the Department [Director] of Public Prosecutions,” he said.
“Many of those RUC Special Branch officers are now in the PSNI. A range of crimes were raised, right up to murder. To date, no proceedings have been brought against any of these people.
“We have had collusion down the decades and yet no suspensions or expulsions from the PSNI. The high-profile cases are well known but there are hundreds of other people affected.
“It is hypocritical of them to talk about human rights when they have promoted these Special Branch men within the ranks of the PSNI.
“Do our human rights not matter? Is there a hierarchy of victims? We represent over 250 families and each one of them matters.”
Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea said the report was important in terms of identifying human-rights issues raised by the PSNI.
“Human rights is a fundamental element in policing, and achieving and maintaining these standards is a critical factor for community confidence in the delivery of the policing service,” he said. “The report published today will be used by the board as a benchmark for moving forward on the human-rights agenda, and we will be discussing with the chief constable how the recommendations made in the report will be progressed.”
North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly, Sinn Féin’s policing spokesman, said the report lacked credibility.
He said, “The so-called Policing Board ‘advisers’ who produced this report are the same people who vindicated the PSNI actions last July when the PSNI overturned a Parades Commission determination and forced a loyalist mob through nationalist Ardoyne.
“This is nothing less than self-congratulatory nonsense that will do nothing to generate confidence in the PSNI.”
No one from the PSNI was available for comment.

breakingnews.ie

Adams won’t attend Capitol Hill lunch

08/03/2005 - 16:35:39

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams will not attend this year’s annual St Patrick’s Day Speaker’s lunch on Capitol Hill, it was confirmed today.

Northern Ireland political leaders have already been barred from attending the annual celebrations at the White House.

A spokesman from the Speaker’s office at the House of Representatives, said: “I can confirm Gerry Adams will not be attending our annual lunch.”

He refused to comment on whether Adams had specifically been excluded from the event and said he did not know whether other party leaders would be attending.

President George Bush traditionally attends the lunch alongside Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Irish-Americans and Irish party leaders.

It will be the first time in 10 years that Adams has not attended the lunch and is an indication of the Bush Administration’s frustration over Sinn Féin’s continued links with the IRA.

Mr Adams has been a regular guest since 1995.

He is still expected to attend the annual American-Ireland Fund dinner on March 16, on Capitol Hill.

The family of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney is expected to travel to the US next week and may be invited to meet President Bush at the White House reception.

Mr McCartney’s sisters have been in contact with US Government representatives over the past few days, in their bid to bring his killers to justice.

The 33-year-old father of two from the nationalist Short Strand was stabbed to death after a row in a city centre pub on January 30.

His family blame republicans for the murder on republicans. The backlash has forced the IRA to expel three of its members and Sinn Féin to suspend seven representatives.

BreakingNews.ie

Ex garda plotted to blackmail head officer
08/03/2005 - 17:10:48

A former Donegal garda plotted to blackmail the county’s most senior officer by secretly taping a conversation with him over the IRA’s torture of an informer, it emerged today.

Disgraced ex-superintendent Kevin Lennon told the Morris Tribunal his one-time colleague John O’Dowd recorded a phone call with the head of the force in Donegal.

The inquiry heard O’Dowd warned his superior officer, former Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick, that the IRA had brutally tortured an informer and that there were fears for his life.

O’Dowd, booted out of the force last December, claimed his agent William Doherty had his back teeth pulled out and his genitals burned by a paramilitary punishment squad.

Lennon told the inquiry O’Dowd planned to use the tape against Fitzpatrick if the IRA murdered the informer.

“If anything happened to Doherty he was going to save himself,” Lennon said.

Tribunal Chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris said it was more blackmail than self-preservation.

“This leads me on to an appalling situation,” said Mr Justice Morris. “Here was a member of the guards going to, if you like, blackmail the chief superintendent.”

“Well to that effect yes,” Lennon agreed.

Mr Justice Morris pressed the former officer if it amounted to an extortion attempt.

