SAOIRSE32

Examiner

Verbal terrorist Ian Paisley never seems to be out of breath politically

By Terry Prone
20/06/05

GAZELLE A asks gazelle B why gazelle B gets up so early in the morning and starts to do stretches and warm-up exercises.

“I do it because there’s a tiger in the area,” gazelle B says.

“But you couldn’t outrun a tiger, no matter how fit you are,” gazelle A points out.

“I don’t have to outrun the tiger, gazelle B responds. “All I have to do is outrun you.”

Put David Trimble in place as gazelle A and Ian Paisley as gazelle B and you get the drift. David Trimble made courageous attempts at visionary leadership and got eaten by the tiger.

What’s left of him, held together by the Nobel Prize, is headed for academia and the lecture tour circuit, where his peculiar mixture of shyness and arrogance will go down a treat.

Meanwhile, gazelle B, in the person of Ian Paisley, is preening his elder self, the tiger not having laid a tooth on him.

Paisley’s survival and latter-day success are often seen, in the Republic, as akin to stories of Japanese soldiers who emerge just in time to collect their old age pension, having spent the past 50 years stuck on remote islands believing World War II to be still ongoing.

How could any man survive and believe himself to be a success, based on half-a-century of bellowed bigotry?

Yet, according to Albert Reynolds, Dr Ian Paisley is just the man to lead change in the North. The former Taoiseach told an Irish-American audience in the US this weekend that the likely installation of Ian Paisley as First Minister in the North was not only a singular honour toward which the Unionist leader had worked all his life, but an opportunity for him to lead his party to a new, bright and peaceful future.

“A unique and historic opportunity will present itself in the next week or so, when the IRA will respond positively to Gerry Adams about their future,” Reynolds said.

The predictive tone of his comments - “will respond positively” - is significant. It doesn’t sound like an Albert speculation. It sounds like a well informed Albert prophecy. If he turns out to be right on that, Reynolds will also be right in his view that a unique opportunity is available to bring completion to the Belfast Agreement and re-establish an Assembly.

Which in turn means power-sharing. Which, according to Gerry Adams this weekend, will not be turned down by Paisley. Adams didn’t quite say that power-sharing is Paisley’s big break and that if he turned it down, he’d be long dead before another similar opportunity came along, but, shorn of the verbiage, that’s what he meant.

On the face of it, the chances of Dr Paisley leading change in the North are somewhere between slim and none. The best predictor of future behaviour is past practice, after all, and Paisley has logged a lot of flying hours on the No Surrender plane.

But to see him as simply a durable bigot is a mistake. This is a clever, charismatic, diligent, courageous bigot. More to the point, he is the most successful politician in these islands. Back when Jim Callaghan was a boy, Ian Paisley was roaring for Ulster. He has outlived a rake of Prime Ministers, from Harold Wilson to Maggie Thatcher, all the time doing his “Talk to the Red Hand” performance, consistently delaying what others see as progress but he sees as the first step over the edge of a cliff.

Other than Fidel Castro, it’s difficult to identify a political figure of such longevity. But then, other than Fidel Castro, it’s difficult to identify a political figure who has managed to withstand such an amount of international contempt while maintaining such local popularity.

ONE of the competences Paisley has, and which Castro notably lacks, is a constantly-developing competence with mass media. He established himself, in the early days of television, as that unique figure: a politician who would march out of the studio if anybody tried to mess with his mind, Jeremy Paxman-fashion and, in the process, get himself twice as much publicity as those who stayed. A verbal terrorist, he took no media prisoners even in the earliest days. Legend has it that when Bill O’Herlihy was a fearless investigative reporter for the programme that became Prime Time’s granny, one of his tougher questions to Paisley caused the Reverend Ian to respond in classic bully fashion.

“Let me smell your breath,” he ordered the reporter, implying that the latter’s courage was Dutch.

He always managed to balance this on-camera aggression with courteous, good-humoured, ironic treatment of print and radio journalists who visited him at home, where his attitude was somewhat akin to the apocryphal patient who, once seated in the reclining chair, grasps the dentist by a sensitive part of his anatomy and says: “We’re not going to hurt one another, are we?”

In contrast, Castro has never come to terms with television, even though he has a literally captive audience. Short of taking to the sea on a raft, Cubans can’t avoid his televisual marathons, which have him warbling on for five hours at a time. (Owning the network clearly serves as a disincentive when it comes to editing oneself.)

Nor is Paisley a bigot when it comes to serving his geographical constituency. As an MEP, he was as accessible to Catholics from his home area as he was to Protestants and was cheerfully willing to co-operate with that other bumptious Big Brain, Padraig Flynn.

Flynn and Paisley have a lot in common, starting with size (although Paisley has shockingly shrunk in recent days) and going on to their shared tendency to present an outsized parody of themselves as a negotiating device to distract opponents from noticing how clever, subtle and strategic the two of them are.

Which didn’t stop Paisley, in a moment of venom, from describing Flynn - to his face - as an irredentist. No disrespect to our own beloved Taoiseach, but you have to admit that, as invective goes, “irredentist” is an upgrade on “You’re only a waffler”. Referring to a political movement in Italy in the 1870s which sought the annexation of neighbouring areas into the Italian state, it means being a member of a party in any country advocating the acquisition of some region included in another country by reason of cultural, historic, ethnic, racial or other ties.

