SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

Garda informer shake-up

Sweeping reforms of covert handling of garda informers are to be introduced in a bid to root out fake agents, it emerged yesterday.
In a radical move to address the corruption and negligence in the GardaÌ uncovered by the Morris Tribunal would-be agents will be subjected to extensive vetting.
The measures, proposed by a working group headed by deputy commissioner T P Fitzgerald, were designed to ensure informers’ safety, smoother handling operations and better understanding of the value, or lack of value, of covert information.
It is hoped the Code of Practice, drawn up after months of extensive international research, will guarantee the best agent handling systems in the world.
In a submission to the garda corruption inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Frederick Morris, the informant management working group recommended:
*Detailed source handling units to be created dedicated to running informers.
* A compulsory and rigid system of registration of informers by every officer along with a full and detailed assessment of the proposed agent.
* A full and detailed background and risk assessment, and if needed a face-to-face interview with the would-be informer.
* A separate and complete file containing all records and dealings with informers to be kept by the Crime and Security Unit in Phoenix Park.
* A superior officer to keep a high level of supervision on dealings and relationship of officers with the informer.
The recommendations were made to the Tribunal following a string of alarming findings of how gardaÌ in Donegal dealt with informers during the early 1990s.
In his report Judge Morris revealed there was no official garda manual governing the handling of informers in the force.
He pointed to the role played by Adrienne McGlinchey, an alleged IRA informer, who passed on information to officers of subversive activities across Donegal.
Judge Morris noted there was no method of tracing the history of the handling of Ms McGlinchey. Other than by word of mouth, there was no way this basic information was recorded, he stated.
He also noted the Garda handbook Crime Investigation Techniques does not set out any useful procedures to be followed for the cultivation and handling of an informer.
The Tribunal’s first report noted “inappropriate social contact” between gardaÌ and Ms McGlinchey. It highlighted officers had held indiscreet and at times unacceptable meetings with the alleged informer.
A total of 17 recommendations were made by Judge Morris on the running of agents. The working group proposals have so far met 11 of the 17 proposals.
Deputy commissioner Fitzgerald, who has headed nine working groups set up in the wake of the first report of the Tribunal, stated that while the findings of the inquiry had been accepted by his superiors, implementing them would take time.
He said careful analysis of recommendations was needed to allow the force to operate at optimum effectiveness while changes were put in place.
The report stated: “This is a major undertaking for any organisation and one which is deserving of considerable diligence for the overall good of all stakeholders both garda and others in this country.”
Policing experts from Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany and Europol were approached in a bid to draw up a best practice model.
The working group insisted improved facilities were needed both at garda headquarters in Phoenix Park and at training colleges if the radical changes were to be fully implemented.
They recommended commissioner Noel Conroy appoint a senior officer to carry out an annual review of operations while a High Court judge should also be hired to conduct an annual independent review.
A modern training network was proposed to highlight the dangers of running agents while the group called for a National Central Source Unit (NCSU) to be formed to manage informant handling and ensure best practice.
It is proposed the NSCU will maintain close contact with local supervising officers and handlers while giving feedback to officers on the ground on the value, or lack of value, of information.
The final report of the working group was sent to commissioner Conroy at the end of April.

Daily Ireland

McBride family call London rally

The family of Belfast teenager Peter McBride, who was murdered by the British army in 1992, is planning to hold a large public meeting in London after the summer.
The family, which has been involved in a campaign highlighting the discrimination they have endured and the fact that the two soldiers who killed Peter were allowed back into the army, hope to hold the rally on September 4, the anniversary of his death.
A meeting will be held in London on Saturday June 11 to gather ideas and build support for the September event. This centres around article seven of the UN Convention that states, ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.’
The Article 7 campaign was launched in London last month at a meeting with Kelly McBride, the Labour parliamentary candidate, Yasmin Qureshi, and Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
The intention is to seek a change in the law during the term of the next parliament. The changes sought would lead to the automatic dismissal of any member of the armed forces found guilty of a serious human rights violation, murder, rape or torture.
Ms Qureshi, who had promised to campaign for a change in the law, failed in her attempt to become the first female Muslim MP in Britain but the McBride family is confident that the Article 7 campaign will receive cross-party support from MPs. It is also hoped the campaign will garner widespread support from church, trade union, human-rights and anti-war groups.
The McBride family have long argued that the decision to allow the soldiers convicted of Peter’s murder to rejoin the British Army constituted a blatant act of discrimination against their family and in favour of the soldiers.
Those wishing to attend the June meeting should email the Pat Finucane centre at pfc@iol.ie.

