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RTE News

Romanian seven-year-old to be repatriated

02 June 2005 21:21

A seven-year-old boy left behind in Tralee, Co Kerry, after his parents and four-year-old brother were sent back to Romania as part of a mass deportation, is being cared for by his aunt.

He is to remain with his aunt overnight, while gardaí from the Garda National Immigration Bureau prepare to repatriate him to Romania to be reunited with his family.

Gardaí have confirmed that 58 asylum seekers, all Romanian, were arrested yesterday and deported on a charter flight from Dublin Airport to Bucharest.
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There were 40 men, ten women, and eight children on board the charter flight. The deportees were arrested yesterday around the country, but mostly in Dublin.

Many were deported under the new fast track asylum process. Under these rules, applications from five countries, including Romania, are processed within three weeks of being made.

Others had been turned back on attempting to enter the country, had been refused leave to remain after going through the application process here or had withdrawn their applications for asylum.

A spokeswoman for the Tralee Refugee Support Group has said there has been a fierce reaction to the deportation.

Grainne Landers said that at around midday yesterday, the parents and four-year-old son of the family went to the local garda station to sign in, as is normal for asylum seekers facing the threat of deportation.

However, they had no idea that their deportation was going to go ahead yesterday.

Ms Landers said the three were arrested, put in a patrol car and brought to the Holy Family School in the town where their eldest son attends class. However, when they got there they found that the child had been removed from the school.

According to Ms Landers, gardaí then drove the other three members of the family to Dublin, from where they were deported last night.

Ms Landers said the family had been living in the Co Kerry town for three years. She said they were very well integrated and were popular amongst the community.

She said they had been through the application process for asylum, and had failed. She added that they were preparing an application for humanitarian leave to remain.

BreakingNews.ie

SF made most money in political donations last year

02/06/2005 - 13:47:07

Sinn Féin declared more money in political donations last year than any other party in the State, according to figures published today by the Standards in Public Office Commission.

The party declared more than €88,500 in donations for 2004, more than double the amount declared by Fianna Fáil (€43,500).

However, while the bulk of Sinn Féin’s money came from its own public representatives, most of Fianna Fáil’s came from private business.

Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Progressive Democrats declared no donations to the Standards in Public Office Commission, while the Greens declared €36,000.

Under the law, political parties can only accept a maximum of around €6,350 from individual donors in a single year and must declare all donations exceeding €5,079.

BBC

One dead after explosion at plant

Ambulances attended the scene of the blast

One man has died in a blast at a water treatment plant in County Derry.

Two others were injured in what police say was an industrial accident at Carmoney treatment works in Eglinton. A tank was blown through the roof.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known. However, there is no threat to the water supply in the city of Derry.

Eoin Doyle of the Fire and Rescue Service said firefighters in protective clothing managed to carry out a snatch rescue of an injured man at the plant.

“This was a tricky operation for our crews because there were chemicals and there had been an explosion,” he said.

A major incident was declared over fears fumes from chemicals may have escaped.

Residents in the Eglinton and Campsie area were advised to stay indoors before the area was declared safe.

Altnagelvin hospital in Derry put its major emergency plan into effect.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said two people had been taken to the hospital, but their injuries were not life threatening.

A police spokesman later said: “We are treating the cause of this explosion as accidental.”

Geoff Ennis, who works at a motor dealership just a few hundred yards from the plant, heard the explosion.

“We heard the bang and I was walking out the workshop door out to get mileage off one of the vehicles.

“I looked up in the sky and saw this huge tank. It was about 150-200 ft above the factory on the hill.

“At first, I thought it was a hot air balloon or something that had blown up, it was up at such a great height. I had a closer look and it was like a storage tank, falling to the ground then.”

It is believed there was a construction team on the site as well as several Water Service employees.

It is believed that the plant may be closed for some time and that the Water Service is making arrangements to ensure the continued supply of water to the Waterside area of Londonderry.

Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister Shaun Woodward offered his sympathy to the families of the dead and injured.

He has asked to be kept informed about the condition of the injured workers.

“Water Service is liaising closely with the Health and Safety Executive, who will conduct a full investigation into the incident,” he said.

The area’s MP, SDLP leader Mark Durkan, expressed his sympathies to the dead man’s family and praised the work of the emergency services.

“It seems that they have handled the emergency professionally and with great speed and they should be commended,” he said.