Today, Northerners see the South as having advanced while their six counties have come close to stagnation. Holding on to what you have becomes less attractive when the other guy has something better, and Paisley would want the economic and social development of the North revived, just as he would love to take its governance out of the hands of civil servants. But, above all, he would wish to end his career as First Minister of the state he loves.

To get to that point requires the completion of a major series of historic steps. Although continued obstructionism is the easiest option for the Reverend Ian, one former Taoiseach believes that isn’t the way he’ll go.

“He is the man to lead change,” Albert Reynolds says. “He is the man to deliver change for unionism.”

IOL

Irish poet Michael Davitt dies
20/06/2005 - 15:13:37

Irish poet and former RTÉ producer/director Michael Davitt has died suddenly. He was aged 55.

Mr Davitt, born in Cork in 1950, was a strong supporter of the Irish language and culture.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue today expressed his sorrow at the untimely death of Mr Davitt.

“Michael Davitt has been described as the Bob Dylan of the Irish language. He was central to the transformation of the Irish language into a form which allowed true expression of contemporary Ireland.

“The Blaskets and the Kerry Gaeltacht opened Michael’s imagination and were always at the heart
of his writings. The Irish language has lost a true champion and hero.”

Daily Ireland

McBrearty serves summons on Gardaí’s fake IRA informer

by Zoë Tunney
z.tunney@dailyireland.com

Frank McBrearty Jr, the Donegal publican at the centre of the second module of the Morris tribunal into Garda corruption, has served Adrienne McGlinchey with a summons to appear in the High Court for his action against the state.
Miss McGlinchey was the subject of the tribunal’s first module.
Mr McBrearty wants her to answer questions over alleged false statements he claims she made about him during the Carty investigation.
The Carty team was made up of gardaí assigned to investigate claims of Garda corruption in the Co Donegal division.
Adrienne’s sister Karen McGlinchey said Adrienne was on holiday and was not due back in time for the court case.
Daily Ireland has learned that a summons has already been served on Adrienne McGlinchey. The court case begins in Dublin tomorrow and is expected to last five weeks.
During the Morris tribunal, it emerged that Garda officers had used Adrienne McGlinchey as a supposed IRA informer and framed Frank McBrearty Jr for the supposed murder of the cattle dealer Richie Barron. The tribunal cleared both Frank McBrearty and Adrienne McGlinchey. The tribunal ruled that, in both cases, the Donegal gardaí had been negligent and guilty of gross misconduct.
The final leg of the lengthy legal battle sees both parties pitted against each other in the High Court.
Mr McBrearty’s solicitors have called around 60 people to give evidence at the civil action.
Miss McGlinchey is to appear in court regarding an alleged incident in which she said Frank McBrearty had paid her cash for Garda information on the death of Richie Barron. Karen McGlinchey said that she had no record of any such statement made by her sister to the Carty investigation.
Daily Ireland has obtained a copy of the Carty report, which states that, some time after Richie Barron was supposedly murdered, Adrienne McGlinchey alleged that a garda had forced her to take an envelope of documents to Mr McBrearty.
“She was told to take them to a prearranged location,” the Carty report states.
The reports says Adrienne McGlinchey opened the envelope and saw that some of the documents contained details of Richie Barron’s supposed murder.
The Carty report reads: “When she [Adrienne McGlinchey] handed over the envelope to Frank McBrearty Jr, he handed her an envelope. She later checked the envelope and it contained £4,000 [£3,400 sterling; €5,000] in cash.” Adrienne McGlinchey told the Carty team that she then handed the cash over to the garda officer who had been using her as an informer.
Mr McBrearty vehemently denies her claims. He says he wants Miss McGlinchey to say in court which garda officer made her make the statements.
“I have never met Adrienne McGlinchey. I do not know why she said it.
“I want her to come clean about it and tell us once and for all which garda made her do it,” Mr McBrearty said.

Daily Ireland

Loyalists blamed for assault on Catholic father-of-six

By Damian McCarney

Loyalist paramilitaries are believed to have been responsible for a sectarian attack on a Catholic man in the nationalist enclave of Short Strand in Belfast.
Brian McMullan was viciously attacked on Saturday morning by a gang of four men who beat him with hammers.
Mr McMullan - a father-of-six - was previously badly injured by a work-related accident in 2003.
Sinn Féin spokesperson Deborah Devenny described the attack and an apparent related abduction attempt as “sinister”.
Prior to Saturday’s incident, local people reported seeing a black BMW car cruising around the Short Strand area and acting suspiciously.
“All four men got out of the car with each of them carrying bars of some description,” said Mr McMullan.
“One of them was carrying a ratchet bar and he whacked me over the back of the head. I didn’t have much chance to defend myself as I have a bad leg.”
After failing to get Mr McMullan onto the ground, the gang made off in the BMW, travelling towards the loyalist Newtownards Road.
“I didn’t ask for this to happen. I am just an innocent Catholic and they came into my district to do this. They were out to kill me. It could have been anyone,” said Mr McMullan.
“I was just an easy target because I was on the street. I could have been lying dead in a coffin.”
Mr McMullan was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital and received five staples for cuts on his head.
A PSNI spokesperson said: “A motive for the attack has yet to be established and police are investigating all possible avenues at present.”
Devenny said the incident would heighten tensions aheading of the marching season.
“It is a recurring theme that when tensions rise over loyalist parades, so do attacks upon innocent nationalists,” she said.
“As the summer marching season is now upon us, I would call upon nationalists to remain vigilant at this time.”