muslimuzbekistan.com

US “WAR ON TERROR” YIELDS A BLOODBATH

By: Bill Van Auken
05/16/2005 12:36:10

The Bush administration’s “global war on terrorism” has recorded one of its bloodiest victories yet with the slaughter of several hundred men, women and children in the Uzbekistan city of Andijan

Nargiza Shakirova, wife of slain Said Shakirov, holds her son Ayatolla during funerals in Uzbekistan’s eastern town of Andizhan May 15, 2005. The families of some of the estimated 500 people killed by Uzbek troops in Andizhan buried their dead on Sunday to the sound of continued sniper fire in the eastern town. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

This brutal massacre was carried out by the regime of President Islam Karimov, one of the Bush administration’s closest allies in Central Asia. His military forces that executed the mass killings have been trained, supplied and aided by the Pentagon.

Citing the testimony of a doctor in the city, the Associated Press reported that 500 bodies have been laid out in front of a local school waiting to be identified by relatives. Another 2,000 people were wounded when the troops opened fire on a mass demonstration in the city’s central square Friday, the doctor reported.

“They shot at us like rabbits,” a teenage boy told the Reuters news agency, recounting the carnage that took place when heavily armed troops and armored cars turned their guns on the demonstration of over 3,000.

Reports from the city told of streets still soaked with blood and pavement littered with corpses, body parts and blood-soaked clothing.

According to one witness quoted by Reuters, soldiers were ordered to execute the wounded.

“Those wounded who tried to get away were finished with single shots from a Kalashnikov rifle,” said a businessman. “Three or four soldiers were assigned to killing the wounded.”

Others told of trucks being driven into the square and loaded full of bodies to be carted off. Literally tons of corpses were removed from the city center in this fashion.

In the wake of the massacre, thousands of Uzbeks have fled across the border into neighboring Kyrgyzstan in an attempt to escape the repression.

While the Bush administration has over the past year fulminated against established regimes in Georgia and Ukraine—promoting the “Rose Revolution” in the first country and the “Orange Revolution” in the second—Washington has remained remarkably circumspect as the streets of Andijan turned red with blood.

Neither the White House nor the State Department have issued statements clearly denouncing the carnage—though they vigorously condemned election irregularities in Georgia and Ukraine, where no such killings took place. Instead, the White House spokesman made a mealy-mouthed plea for “restraint” on both sides, even as the Uzbekistan regime was gathering the corpses from the Andijan square.

The demonstrators in Andijan took to the streets to demand jobs and an end to political repression. Yet the US administration evinced no sympathy for their struggle. Instead, it blamed them for the violence and voiced concern that the political prisoners liberated from the Andijan jail included “terrorists.”

Washington’s concern for “democracy” and the struggle against “tyranny” in the former Soviet Union and internationally extends only to those countries where it seeks to overturn existing regimes and impose new ones committed to US geopolitical aims. In Uzbekistan, it already has a client state. Karimov may be a murderous dictator, the Bush administration reasons, but he’s ours.

This is a regime that imprisons over 6,000 political dissidents, systematically uses torture and has been known to boil its opponents alive. It is among the most corrupt dictatorships on the face of the planet.

Yet from even before the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, it has enjoyed the closest ties with the United States government.

After 9/11, the US Congress granted Karimov’s regime $25 million in loans to buy US weapons and equipment, anther $40.5 million in economic and law enforcement aid and $18 million in “anti-terrorism funding.” This aid has increased steadily every year since.