Daily Ireland

Loyalists say Dorrian suspect “in Scotland”

by Ciaran Barnes c.barnes@dailyireland.com

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One of the suspects in the Lisa Dorrian murder case has fled to Scotland, loyalist sources claimed yesterday.
Reports of the Belfast man’s flit across the Irish Sea came on the same day it was revealed that Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine had met the Dorrian family to offer the relatives information about the shop assistant’s death.
The Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando paramilitary groups, to which the PUP is linked, are said to be investigating Ms Dorrian’s disappearance.
The suspect who has reportedly fled to Scotland has strong links to the Red Hand Commando in north Belfast.
Another one of those believed to have been involved in Ms Dorrian’s death, a Loyalist Volunteer Force drug dealer from east Belfast, has claimed he was abroad at the time of the 25-year-old’s disappearance.
The UVF has alleged that the man is a police informer. He has not yet been questioned and is reported to have told friends he has airline tickets to prove he was out of the country at the time.
Detectives have questioned three people so far in the hunt for Ms Dorrian’s killers. All three have been released without charge.
One of those questioned is a teenager who was with Ms Dorrian minutes before she disappeared.
The PSNI has said it believes that Ms Dorrian was murdered over a loyalist drug debt.
In a BBC documentary detailing the days leading up to Ms Dorrian’s death, her family admitted she had a drug problem.
The family appealed yesterday for information that could lead to the return of her body.
The shop assistant’s uncle, Terry Dorrian, said the family would meet anyone who could help them find his niece’s body.
He said that, in his meetings with the PUP leader, David Ervine had stressed that his involvement in trying to help the family was humanitarian and that he had no political agenda.
Mr Dorrian said it was important for the wider community that his niece’s body be recovered.
“People should hope and pray that this is the last time a young girl’s life is taken for no reason,” he added.
Mr Ervine told Daily Ireland that he would meet with the Dorrians again if he had any fresh information.
Earlier this month, Mr Ervine said he feared that loyalists might take the law into their own hands unless the police caught Lisa Dorrian’s killers.
The family is offering a reward of £10,000 (14,800 Euro) for information leading to the recovery of Lisa’s body, but there has been no progress so far.

Irelandclick.com

Caught in the crossfire

Residents of a West Belfast street say they are becoming increasingly alarmed by a bitter rivalry between local children which has already resulted in injury and damage to property of local residents.

A number of homes in the Westrock Grove area have been caught in the crossfire between rival gangs from the Beechmount and Whiterock areas who converge on the area to throw stones and bottles and hurl abuse at each other. Some of the rioters are young as four years-of-age, say locals.

Resident and former youth worker Anthony Parker says he is disgusted by the behaviour and is at his wits end trying to combat the problem.

“These kids come up the hill from Beechmount and over from Whiterock and throw stones and bottles and anything they can find at each other and our homes are bearing the brunt of this,” said Anthony.

“One resident of this street has had to board up her windows and her glass patio doors because they were destroyed by stones being thrown, another resident had all her windows broken and got hit in the mouth by a brick. This has to stop, enough is enough,” he added.

“There has always been a rivalry between local children. I’ll even admit doing this myself when I was younger, but it was just fun then, it was playful and we had plenty of room to run away, because this was just all open fields years ago. We certainly wouldn’t have been destroying people’s homes and then these kids have the cheek to stand and defy adults, the language they use is just foul.”

The violence, which has been going on for the past eight nights according to Anthony, has been an ongoing problem for years, but has escalated now as the days lengthen.

Ironically, Westrock Grove, which is now awash with bricks, bottles and broken glass, was voted Best Kept Street in 1989, but given recent events, say residents, the street has become a nightmare to live in and requires urgent attention from the Housing Executive to curb the tide of teenagers who are entering the area through broken fences and unsecured pathways.

“This area has in recent years been terrorised by glue-sniffers, joyriders and wee thugs, and that’s bad enough, but this is just getting out of hand and the parents of these young children should make sure they are safely at home, not terrorising this area.”

A spokesperson for the Housing Executive told the Andersonstown News that no complaints about a broken fence at Westrock Grove have been received by the Housing Executive, but added: “In light of the information received from the Andersonstown News the Housing Executive is making arrangements to inspect the fence and carry out any necessary repairs.”

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

Belfast Telegraph

Bloody Sunday rifle found in Africa
Collins’ claims spark call for inquiry

By Brian Hutton
02 June 2005

Shocking claims by former Army leader Tim Collins that his troops recovered a rifle in Africa that had been used on Bloody Sunday but was declared destroyed by the Ministry of Defence a year earlier, drew calls today for a full investigation of the matter.

John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was one of the 13 civilians shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day, was extremely startled to learn of the revelations when contacted by the Belfast Telegraph.

Massive questions have been raised about the Ministry of Defence’s participation in the Saville Inquiry in light of the claims, according to Mr Kelly.

In his just published book, Rules of Engagement, Belfast-born Colonel Collins tells how his troops recovered the rifle from a terrorist group in Sierra Leone in September 2000.

The SLR was one of two weapons the Army “deactivated as souvenirs” of their ambush operation.

In a footnote to the incident he says: “The rifles were old British Army self-loading rifles.

“It was only when they were back to the UK that it was discovered from the serial numbers that one of the rifles was actually an old 1 Para rifle.

“It was used on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 when 13 protesters had been shot - and it had been declared destroyed when the Saville Inquiry into the shootings had asked for it.”