Irelandclick.com

Sign of the times as cab driver victim quits job

A West Belfast taxi driver whose car was attacked by youths with bricks last Wednesday says he is now out of a job because he refuses to display his employers’ company name on his vehicle.

Patrick O’Neill had previously asked if he could display his own ‘Taxi’ sign on the roof of his car while working, rather than a sign identifying the firm he works for.

Earlier in his career, Patrick was the victim of a stabbing and numerous sectarian threats.

His determination to carry an anonymous taxi sign, along with his PSV plates, increased two weeks ago, when his employers, Minicabs on the Suffolk Road, received a threatening phone call warning them not to send drivers to the Suffolk estate.

In a week in which two other taxi drivers were attacked in West Belfast, Patrick drove on to the Stewartstown Road, yards from the Suffolk estate, where his car was attacked by youths who threw bricks at it. They hit the side door and roof of the Ford Mondeo, causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

A teenage schoolgirl who was in the back seat was shaken but uninjured.
Patrick informed the police of the incident, but claims he was told they were unable to attend the scene because there were no police cars available at Woodbourne station.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “They’re sitting idle in cars in other parts of West Belfast, and when an actual crime happens, they can’t come minutes down the road to investigate it.”

However, the PSNI say they have no record of Patrick attending Woodbourne station and added that they would never claim to have no cars available.

Patrick said Wednesday night’s attack made him feel “extremely uneasy”, but on Thursday he was again refused permission to display a generic taxi sign on his car. He has not worked since. His wife Michelle says she doesn’t want to see him go out again with the Minicabs sign displayed, but feels very concerned about his lack of employment. “I’m a freelance merchandiser but I don’t get much work in July and August, so I’m worried about Patrick not having any work either. I don’t feel the situation is fair.”

Minicabs owner Michael O’Neill told the Andersonstown News: “This is a driver who left Apollo Cabs because he wasn’t able to display his own sign, and when he came to us at the outset he was told that he would not be able to do that here either.

“On Wednesday, I spoke for Patrick at Woodbourne PSNI station, asking why, when there is an army jeep outside Andersonstown barracks protecting workers there, can they not come to the scene of an actual crime in which one of our drivers’ cars was attacked?

“With regard to identification, though, cars from other firms were attacked last week – not just ours, and a couple of weeks ago our wheelchair-friendly cab had its window smashed on the Springfield Road, a Catholic area.

“It will happen everywhere at this time of the year, and having spent £4,000 on taxi signs, I am not prepared to let them go to waste. This is our policy that we made clear from the start. It is also done at the request of the Falls Women’s Centre, who demanded company signs on taxis in response to an increasing number of women reporting attacks by illegal drivers.”

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

Daily Ireland

Lives are at risk - Fr Troy

Daily Ireland says:

Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald admitted at the weekend that, for decades, Northern nationalists were effectively abandoned by Irish governments.
Mr FitzGerald conveniently absents himself from the long list of political leaders who turned their backs on Irish citizens in the Six Counties. After all, he is the Taoiseach who claimed to have ended the nationalist nightmare with the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.
However, 20 years later, the scenes from Ardoyne on Friday night show that the nightmare is far from over for the beleaguered nationalists of north Belfast.
On that evening, Orangemen and their supporters, who had insisted on marching through Ardoyne, were indulged in their sectarian madness by the Parades Commission and the PSNI. Batons were drawn — but only to be used on Catholic residents.
The tinderbox that is Ardoyne now waits for another dose of the Democratic Unionist Party’s favoured medicine when the Orange march passes the Ardoyne shops not once but twice on July 12.
In true Paisleyite fashion, the Orangemen and their hangers-on who are obsessed with marching past Catholic homes will refuse to speak to those same residents — in the knowledge that they will still get their way.
Such an approach plays into the hands of the small minority on the nationalist side who mar the peaceful protests against these marches.
Fr Aidan Troy, whose peacemaking credentials are beyond dispute, has appealed to the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene to resolve this dispute before lives are lost.
His urgent pleas deserve a rapid response from Dublin.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern must move to ensure that there is no repeat of Friday’s chaotic scenes when the loyal orders again take to the streets of nationalist north Belfast on July 12. He should use the full weight of his governmental office and of his position as the leader of nationalist Ireland to insist that the days of forcing Orange parades through Catholic areas at the point of PSNI batons are at an end.

RTE

Ahern queries IRA bomber’s return to prison

20 June 2005 20:03

Seán Kelly

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has asked his officials to find out why the IRA bomber Sean Kelly was returned to prison last week.

Kelly was convicted of the 1993 Shankill shop bombing that claimed 10 lives, but had been freed early under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking to journalists this afternoon, Mr Ahern said it was either a mistake or there was substantial evidence against Mr Kelly.