By 2003, the aid had grown to $86 million. The following year, the State Department announced a largely symbolic cut of $18 million based on a 2002 Congressional decision tying aid to Uzbekistan’s human rights record and political reforms. The Karimov regime was non-plussed, and officials said that the funding would find its way to the country in any case on a piecemeal basis.

Included in the US aid programs has been the training of Uzbek officers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and the provision of military trucks. The results could be seen in Friday’s massacre and the subsequent disposal of the bodies.

Visiting Uzbekistan last year, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised the Karimov regime for its “stalwart, steadfast support in our efforts against terrorism” and credited it with playing a major role in “our effort to liberate the people of Afghanistan.”

One might well ask what kind of “liberation” can come from a regime that tortures and murders its own people. As for its collaboration in the “efforts against terrorism,” Karimov’s police state has consistently invoked such efforts as the pretext for its brutal repression of any and all manifestations of political opposition.

The services this odious regime provides Washington include the use of a large US military base at Karshi-Khanabad, near the long border with Afghanistan, where some 1,500 American military personnel are stationed, providing a supply route to Afghanistan and a means of projecting US military force into the rest of Central Asia and its influence over the oil-rich Caspian Basin.

At the same time, the Uzbek regime’s hated intelligence service collaborates with the Pentagon and the CIA. While formally lamenting Uzbekistan’s atrocious human rights record, Washington is regularly “rendering” people detained in the so-called global war on terrorism to the country, precisely because it knows that they will be tortured there.

Testifying before a US House of Representatives committee hearing last June, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy Mira Ricardel praised the Uzbek regime, touting “impressive reforms under way in Uzbekistan’s armed forces.”

She went on to declare Karimov’s police state “a model for other countries in the region” and “a valued partner and friend of the United States.”

muslimuzbekistan.com

Uzbekistan massacre photos

Go HERE to view approximately 6 pages of photos taken of the masscre in Uzbekistan. I had to use Internet Explorer to get the page to load.

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online.ie: news

Blair to meet Northern Ireland leaders

online.ie
2005-05-16 18:10:03+01

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to meet the Rev Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams later this week to assess the chances of a return to devolution in Northern Ireland, it emerged tonight.

Mr Blair’s talks with Mr Adams in Downing Street on Thursday will be his first with the Sinn Féin leader since the IRA embarked on an internal debate about abandoning armed struggle for purely democratic means.

Talks have, however, been going on between the British Government and Sinn Féin officials since Mr Blair told the West Belfast MP at their last meeting in Chequers in January there could be no inclusive politics in Northern Ireland while the IRA remained active.

Following British election successes which saw Sinn Féin gain one MP and 18 council seats in Northern Ireland, Mr Adams said the vote had been an endorsement of his appeal to the Provisionals to consider embracing the democratic alternative.

At the launch of his party’s campaign against the EU Constitution in Dublin the West Belfast MP said: “In this the final phase of Tony Blair’s premiership, we have a very unique opportunity to sort out all of these matters. But it needs a collective push to move it forward.

“Mr Blair has been very good on some of these core issues.

“It is my view that he wants to bed them down. He wants it to be part of his legacy and therefore there is a relatively limited time, the time to bed it down is now.”

Democratic Unionist sources said the party would press the British Prime Minister on Thursday not to wait for republicans to embrace democracy but to move quickly instead to form a devolved government at Stormont which freezes Sinn Féin out of ministerial posts.

But they will also insist Mr Blair should acknowledge their electoral successes by granting them House of Lords seats for the first time.

“It is quite ridiculous that you have a situation where the DUP has nine MPs now and no-one in the Lords while the UUP has been reduced to just one MP with eight peers.”

“This is an issue the party feels very strongly about and the (British) government will have to recognise the strength of our mandate.”

In the British general election the DUP gained three seats from the rival Ulster Unionists, including David Trimble’s, which also lost a seat to the nationalist SDLP.

The DUP would like to form a voluntary coalition with Mark Durkan’s SDLP which excludes Sinn Féin.

However Mr Durkan, who comfortably held on to his party’s Westminster seat in Foyle at the election, has refused to entertain any changes to the system of devolved government which includes Sinn Féin.