“Yes,” Lennon admitted.

O’Dowd had been probed by fellow officers over his role in a botched murder inquiry in Raphoe.

The shamed ex-officer, who faked IRA arms dumps across Donegal in the early 1990s, said in hindsight it appeared that O’Dowd had set up an elaborate blackmail scam to get back at the divisional chief.

“I think it was in the context of the discipline,” Lennon said.

“He just said that I have a tape recording of the chief in relation to Doherty………. He was complaining that the chief was the man that appointed the disciplinary against him. That he himself had appointed the investigation into indiscipline against him.”

The contents of the secret taping only emerged after an internal garda unit headed by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty was sent to Donegal in 1999 to probe the failed Richie Barron investigation.

Lennon claimed he had been set up as a fall guy over the botched murder inquiry by Fitzpatrick.

“I didn’t see it as blackmail, that’s what I see it to be now, but I did not see it then as blackmail of the chief,” Lennon said.

“If I knew that in 1997 or 1998 I certainly would have gone to the chief. I suppose you could say sir, that lines of engagement with me and the chief – the chief had ignored me from 1999.

“I was in a position that I knew sir, I mean I knew the chief had shafted me and that was it. I wasn’t going to go to the chief and tell him because he ignored me from 1999 on and I had no relationship with him after,” Lennon said.

The Morris Tribunal is examining allegations of corruption amongst the Garda in Donegal during the 1990s. The current module is looking into the death of Mr Barron in an apparent hit-and-run accident in Raphoe October 1996.

IrishExaminer.com

SF storms PSNI rights report launch in protest

08 March 2005
By Ian Graham

SINN FÉIN gate-crashed the launch of a human rights report and protested, during a brief stunt about alleged security force collusion.
Around half a dozen protesters entered the conference room in the Stormont Hotel in Belfast and unfurled a large Sinn Féin banner bearing the message “Who sanctioned British death squads? Time for the truth.”

They stood quietly at the rear of the hall but the official proceedings were brought briefly to a standstill when group leader Robert McClenaghan strode to the front of the hall and began addressing delegates.

He said: “If we are serious about promoting human rights in the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) one of the key issues that has to be addressed is the issue of collusion.”

No effort was made to remove the protesters but a number of people attending the launch walked out in disgust.

Within minutes the protesters were gone and when PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde stood to formally receive the report he dismissed the intrusion as an interesting part of the “rich tapestry” of policing in the North.

He insisted: “We are very proud of our human rights and just for the record the PSNI has always been against death squads and those include, for example, the people who murdered Mr McCartney.”

Robert McCartney was stabbed to death, allegedly by members of the IRA, in a Belfast bar in January.

With Sinn Féin under intense pressure and facing a growing crisis over the incident, the IRA has expelled three members and Sinn Féin has suspended seven members for their alleged involvement in the murder and its cover-up.

Mr Orde told the gathering: “The very reason we are here today is to reassure and convince the community that this report underlines the utter commitment to deal fairly and properly with all the communities that we are privileged to serve.”

He said human rights was not “window dressing” and those who had produced the report had been given unprecedented access to the service and its operation.

He said they were not complacent and acknowledged there was still a lot to learn.

The report said the PSNI had out-performed their counterparts in Great Britain in their efforts to comply with human rights demands.

Nevertheless, legal advisers for the authority that holds the force to account stresses the need to maintain an ongoing awareness of human rights issues.

In its first assessment of the force’s performance, the Northern Ireland Policing Board examined 12 key areas.

Lawyers Keir Starmer QC and Jane Gordon praised the PSNI for its attempts to meet challenges laid down by law.

Their report said: “In our view, the PSNI has done more than any police service in the UK to achieve human rights compliance, and in many respects we have been very impressed with the work the PSNI has undertaken in the human rights field.

“The fact that a range of recommendations have been made does not mean we have found widespread lack of compliance with the Human Rights Act.”