Mr Ahern said he wants to know ‘which it is’.

News Letter

Bosnia Expertise May Help Trace Disappeared

By Ian Starrett
Monday 20th June 2005

A man who located mass graves in Bosnia after the Balkans conflict is to be hired to help find the Disappeared victims of the IRA.

Ulster Secretary Peter Hain and Michael McDowell, the Republic’s Justice Minister, have jointly written to the Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, asking it to employ the British expert and granting funds to do so.

It is hoped that republican terrorists who hid the bodies will speak directly to the expert. Given immunity from prosecution, the hope is that they will take him to the secret graves.

An Irish government source said: “We have a specific person in mind but he will have to be employed by the commission rather than the government so that he will be bound not to hand over information to the prosecuting authorities.

“This person can speak directly to the Sinn Fein representative and also, we believe, to the people who have been involved in the burial and disposal of the bodies.” “We don’t want to raise the families’ hopes too much.

“Already, whole bogs have been dug up and there is nothing you can do if you are in the wrong place.

“Finding a mass grave is a very difficult proposition from looking for a single body in a bog 30 years after it has been put there.

“If there is new technology or untried methods which the expert feels will help, they will be used - there is no question about that.

“However, the key to this is good quality information from the republicans.”

A British source said: “The republicans have been pushing this and indicating that they would co-operate so you are right to think that something is imminent.”

i.starrett@newsletter.co.uk

Daily Ireland

EDITORIAL: Kelly’s internment provocative move

We are entitled to wonder why, if the PSNI had evidence that Seán Kelly had got himself involved again in “terrorist” activity, the force acted on that intelligence just as an IRA response was expected to Gerry Adams’ call on the IRA to take a purely peaceful path.
After this provocative move, the prospects of another positive IRA move appear more distant this morning. There are too many within the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Office to whom that is good news.
We are not allowed to see the evidence on which the PSNI has moved to suspend Seán Kelly’s licence because it is intelligence-based. Of course, the PSNI’s intelligence is not exactly top-drawer given the embarrassing ease with which sensational crimes can be pulled off in this part of the world but the quality of the intelligence is not the point. The point is that the terms of the Good Friday Agreement effectively give the PSNI the power of internment and it is no surprise that the force has wielded that power at such a delicate and sensitive time in the peace process.
For his part, new secretary of state Peter Hain’s stock with unionists will have risen considerably after a difficult week when he had reminders of his Troops Out past thrown up in his face. Handy that.
What is particularly galling about all this is that anyone who has been on the ground at any of the recent episodes of interface violence will have seen with their own eyes that Seán Kelly was using his influence as a well-known republican to calm things down.
Unionists have been up on their high horse demanding that Kelly be returned to prison after pictures of him appeared in the press at sectarian disturbances in north Belfast following the most recent Old Firm match.
The pictures, of course, proved nothing except that he was there. Were similar pictures to appear of Gerry Kelly with his hands on PSNI riot officers during Friday night’s disorder, no doubt the same siren voices would be similarly outraged. Except that TV pictures prove conclusively that Gerry Kelly was acting as a peacemaker, as was Seán Kelly on previous occasions.
It would be nice to think that sanity might prevail and a no-talk, no-walk policy be implemented straight away.
However, the Orange Order has long since cottoned on to the fact that, when it comes to a choice between upholding the rights of residents to be accorded the dignity and respect due to them or caving in to the threat of widespread Drumcree-style disorder, the batons will always be turned on the Catholics.
The actions of senior republicans in attempting to calm all concerned — not least those baton-happy PSNI members straining to get stuck into the residents — ensured that Friday night’s violence did not deepen and spread.
It is fair to ask for how long can republicans literally hold the line when, as was seen on Friday night, they are being heckled on one side by young nationalists and being threatened on the other by ninja-style PSNI men whose commanders appear to have learnt little from the history of the past 30 years. Others must help take the strain before disaster strikes.

Sinn Féin

North Belfast attack - attempted murder

Published: 20 June, 2005

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly has described as “attempted murder” an arson attack on family homes in the Throne area last night. Mr Kelly was speaking as he visited the families affected by last nights attack along with local Sinn Féin Councillor Tierna Cunningham.

Mr Kelly said:

“Throne where last nights attack took place is a mixed area with a number of mixed marriages. In what can only be described as attempted murder three homes were badly damaged with two completely destroyed and another badly damaged after an arson attack carried out by loyalists from White City, who were clearly working on the assumption that all of the residents of that area were Catholic.

“Eight children, including an eight month old baby were asleep in the houses destroyed and I would praise the actions of their parents who managed to bring them to safety. I would also praise the work of the fire service who managed to prevent the blaze spreading to even more homes and the ambulance crews who attended the scene and local residents and community leaders including Sinn Féin councillor Tierna Cunningham who were on the scene very quickly last night.

“This arson attack was the fifth sectarian attack carried out by loyalists in 48 hours in Belfast. What is needed now is clear and positive leadership from unionist and loyalist political, church and community leaders not just to call for an end to this wave of attacks but to actually do something about getting it stopped.