During a speech to Derry’s Chamber of Commerce in the heart of Mr Durkan’s constituency, DUP negotiator Jeffrey Donaldson rebuked the SDLP leader.

“The SDLP criticise the DUP on the issue of power sharing but it is in fact they who refuse our offer to share power,” the Lagan valley MP said.

“When will Mark Durkan step out from the shadows of Sinn Féin and stop giving terrorists a veto?”

This Thursday’s meetings will follow the visit to Belfast this week of US President George W Bush’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss.

New Northern Ireland and Welsh Secretary Peter Hain is due to meet Ambassador Reiss in London.

He will hold his first talks since taking over at Stormont with Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Republic’s Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern in Dublin.

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin launch EU referendum campaign

Published: 16 May, 2005

Speaking today Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP called on Irish voters to reject the proposed EU Constitution in forthcoming referenda, which are expected to take place north and south in 2005 and 2006. He called on the Taoiseach to publish the government’s proposals immediately and to put the referendum to the people this Autumn.

Mr. Adams said:

“On Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May, Sinn Féin will be hosting a major conference with speakers from across Europe on the consequences of the proposed EU Constitution. We believe that the proposed EU Constitution is not in the interests of the people of Ireland

“Sinn Féin will be vigorously opposing the Constitution in the two referenda which are expected to take place in the south in 2005 and in the north in 2006. This is the first time that people in the north will have a say. We urge all sections of public opinion, particularly those in trade unions, community organisations, human rights groups as well as supporters of other political parties to join with us in opposing this Constitution.

“I am calling on the government to publish their referendum proposals as quickly as possible and to put the referendum to the people this Autumn. The Taoiseach has said that he wants a ‘focused, balanced and serious debate based on the facts’. He now needs to set out how that debate will take place. People have different views regarding the future direction of the EU and that needs to be reflected and the serious inadequacies of the Referendum Commission need to be immediately addressed. I am also calling on the government to respect the decision of the electorate.

“The debate on the EU Constitution is not between pro and anti Europeans. It is a debate over different visions for the future of the EU.

“Sinn Féin wants to see an EU that promotes sustainable growth, environmental protection, social and economic equality, human rights and global justice. Since last years EU elections Sinn Féin has been to the forefront of the ongoing campaigns for an alternative vision of the EU which is democratic, accountable and which operates in the interests of ordinary people.‰ENDS

BreakingNews.ie

Call to clean up ‘Ireland’s dirtiest town’

16/05/2005 - 15:35:36

Navan’s reputation as Ireland’s dirtiest town could deter business investment and tourism and detract from quality of life unless an effort is made to clean it up, it was claimed today.

Navan in Co Meath came bottom of a survey of 57 towns across the country carried out for the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) by An Taisce.

Labour Party representative for Meath, councillor Dominic Hannigan, said that a co-ordinated response was needed from local people, authorities and businesses to make sure it shed the label quickly.

The accolade was one that the town definitely did not want, he said.

“However it should jolt the entire local population, the County Council, and local businesses into thinking more about how we dispose of our rubbish to ensure the whole community does not suffer,” Mr Hannigan said.

“I am particularly concerned at the detrimental effect this survey may have on efforts to market the entire county of Meath as a tourist destination.

“We are currently in the middle of a major publicity campaign in Ireland and abroad to market Newgrange as a major tourist site.

“All this could be jeopardised if word gets out that the major town in the area has the reputation of being the dirtiest place in the country,” he said.

Carlow was the cleanest town in Ireland in the survey, which is the first round of the 2005 IBAL Anti Litter League, supported by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

It was one of 12 towns with populations of more than 6,000 that were awarded “litter free status”, which means they are clean by European norms.

At the bottom end of the table 14 places surveyed were “litter blackspots” while a further nine were deemed to have a serious litter problem.

Litter levels worsened by 7%, but cities made progress, with Dublin City Centre recording its best result since being included in the league.

The survey for IBAL found that a quarter of all industrial estates reviewed were “litter blackspots” and were three times as likely as other sites to be so.