The Saville Inquiry in 1999 was told that 14 rifles of the 29 originally presented to the original Widgery Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, had been destroyed, while 10 had been sold.

Colonel Collins, who was cleared of war crimes allegations two years ago, made headlines for his rousing speech to the Royal Irish Regiment before they entered into battle in Iraq in 2003.

The 44-year-old drew praise from Prince Charles and President George W Bush, who was believed to have requested a copy of the speech for the wall of the Oval Office.

John Kelly has called for the Saville Inquiry, which is currently preparing its final report, to confront the MoD about the claims.

“If this is one of the rifles used in Bloody Sunday then it is vital evidence. It could be one of the murder weapons,” he said.

“Are the MoD lying? Somebody is lying.

“If Tim Collins has proof of this then he should make himself available to the inquiry,” he said.

BreakingNews.ie

McCartney murder: Police hold two men

02/06/2005 - 07:26:34

Detectives are continuing to question two men today in connection with the murder of Robert McCartney.

Armed officers smashed down a door to seize one of the men in an early morning raid at a bedsit in Birmingham yesterday.

The house in Birmingham where one man was arrested

A second man was detained in Belfast as part of an arrest operation which relatives believe could signal a major breakthrough in the police investigation.

Mr McCartney, 33, from the Short Strand area of Belfast, was murdered by IRA men after being dragged from a city centre bar four months ago.

The two arrested come from the neighbouring Markets area but one had been staying in Birmingham for the past three weeks.

The man, 36, was wearing just his boxer shorts when police burst in to his second-floor bedsit in the Stechford area of the city.

Eyewitnesses described how he was led barefoot to a waiting police car in Victoria Road.

He was flown back to the North for questioning by a team of detectives headed by Inspector Kevin Dunwoody.

The other man, aged 49, was arrested in Belfast.

Police yesterday confirmed the two men can be held for questioning at Antrim for 72 hours.

Mr McCartney died after he was beaten and stabbed outside Magennis’s Bar in Belfast city centre on January 30.

His sister, Catherine McCartney, said she hoped the arrests would signal a major breakthrough in the investigation.

No one has yet been charged in connection with the murder, even though key suspects and several customers who were in the bar at the time have been interviewed.

Mrs McCartney said: “We obviously welcome these arrests but remain cautious.

“People have been arrested before and let out.

“Others have walked into police stations, stared at walls and said nothing.”

It is understood the man arrested in Birmingham had been staying at the rented flat in Victoria Road for just three weeks.

Senior members of the IRA in the Markets and Short Strand areas, where Mr McCartney lived with his partner and two children, are believed to have been involved in the murder, which led to the Provisionals expelling three men.

Several Sinn Féin members have also been suspended and some thrown out of the party.

BBC

Police probe after bomb attacks

Police have said they are investigating a possible racial motive for pipe bomb attacks on two homes in County Armagh.

The houses at Brooke Manor and Milltown in Ahorey are occupied by Lithuanians who work in a nearby poultry factory.

A family of four, including a ten-year- old boy were in one house. Three young men live in the other.

The devices were put through the letter boxes of the houses shortly after midnight. Minor damage was caused in the explosions, but no-one was injured.

The area was cordoned off while Army technical officers examined the scene. A number of items were taken away.

Police have appealed for information.

RTE

Dutch voters reject EU Constitution

01 June 2005 23:00

Dutch voters have overwhelmingly rejected the EU Constitution in a national referendum.

Provisional final results showed 61.6% of voters in the Netherlands rejected the treaty, with only 38.4% in favour. Turnout was reported to be 62.4%.

Unlike the French referendum, the Dutch vote was non-binding but the main parties said they would follow the will of the people if the turnout exceeded 30%.
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Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, said he was ‘disappointed’ by the result but promised to honour the outcome.

The result deepens the crisis in the bloc further following the rejection of the constitution in France.

The rejection of the charter by the Netherlands - one of the six countries that founded the bloc in the 1950s - could deliver a fatal blow to the treaty.

It also casts doubt on the EU’s hopes for a more muscular foreign policy and its plans to expand further to the Western Balkans, Turkey and Ukraine.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, the European Union President, said ratification of the constitution must continue in other countries despite rejection by Dutch and French voters.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is to discuss the matter when he meets Mr Juncker and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany tomorrow.

Reacting to the result, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso admitted the Dutch rejection heralded difficult times ahead for the EU.

The Dutch ‘No’ campaign was an unlikely coalition of right-wing and far left groups - each of which had different reasons for opposing the constitution.

Some talked of a loss of Dutch identity, anger over inflation thought to be brought on by the euro and opposition to Turkey’s application to join the EU.

‘Yes’ campaigners argued that the constitution set out clearly the limits of what Brussels should do and strengthens Europe’s role in a world dominated by the US and the rising strength of India and China.