“Given the horrific nature of last nights incident and the massive damage caused the families affected have told me this morning that they feel that they can no longer live in that area and will now leave their homes.” ENDS

BBC

Order’s anger over parade ruling

The Orange Order said the ruling was “unacceptable”

A senior member of the Orange Order has called a decision to reroute a parade in west Belfast “unacceptable”.

Belfast Grand Master Dawson Bailie was commenting on the Parades Commission’s re-routing of the Whiterock parade.

The commission ruled marchers would not be allowed to pass through security gates at Workman Avenue, on to the Springfield Road at Saturday’s parade.

The Orange Order is due to meet the Police Ombudsman later to discuss the policing of parades.

Whiterock meeting

Members of District No 9, Whiterock, are also due to meet later to discuss the determination.

The Whiterock march is one of a series of parades by Protestant Orangemen which culminates in the biggest demonstrations on 12 July.

Last year, the commission initially barred Orangemen from walking down part of the Springfield Road during the parade.

However, the day before it was due to take place, that decision was reversed.

The parade passed off peacefully.

Individual lodge members in east Belfast have been questioned by police about alleged breaches of Parades Commission rulings.

However, the Order said the parades under investigation were legal and it is angry that the police have been pursuing inquiries.

Rev Mervyn Gibson of the Orange Order said: “The PSNI continue, even until Saturday past, to pursue individuals with a view to prosecution what they now know and have known for some time to be legal parades.

“We call on the PSNI to clarify this situation regarding pending investigations and prosecutions that are causing so much hurt and stress.”

The Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.

Each year, Orangemen commemorate Protestant Prince William of Orange’s 1690 Battle of the Boyne victory over Catholic King James II.

Irelandclick.com

Enough is enough

Once again, when it comes to a choice between the rights of residents to be consulted about contentious parades and the demand of the Orange Order to do whatever it pleases, the forces of the state are turned against defenceless Catholics.

The violence which erupted in North Belfast on Friday night was as predictable as it was depressing. In any normal society, any group demanding to do something controversial or contentious while refusing to debate the issue would be told to catch themselves on. Here, the Orange Order is repeatedly rewarded for its anti-Catholic intransigence.

For the people of Ardoyne – and too many other areas of the North – enough is enough. Plenty of people can and will blame the residents of Ardoyne for the ugly scenes which filled the TV screens over the weekend, and there is no doubt that local people played a large part in the violence. But when people’s rights are trampled underfoot, when they are hemmed into their houses to clear the street for a drunken, bigoted rabble who have travelled across the city to spit in a community’s face, and when the backs of the PSNI are turned on loyalists and their batons are turned on nationalists, then there is going to be trouble, that much is as clear as day.

It is also clear that this community is as unprotected today as it was down the dark years of the Stormont regime and through the bloody years of the Troubles. A cry has gone up for the Irish government to make its voice heard and to intervene before this summer degenerates into a maelstrom of riot and mayhem. Bertie Ahern must make it clear to the British that the Orange Order cannot be allowed to walk on the rights of Irish citizens in the North.

Irelandclick.com

PSNI accused of bully-boy tactics

Nationalist residents of the Crumlin Road who were hemmed in during the Tour of the North Orange Order parade have accused the PSNI of using unjustified violent behaviour against them.

A group of families who live at the flashpoint area of North Belfast have spoken exclusively to the Andersonstown News about their experience and they showed their badly bruised arms, backs and legs.

The group of both men and women, one of whom suffered a fractured hand when she was trying to defend herself against PSNI officers who were wielding batons, are outraged.

“They weren’t there to protect us, or make sure we weren’t intimidated. They were there to bully us and beat anyone who came near them,” one of the victims said.

A woman who lives at the interface area said when she walked into her front garden she was told by a PSNI officer to get inside.

“He told me to f*** off and go away in and shut your f***ing doors. He said the parade would only last ten minutes.”

One man, who did not wish to be identified, said he was attacked with batons by at least three PSNI officers in riot gear.

He suffered extensive bruising to his hand, wrist, elbow, back, shoulder and head. He says he was also threatened by a PSNI officer who pretended to fire a gun at his head.

“It all started when I complained about the barriers they were putting up,” the man said.

“They were using cable ties to link them and basically we were trapped in our own houses. I complained about them and they took them off. Then some other police officers came and tied them together. That’s when I pushed them over, and they fell like dominoes. That’s when they came at me with their shields.

“I never realised that a shield could be a weapon, rather than a defence mechanism, because they tilted it up so the tip rammed into my face. After that I was hit everywhere. I couldn’t see their faces because they’re covered right up to their eyes. And I couldn’t see who hit me on the back of the head. I wasn’t armed. I was wearing a t-shirt. But it didn’t matter.”

The crowd control barriers were eventually removed from houses on the Crumlin Road around 6am the following day.

It is expected that the Police Ombudsman will be contacted today (Monday) with complaints about PSNI behaviour.

It is understood that video footage taken by the local community in Ardoyne will also be made available.

Tensions in North Belfast are teetering on the edge since the Tour of the North parade controversially erupted into violence on the Crumlin Road on Friday night.