In addition, more than half of recycling centres were heavily littered, which IBAL said was as a result of resistance to “pay by weight” charges.

IBAL chairman Tom Cavanagh warned that Ireland’s “landscapes of litter” could be putting off potential investors in the country.

“We’re showing not our best face, but a dirty face, to the commercial interests which are vital to our economy.

“High-tech overseas investors expect industrial estates to be pristine, not focal points for widespread litter and dumping,” Dr Cavanagh said.

Reuters.co.uk

“Just tell me why” grieving father asks IRA bomber

Mon May 16, 2005 09:35 AM BST
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By Paul Majendie

ENNISKILLEN (Reuters) - After 25 years of grieving, John Maxwell dearly wants to ask the IRA bomber who killed his teenage son a simple question: “why did you do it?”

Only when he knows the answer can he bury the ghosts from one of the most notorious Irish Republican Army attacks in its 30-year fight to oust Britain from Northern Ireland.

Maxwell’s 15-year-old son Paul was the boat-boy for Queen Elizabeth’s cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten. Both were killed in 1979 when an IRA bomb exploded on board shortly after they set sail from the fishing village of Mullaghmore in County Sligo, northwest Ireland.

Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday accord that brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, hardline prisoners were released early from jail. Among them was Thomas McMahon, the bomber who killed Maxwell’s son and three others.

“I would like to meet him. If there is any sign that we share a common humanity, it would be worth it,” the retired schoolteacher told Reuters in an interview about the trauma that scarred his life.

“If he could come halfway towards seeing my point of view, it would be worthwhile,” Maxwell said of McMahon, who was released in 1998 and now lives across the border in the Irish Republic.

In the province where more than 3,600 people were killed in three decades of sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics, Maxwell brings those grim statistics poignantly alive.

Now 68, white-haired and bearded, he admits it took him 18 years to pluck up the courage to see a psychotherapist and relive that nightmare day when his son ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It was unfinished business. I was holding it all in. I cried for two hours. That was a big turning point for me,” he said.

“I got out the cine films of Paul as a boy which I had not been able to watch for 18 years. That brought him alive.”

When the IRA killed his son, Maxwell stood by the shore sobbing in anguish and asking “What have they done to him? He is an Irishman. Is this the sort of Ireland you want?”

But at least he has found a fitting epitaph for Paul.

John Maxwell was the driving force behind the first integrated school of Protestants and Catholics in Enniskillen, the picturesque border town which gained worldwide renown as a symbol of forgiveness after a 1987 massacre by the IRA at a war memorial.

Maxwell, who lives down a country lane outside Enniskillen in a flower-bedecked house looking out over Lough Erne, vividly recalled that day: “As soon as I heard it, I knew it was a bomb.

“That was the catalyst for the school project for me. I felt it was time I did something. I don’t feel so impotent now.”

But he did confess to despondency over the triumph of hardliners in this month’s elections.

Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party of Protestant preacher Ian Paisley both made gains at the expense of moderates.

“The extremists have come to the fore. The middle ground has gone completely,” he said of the province currently ruled direct from London.

Talks on reviving an assembly in which Protestants and Catholics ran the province’s affairs broke down at the end of last year and show little sign of being revived.

“You have to trust and make a leap of faith,” said Maxwell. “The trouble is that the whole thing is motivated by fear of the other side taking the upper hand.”

BreakingNews.ie

Sinn Féin poll success ‘mandate for end of IRA’

16/05/2005 - 16:04:48

Sinn Féin’s success in the Westminster and local elections in Northern Ireland is a mandate for the IRA to disband, party leader Gerry Adams said today.

Mr Adams also added that he would like to see closure on the peace process impasse during British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s remaining term in office.

Speaking in Dublin, Mr Adams said that his April 6 appeal to the IRA to embrace politics to achieve its aim was endorsed by the Sinn Féin tally of five MPs and 126 district council seats.

“My call and my appeal was a public one and therefore I do interpret Sinn Féin’s result as an endorsement of that call.