The board’s representatives completed a study on how the service was coping with integrating the 1998 Human Rights Act.

Police compliance has been strengthened by an internal Code of Ethics introduced as part of attempts to reform the force, they found.

A framework for checking police performance was developed and published by Mr Starmer and Ms Gordon in December 2003.

Those guidelines, and the recommendations emerging from the new report, focused on areas including the police programme of action and effectiveness of human rights training.

They were given unrestricted access to officers and police documentation, and attended events and incidents as they happened.

Meetings were also held with all relevant statutory bodies and a range of interested groups.

As well as officers’ adherence to the Code of Ethics, other issues included public order situations; use of force; covert policing; victims’ rights; the treatment of suspects; and human rights awareness among officers.

In future reports the advisers will be focusing on privacy, data protection and the impact of human rights on the role of local District Policing Partnerships.

“Whilst a high number of officers across all ranks and with varying lengths of service demonstrate a good base-level knowledge of human rights, the PSNI must ensure that officers maintain, develop and apply that knowledge in their work.

“It is therefore essential that human rights principles are fully integrated into all aspects of PSNI training and areas of concern identified in relation to training and other areas of this report are given urgent attention.”

Belfast Telegraph

‘Opening wounds will hurt, not heal’
Loyalists reject plan for a ‘truth process’

By Michael McHugh
08 March 2005

A South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission for Northern Ireland would risk re-igniting violent conflict instead of helping society move beyond the Troubles, a paper produced by loyalists has warned.

A policy document compiled by a number of loyalist ex-prisoners’ groups has questioned the value of a truth process at a time when rival communities are arguably more polarised than ever and follows the Secretary of State’s decision to defer a truth and reconciliation process.

Sinn Fein has slammed the Government’s position as “contradictory and divisive” but a pamphlet entitled, ‘Truth Recovery: A Contribution From Within Loyalism’ has warned that violence could be fuelled through old wounds.

The Loyalist Prisoners’ Welfare Association, the EPIC centre for ex-prisoners and community groups across Northern Ireland have contributed to the consultation, which urged caution in light of heightened communal tensions.

“The initial optimism and good will generated by the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement has all but evaporated in loyalist areas,” the paper said.

“In this kind of unstable, unsettled political context, a ‘truth process’ that attempts to open up old wounds runs a real risk of re-igniting violent conflict instead of helping society to move beyond the Troubles.

“Many wounds are still too raw for a truth process to have a realistic chance of succeeding. Under such circumstances, any truth process runs the risk of indoctrinating a more militant younger generation with hatred and providing justification for continuing conflict.”

Sinn Fein has been pressing for a reconciliation process and North Antrim Assemblyman Philip McGuigan has lambasted Paul Murphy’s decision to defer action.

“On the one hand Paul Murphy is recognising the need to deal with the difficulties faced by victims of the conflict while at the same time rejecting the need to create a independent process and framework to allow people to fully deal with the past and the issues of healing and truth,” he said.

Mr Murphy said that “in the light of recent events” it was not the time to launch a consultation in advance of a political settlement.

He announced that a Victims’ and Survivors’ Commissioner was to be appointed as an alternative measure.

The loyalists’ paper accused republicans of hijacking the process to blame the British state and its surrogates for everything.

It added that a lack of political remorse on the part of loyalists could be interpreted as rubbing salt in victims’ wounds rather than promoting healing.

“Any truth process that would require individual ex-prisoners or ex-combatants to give public testimony about specific past actions will most likely contribute to the continuing demonisation of these loyalist activists,” the dossier said.

Belfast Telegraph

Trimble blasted for silence over murder
Teen’s family say UUP leader did not go after UVF

>By Chris Thornton
08 March 2005

The family of a teenager murdered by rogue loyalists has blasted David Trimble for not kicking up the same storm over the boy’s killing as he has over the murder of Robert McCartney.

In a statement, the family of David McIlwaine accused the UUP leader and other unionists of not putting enough public pressure on the UVF killers of David and another Portadown teenager, Andrew Robb.