The electrically charged atmosphere on Friday finally exploded when nationalists witnessed loyalist supporters being shepherded past Catholic homes by the PSNI.

Abuse and missiles were being thrown as well as insults.

Some Catholics had their lives threatened and were told they would be burned out of their houses by loyalist supporters.

“I was called a ‘Fenian bastard’ by the stewards, and they started to call out the number of my house and said they would be back to shoot me, and burn the house down,” one of the residents said.

The night before the Tour of the North residents received a letter through their letterbox from PSNI Chief Inspector of North Belfast District Command Unit Nigel Grimshaw.

It outlined instructions for the Orange Order parade, its supporters and for the protest staged by the Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Forum.

“There shall be no conduct words, or behaviour by those taking part in the parade and the supporters of the parade, which could reasonably be perceived as intentionally sectarian, provocative, threatening, abusive, insulting or lewd.”

“That letter is just a joke,” one woman said – she also showed her bruises to the Andersonstown New.

“Their attitude and ignorance towards us stank. I’m getting really sick of this and I’m fed up with turning the other cheek. They just wanted to beat all round them, and they didn’t care who it was.

“They were completely ignoring what was going on behind them and just looking at us. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.”

Another young woman who said she was assaulted by PSNI officers with batons said officers laughed at her. Another woman was spat at by loyalist supporters.

The PSNI have arrested three people as a result of the violence and charged them with public order offences. They have been released and are due to appear in court at a later date.

A PSNI spokesperson added that CCTV footage will be examined and “those breaking the law will be reported for prosecution”.

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

Irelandclick.com

Tour of Terror
North on the edge

North Belfast remains on tenterhooks this week after rioting broke out in the wake of the contentious Tour of the North Orange march, the first major parade of the marching season.

The trouble started after the disputed return leg of the Tour of the North parade passed up the Crumlin Road through a flashpoint nationalist area at Ardoyne.

Speaking in the wake of the parade SDLP MLA for North Belfast, Alban McMaginness, said, “There have been very ugly and nasty scenes here tonight and it augurs badly for the rest of the marching season.”
Missiles were thrown as bandsmen from three Orange lodges passed the junction between Twaddell Avenue and the Crumlin Road, but the worst violence followed when the PSNI allowed loyalist supporters of the parade to pass through the nationalist area.

There were also reports of loyalist attacks on nationalist homes in the Carrick Hill area which is close to the Shankill Road.

Dozens of police Land Rovers lined the length of the Crumlin Road with nationalist residents hemmed in on the Ardoyne side and loyalist residents on the Twaddell Avenue side.

In a massive PSNI operation with squadrons of armoured Land Rovers deployed, the big question was whether the parade supporters would be permitted to walk past the nationalist Ardoyne shops.
After the three Orange Lodges passed the police vehicles moved from one side to the opposite hemming in nationalist residents fronting the Mountainview area.

The parade supporters, including women and children, were protected by PSNI vehicles. However, nationalists vented their anger and a hail of missiles rained down as the Orange supporters were escorted through the area.
Nationalist residents last night claimed they were attacked in their homes and one 40-year-old woman said the police turned their batons on her and other residents.

Water cannons were deployed at one stage and while senior republicans tried to keep youths from rioting, the police escort of the loyalist support brought nationalist anger to the boil.

Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast, Gerry Kelly, said, “What I saw was the police beating the residents.
“As well as that we saw Orange supporters and marshalls that are well known beat residents. This is a crazy decision by the Parades Commission.”
One resident claimed his family was threatened by a well-known leading member of the loyal orders.

Fr Aidan Troy, Rector of Holy Cross parish, said he was heartbroken by the night’s events and he said that a new generation were learning to riot after the Good Friday Agreement and that Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern needed to stand up and act on Orange marches through nationalist areas.
“My overwhelming feeling is sadness that this is allowed to happen again and again,” he said.
The march was the first to be affected by an extension of the law governing the behaviour of parade supporters.

It gave police wider powers to control the movement and behaviour of parade followers at flashpoint areas.

The Tour of the North is one of the first contentious parades of the summer-long marching season.

A ruling by the Parades Commission restricts nationalist protesters to the footpath outside the Ardoyne shops and loyalist supporters also face restrictions following serious rioting at a parade in the area last July.

Journalist:: Andrea McKernon
**(photos from outside source)

Belfast Telegraph

Tourism chief in migrant bust-up

By Debra Douglas
20 June 2005

A Tourism boss came under fire last night after voicing concern about the impact of a growth in migrant workers in Ulster hotels.

Tourist Board chief executive Alan Clarke suggested that a surge in people coming from eastern and central Europe and the Far East to work in Northern Ireland’s hospitality industry could harm the Irishness “brand”.

He said: “Irishness is a brand, if all the staff are from eastern Europe it dilutes the brand. That is something we are concerned about.”

Mr Clarke made the comment while calling for greater efforts to be made to encourage young people to consider the tourism and hospitality sector as a career.

Criticising the remark, the SDLP’s John Dallat said: “He should know better than most that people from eastern Europe are playing a crucial role in manning the hotel and catering industry and without them there would be chaos.”