“In this the final phase of Tony Blair’s premiership, we have a very unique opportunity to sort out all of these matters. But it needs a collective push to move it forward.

“Mr Blair has been very good on some of these core issues. It is my view that he wants to bed them down. He wants it to be part of his legacy and therefore there is a relatively limited time, the time to bed it down is now.”

Belfast Telegraph

New ID cards storm on way
Hain claims public support to be ‘overwhelming’

By Brian Walker
16 May 2005

A new Identity Cards Bill presents major headaches for Northern Ireland, even though Secretary of State Peter Hain vowed yesterday on the David Frost programme that it will pass the Commons because of “overwhelming” public support.

The Bill is among the most controversial in the long list of 40 Bills being presented in the Queen’s Speech tomorrow for the forthcoming, mammoth 18-month long session of Parliament at the start of Tony Blair’s third and final term.

Mr Hain said the Government could look again at some of the details to ensure they got through Parliament. Earlier plans to introduce non-jury trials in international terrorist cases have been dropped.

Phasing in an ID card scheme would begin by 2007-08 and could be made compulsory by 2010.

Each card would contain a person’s encoded “biometric,” or personal physical details. At a cost of around £3bn, ID cards are intended to deter illegal immigration and identity fraud and allow the police to track terrorist suspects more easily. Failure to register is likely to become a criminal offence.

Sinn Fein and the SDLP are critical of the scheme.

Compliance could be a problem, even though people will not have to produce their ID on demand and failure to carry one would not be an offence. Cards would first be phased in when passports or driving licences are up for renewal.

Northern Ireland people wishing to describe themselves as Irish citizens would have to register as foreign nationals, unless the Republic were to introduce ID cards at the same time and the UK Government were to accord it equal recognition.

But a British ID card scheme automatically puts pressure on the Republic to bring in a similar scheme, where political opinion is likewise divided.

For foreign immigrants, the Common Travel Area applying throughout these islands presents a loophole via the Republic for entry into the UK, because of the absence of a policed border.

Writing in the Irish Times in December 2003, the UK’s then Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes assured Irish citizens that their freedom of movement would not be affected. Irish citizens would be treated exactly the same as British citizens, she said.

“There is no question of the UK springing this on anyone,” she added. “If Ireland were eventually to introduce a similar scheme, then we would want to ensure we co-operate closely with it.”

The UK, Ireland and Denmark are the only EU countries without ID cards.

The Bill, squeezed out at the end of last session to make time for controversial anti-terrorist laws to be pushed through, met with opposition on the details and in principle from around 30 Labour MPs as well as the main opposition parties.

Two years ago, opinion surveys in Great Britain showed about 80% approved ID cards. A consultation exercise in the province gave 76% approval. Mr Hain said it “remained to be seen” whether the Lib Dems and Tories would go with the flow of opinion.

Guardian

Do you know this man? Mystery of the silent, talented piano player who lives for his music

His rendition of Swan Lake only clue to identity of stranger found soaked by the sea

Steven Morris
Monday May 16, 2005
The Guardian

The mystery ‘piano man’ who has refused to speak since he was found wandering on a windswept road on the Isle of Sheppey, and, right, his sketch that led to hospital staff finding him a piano on which he plays melancholy music. Photograph: Mike Gunnill

Anyone who has information that might help to identify the “piano man” should email steven.morris@guardian.co.uk

>>>READ

Belfast Telegraph

H Block is granted listed status

By David Gordon
16 May 2005

(This photo is from another story about the H-Blocks)

A notorious H-Block within the former Maze Prison has been granted listed building protection - with a Government department citing the hunger strikes and murder of LVF leader Billy Wright as reasons for its historical significance.

H Block Six is now officially categorised as a structure with “special architectural or historic interest” by the DoE’s Environment and Heritage Service.

The prison hospital where IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands died has also been listed, along with an administration block, chapel, perimeter walls and watch towers within the old jail site.

The anticipated decision was recently confirmed by the DoE to Lisburn City Council and means demolition of the buildings would be an illegal act.

It was criticised today by the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, but welcomed by former hunger striker Dr Laurence McKeown who works for the ex-prisoner support organisation Coiste.