The family said they were angered when Mr Trimble accused nationalist politicians of not doing enough to support the family of Mr McCartney.

“It is our view that the McCartney family have shown more courage in six weeks than the unionist leadership has shown in the five years since these boys were murdered,” the family said.

A spokesman for the UUP said the party, led by Mr Trimble, has consistently opposed all forms of terrorism. He said the UUP under Mr Trimble has campaigned against mafia culture from all sources, loyalist or republican.

The family’s criticism came after Mr Trimble’s speech to the annual meeting of his party’s ruling council.

Mr Trimble said it was “a reproach to the natural social and spiritual leaders of northern nationalism” that the McCartney sisters had to take the lead in trying to bring their brother’s killers to justice.

The McIlwaine family accused Mr Trimble and DUP leader Ian Paisley of failing to support their hunt for facts about the murder. They believe at least one of the killers was a police informer. The DUP was asked to comment on the accusation, but had not responded this morning.

But the Portadown family singled out Mr Trimble, as the MP in the area where the killings took place, for particular criticism.

“We don’t think Mr Trimble put enough pressure on the political representatives of the UVF as he has so ably done with Sinn Fein over Robert McCartney’s killing.

“He didn’t ask questions in the House of Commons about the gruesome slaughter of two children from his constituency as he did about Mr McCartney’s murder.

They said: “The psychopaths who butchered these two boys are still enjoying their freedom even though there is overwhelming evidence against them and witnesses have come forward, the two things Hugh Orde said were needed in the McCartney case.”

They added: “The silence from Mr Trimble, and Mr Paisley for that matter, is deafening.

“If David had been murdered by republicans we would not have been able to beat Trimble or Paisley away from our doors.

“In the five years since David was murdered we have fought for justice for the child.

“David Trimble or any other mainstream unionist have refused to help us in any way to get justice.

“So Mr Trimble and Mr Paisley by their actions seem to be saying to us that Mr McCartney’s killers must face justice but the killers of David and Andrew can escape justice because he or Mr Paisley won’t show the same leadership so admired by Mr Trimble in the McCartney sisters.”

BreakingNews.ie

£30m to be spent reviewing unsolved NI murders

08/03/2005 - 10:03:34

The British government is set to provide up to £30m (€43m) today to allow police to review unsolved murders in Northern Ireland.

Nearly 2,000 deaths during 30 years of violence remain unsolved and the funding will be spread over a number of years, according to British government sources.

The Police Federation of Northern Ireland welcomed the move. It has been pressing for a review of cold cases for years, particularly of the murders of more than 200 police officers which remain unsolved.

Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde is expected to follow the announcement by saying detectives from elsewhere in the UK will be brought in to help with the review.

Police Federation chairman Irwin Montgomery said a review was long overdue and would help families of victims to reach closure.

“Families just want to know what happened to their loved ones. They want to know the circumstances of their deaths.

“Obviously, my interest is in the 211 unsolved police murders particularly. But for all the 1,800 unsolved murders in Northern Ireland, hopefully this will bring closure for a number of families.”

He warned families not to expect prosecutions and convictions from the reviews. Some murders go back over 30 years, evidence has been lost and detectives who investigated them are no longer alive, he said.

But Mr Montgomery said new techniques such as DNA are now available and could be used in some cases.

BBC

Man is charged over hit-and-run

Car was stolen from car park owned by Belfast Education Board

An 18-year-old man has been charged over a hit-and-run incident in Belfast city centre.

He is due in court on Tuesday charged with attempted murder, robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and driving offences.

The incident happened at a car park owned by Belfast Education and Library Board in Academy Street last Tuesday.

A 52-year-old man remains critically ill in hospital after being hit by a car during it.

The car owner was ordered out of the vehicle at Dunbar Link. It was later found burned out at Upper Springfield Road in west Belfast.

The accused went into Musgrave Street police station voluntarily with his solicitor on Monday.