Mr Dallat, who as an East Londonderry MLA represents a key tourism area, added: “Mr Clarke should also appreciate that these workers have added style, colour and indeed glamour to the industry he claims to speak on behalf of and are well received by customers who want to learn more about our new friends from Latvia, Lithunia, Poland, the Ukraine or wherever they come from.

“Catering in Ireland has moved on from thatched cottage images and is truly international in what food is on offer and who serves it.”

Defending Mr Clarke’s comment, a spokesman for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board said: “The comment was made during a discussion about the shortage of people going into the tourism industry here.

“Our research shows that the three main reasons people come to Northern Ireland is for the people, place and pace.

“It is the people that count here and that is not passing judgement on immigration or labour coming from outside Northern Ireland - it is more about if tourists are coming to meet people from here and they aren’t going to meet them. It is something the Northern Ireland Tourist Board needs to be aware of.”

Sinn Féin

Full Text of the Bodenstown speech June 19, 2005 by Conor Murphy MP

Published: 19 June, 2005

A chairde,

It is a great honour for me to be asked to address this commemoration today. I have been coming to Bodenstown, to the grave of Tone, since I was a teenager and I have always found it to be a place of inspiration, just as I have always found the deeds, the ideas and the words of Wolfe Tone to be inspiring to me as an Irish republican trying to make my contribution to this great historical struggle.

Tone famously said;

“From my earliest youth, I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain, as the curse of the Irish nation; and felt convinced, that, whilst it lasted, this country could never be free nor happy.”

These words have been repeated by republican speakers, many times, in this graveyard. We come here to the graveside of Wolfe Tone each year to renew our pledge to the ideals of republicanism. We come here each year to take stock and gather strength from each other and for the struggle ahead.

The denial of independence to the Irish people and the involvement of Britain in Irish affairs are at the core of the conflict and political instability in these islands and between Ireland and Britain. When at the start of the last century, in the wake of the 1916 Rising and the Tan War, the Irish people seemed about to achieve the dream of Wolfe Tone, a united Irish republic, the British government rekindled the old fires of division and sectarianism which Tone and his comrades set out to extinguish in their day. A political arrangement based on the sectarian division of Ireland and the people of Ireland was imposed upon us by force.

Let there be no doubt that the primary aim of our party is the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state. This means setting aside that failed partitionist arrangement. It needs to be replaced with a new political settlement worked out democratically and peacefully between Irish people. And it means in the interim political, social, economic and cultural change across a range of issues. It also means that the Irish government needs to assert the rights of nationalists just as the British government asserts the rights of unionists.

Green Paper on Irish Unity

Earlier this year Sinn Féin launched a campaign calling for the publication of a Green Paper on Irish unity by the Irish Government. This call was made not only because the primary objective of Sinn Féin is Irish unity but because Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the SDLP all say they are in favour of it.

If that is the case then surely the logical next step is for all of us to sit down and set out a strategy to bring this about. So to members of Fianna Fail, SDLP, Fine Gael and Labour I say, join with us in planning for a new all-Ireland republic. I call on you to stand up to those, some of whom are in the Irish government, who believe that Ireland stops at the border.

Building Political Strength

While Irish reunification is our ultimate objective we are not prepared to wait, nor should we have to, for basic rights and entitlements - for decent hospitals and schools, for decent healthcare and housing. For a fair share of the wealth which exists on our island. If the British Direct Rule ministers in the Six Counties and the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition government have one thing in common - it is that they have both failed to deliver for the people of this island. Instead, despite economic growth, we have a widening gap between rich and poor, ongoing attempts to sell off public services, overcrowding in our schools, hospital waiting lists and tax breaks for the rich.

Sinn Féin stands as a real alternative to all of that. We believe that economic growth should be used to the benefit of all of us living on the island. We want equality to be a cornerstone of Irish society. We want to see investment in health and education, rights for the disabled, an end to poverty. We want to see government priorities change from investing in the rich to investing in the people.

To achieve these modest demands. To advance our strategy for delivering freedom and independence we need to build the support for our agenda for change among as many people as possible across this island.

I want to send congratulations and thanks to all of the people who stood for our party and worked tirelessly on the ground in the Westminster and six county local elections. You knuckled down and did the work on the ground to confound our opponents and deliver what was a fantastic result.

And we should not be naive about this. The clamour of resistance to our agenda by those who seek to prevent or minimise change has and will increase in direct proportion to our successes at the ballot box.

EU Constitution

This fear of the electorate was all too apparent in the Irish government’s decision to postpone the referendum on the EU Constitution to allow for what they call a ‘period of reflection’ This of course is complete nonsense. They don?t want a proper debate because that is what happened in France and the Netherlands.

What they are really hoping is that the electorate forget that the people of France and the Netherlands came out in record numbers and voted against the Constitution. They are very naive if they think that will happen.

It is worth nothing that the French and Dutch did not rush to Brussels to apologise for their countrymen and women ‘making a terrible mistake’ as happened here in Ireland after the defeat of the Nice Treaty referendum.

I am calling on the Irish government to treat the electorate in this country with the same respect and hold the EU Constitution referendum this autumn. Let’s have the debate now. Let the people decide.