In its official evaluation on H Block Six, the Department of the Environment states: “The building has heightened historical interest due to its association with the ‘Dirty’ protest, hunger strikes, the 1983 escape and the murder of Billy Wright.”

Republicans had called for the listing of the structures, as part of a campaign for a prison museum.

The cross-party consultation panel set up to advise the Government on uses for the 360-acre Maze lands recommended the retention of part of the jail site within a new International Centre for Conflict Transformation.

It was argued from unionist quarters that this did not represent an endorsement of the museum proposal.

The consultation panel also backed a range of other uses for the massive Maze site, including a 30,000 seater sports stadium and a centre for rural excellence.

The DoE’s evaluation states that H Block Six “represents a significant development in the construction history of British penal architecture”.

It also points to the hunger strike connections of the jail hospital and says the structure represents an “essential element” of the prison.

Mr Donaldson today said: “It would be our preference that all of these buildings would eventually be removed from the Maze Prison site.

“Whilst these buildings may have been listed, we will vigorously oppose any move to create a shrine or museum to commemorate the hunger strikers, or highlight past terrorist activity.”

Mr McKeown, however, said: “The prison has a special significance to republicans but this is not about turning it into a shrine.”

Irelandclick.com

Doves of peace released at march

click to view

“Never since the Thatcher regime have I witnessed such an onslaught from the establishment” – Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly

Hundreds of republicans young and old gathered in Dunville Park to mark the 24th anniversary of the hunger strikers yesterday, [15th] and hear Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly lambast the Irish government for their continued attempts to criminalise the movement in 2005.

The theme for the march from Beechmount Avenue was taken from the now immortalised words of hunger striker Bobby Sands who said, “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” Reflecting the spirit of the hunger strikers’ words, dozens of children, some as young as four years old, took part in the commemorative march carrying placards in honour of each of the twelve hunger strikers.

The Felons Pipers and Eire Nua flute band added to the carnival atmosphere, as did the tunes of well-known republican songs such as ‘H Block’ sung by Derry councillor Francie Brolly on stage.

There was a serious message however as Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly took to the stage and spoke passionately about previous sacrifices and the continued struggle against present accusations of crimalisation levelled against republicans.

He said, “Never since the Thatcher regime have I witnessed such on onslaught from the establishment attempting to criminalise our republican past and present.

“The difference this time is that the front-runners in this opportunistic propaganda drive has included leading members of the SDLP as well as Irish government ministers such as Michael McDowell and Dermot and Bertie Ahern.
“At the core of this are electoral interests in the 26 Counties. “In pursuit of that the interests of the peace process have been set aside, the interests of national and democratic rights and the rights of citizens have been set aside.”

The Sinn Féin man said it was a testament to the bravery and importance of the hunger strikers that on Bobby Sands’ anniversary the electorate had spoken and enhanced Sinn Féin’s mandate making them stronger for the future.
“Despite the months of abuse and poisonous invective from sections of the media and our political opponents Sinn Féin have emerged from the recent elections stronger. Sinn Féin now has 2 MEPs, 5 TDs, 5MPs, 24 MLAs, one member of Udaras na Gaeltachta and 252 councillors across Ireland.

“To me the 1981 Hunger Strike was one of the greatest historical events of the last century, which impacted far beyond these shores.”

He added, “But more importantly the Hunger Strike epitomises the ability of the defenceless to withstand the military and political might of colonial governments and occupying armies.

“The objectives for which they gave their young lives remain the objectives we as republicans will continue to struggle for until we are successful,” he concluded.

Twelve children released doves at the event, symbolic said Belfast councillor Tom Hartley, of representing the spirit of freedom and of the joyous event.

One dove was released to mark the death of the ten H-Block hunger strikers and the deaths of Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who died on hunger strike in England.

“Each dove represents a spirit of a hunger striker. A spirit that kept us going during those very dark days,” said Cllr Hartley.

“The theme today embraces the idea that children will have a brighter future than what past generations faced.

“Today we are surrounded here with a generation that will laugh and feel the benefit of a struggle that will give them a brighter future.”

Clonard resident Jim McVeigh accompanied by his two sons Tomas (4) and Finton (7) echoed Councillor Hartley’s words.

“It’s an important time of the year for republicans. It’s nice to see all the kids here and keep the memory of Bobby and his comrades alive.

“It’s a good time to introduce the kids to what the hunger strikers did for our people,” he said.

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

Irelandclick.com

CRJI doubt if ASBOs are answer

Last week the Housing Executive signalled their intent to clamp down on loutish behaviour on their premises with the first use of an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).

David O’Neill, a 22-year-old was told to keep his hi-fi turned down and to stop throwing parties in his South Belfast flat, but nuisances in the West of the city could soon be next to face having an ASBO slapped on them.

Within days a spokesperson for the Housing Executive indicated that they intend to use the measure in West Belfast.

“The Housing Executive can confirm that a number of complaints about anti-social behaviour in West Belfast have been received and are currently being investigated.

“The Housing Executive is committed to tackling the problem of anti-social behaviour and all complaints received will be thoroughly investigated and the appropriate action taken.”

The anti-social behaviour orders are aimed at those aged over 10 and can be applied for by police, councils and the Housing Executive. They were introduced in the North of Ireland last August, with the first being granted last month restricting the movements of a Coleraine teenager.

David O’Neill’s interim ASBO granted last week however is the first time the NIHE have flexed this particular muscle and it remains to be seen how effective the measure will be. Community Restorative Justice Ireland believe that it will not remedy the problems of people who face anti-social behaviour on a daily and nightly basis. “There are mixed views on ASBOs in the community,” said CRJI spokesperson Jim Auld, “but from our perspective, we are totally opposed to them. There is a real assumption by people in general that they work, but all the evidence so far is that they don’t.

“Our point is that there are enough powers invested in statutory agencies to tackle the problem if they exercise their responsibilities, so there is no need for ASBOs. The Housing Executive can evict people if they are in breach of their tenancy agreements, the police can arrest people who act illegally and the council have powers to enforce restrictions on people who make excessive noise. All these mechanisms are in place but the agencies are not using them and I don’t know why.”

Jim is also concerned that the ASBO will not help the person who receives it. “After you receive an ASBO the Housing Executive move you from the area you are residing in. It displaces the problem, it does not deal with it.
“Those who are getting ASBOs are the most vulnerable in society and they live a chaotic lifestyle. It will be impossible for some of those with ASBOs to comply with them so they are setting people up to fail.”

CRJI say that the money used to enforce ASBOs should be channelled into the communities, to help fund restorative justice projects. “Last year we dealt with nearly 1,700 cases involving nearly 6,000 people and 93 per cent of people who took part in the process were happy with the outcome and have not reoffended. That is the positive message that there is an alternative open to the community.”

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

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Daily Ireland publisher writes to Peter Hain

Daily Ireland publisher Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has written to Secretary of State Peter Hain to ask why £100,000 can be spent to create a single job at Bombardier while the Government puts 30 jobs at Daily Ireland at risk by banning public ads from its pages.

“I wish Shorts well and they are totally entitled to their support,” said Máirtin Ó Muilleoir. “But it’s worth noting that not only was Daily Ireland in the heart of West Belfast denied government aid by Invest NI but now it’s the only daily in which the government refuses to advertise. That discriminatory policy is being challenged at the Equality Commission but if it isn’t lifted more jobs will be lost.

“An advertisement in Daily Ireland is sold as part of our newspaper group, guaranteeing over 40,000 sales per ad, a rate comparable or better than our main rivals.

“The government has no policy on advertising, no criteria on advertising and is making up conditions on the hoof to deny Daily Ireland ads because it reflects a republican point of view even though our audited figures show us selling over 10,000 copies a day.

“That’s the type of attitude which wasn’t tolerated by nationalists in employment matters and it won’t be tolerated now.

“I have asked Peter Hain to meet with me to bring the discriminators to book and to save these jobs at Daily Ireland.”

Journalist:: Staff Reporter