It’s time for the truth

Over the last few weeks we have seen another issue - the Morris Tribunal - at the top of the political agenda. The report made for shocking reading, detailing as it did the prejudiced investigations, lies, the destruction and falsification of records, reports and other evidence.

Everyone involved in this serious misconduct must be held to full account. That means the 19 former and serving GardaÌ named in the Morris Tribunal reports should be immediately suspended pending decision by the DPP. That means the senior management, those responsible in the Crime and Security Branch and the Garda Commissioners. That means the Attorney Generals who advised successive Governments and the three Ministers for Justice who presided over this state of affairs without taking the decisive action needed. Retirements and transfers are not only insufficient, they stink of cover-up. All involved at every level of this scandal must be relieved of duty.

Many questions about serious Garda misconduct remain unanswered in this whole affair and many questions also remain unanswered in relation to how the murder of Eddie Fullerton was investigated by some of the same Gardaí in Donegal.

When we asked that the murder of Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton be included under the remit of the Morris Tribunal, our demand was refused by the Justice Minister Michael McDowell. The corruption exposed in the Morris reports tells us the real reason why this request was refused - to prevent the truth coming out.

Last Friday the family of Eddie Fullerton were forced to come to Leinster House to once again demand that the truth about his death, about the collusion between loyalist death squads and British Intelligence and the role of the discredited Donegal GardaÌ. The only way the truth will come out is through a full independent public inquiry into Eddie Fullerton’s murder.I want to take this opportunity to once again commend Eddie?s family and indeed all of those families seeking to uncover the truth about collusion and state murder and to offer them our continuing support in the time ahead.

Collusion, state murder, the vilification of freedom fighters. These are the stock in trade of those who want to prevent change.

However the reality is that none of these attacks on the Irish republican struggle have worked. They are an echo of the failed policies of the past, which sustained conflict over decades.

Céad Bliain

This year marks the centenary of the foundation of Sinn Féin. Cead Blain events have taken place across the island and we will be holding a national rally in Dublin on Saturday 24th September. Our 100th anniversary must be a year of education, of re-popularising the republican struggle, a year of analysing and learning the lessons of a century in struggle. We also need to start preparing to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike next year and the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising which gave Michael McDowell and his pals their freedom.

As part of an overall and necessary regeneration much work has also gone on over the past year in restructuring An Phoblacht. The people who keep the paper going deserve our support and we intend to relaunch the paper in the coming months and I am appealing to the wider republican community to embrace and support this important republican project.

The Peace Process

The downward spiral of recrimination and blame in the months following the negotiations of last December threatened to destroy the enormous progress we have collectively made over recent years. The only person to show leadership in this poisoned atmosphere; the only person to stand above the personal abuse and invective was the president of Sinn Fein. On April 6, Gerry Adams made a direct appeal to the men and women volunteers of the IRA to embrace purely political and democratic activity.

The IRA leadership responded to this appeal by initiating an internal debate and we await the conclusion of those discussions. I have no intention today of commenting on this internal discussion. That is a matter for the IRA and, as Gerry Adams has repeatedly said, that organisation should be given the space to thoroughly debate these matters.

Of course it is clear that a positive response from the IRA would have an immediate and enormous impact on the political situation. It would restart the faltering peace process; remove from unionists their excuse for non-engagement and it would put enormous pressure on the DUP to come on board the peace process for the first time.

Of course the DUP may choose not to do so. Their current public position gives little cause for optimism. Their record of sectarian bigotry and intolerance, their offensive and provocative language, their association with loyalist paramilitaries and Ulster Resistance in particular, their ‘Smash Sinn Fein Campaign’ which accompanied the loyalist onslaught on our party members are all well documented. A campaign which saw Councillor Eddie Fullerton, Cllr John Davey, Cllr Bernard O?Hagan, Sheena Campbell and many other members of this party and family members and friends killed by unionist paramilitaries working hand in glove with the Crown forces.

But despite all of this Sinn Fein is prepared to do business with the DUP because they have an electoral mandate; just as they must do business with Sinn Fein because we have an electoral mandate; because we are the largest nationalist party in the north; the largest pro-Agreement party in the north and the third largest party on the island of Ireland.

At some point the DUP will have to enter the world of real politics. They will have to learn that there is no alternative to sharing power with Irish republicans; that there is no alterative to the all-Ireland architecture of the Good Friday Agreement and that their brand of politics, based on crude sectarianism, bigotry and intolerance, is a political cul-de-sac.I am firmly convinced that it is not a matter of if the DUP do a deal but when. And while the DUP comes to terms with these political realities, the two governments must push ahead with the agenda of change set out in the Agreement. They have been mandated to do so by the people of Ireland.

Marching Season

Critically, as we face into the marching season, there must be no repeat of the decisions made by the British government last year which led to near disaster in Ardoyne. We have seen on Friday night how eager the PSNI are to provoke confrontation with nationalist residents. This issue is the very immediate test which the new British Secretary of State, Peter Hain, faces in the next few weeks.

Over recent weeks it seems that the Orange Order has taken a decision to increase tensions around the marching issue this summer. The only purpose of this is to poison further an already strained political atmosphere. They have filed for parades along a number of contentious routes and continue to refuse to engage with local communities.

It is very obvious that a difficult and contentious marching season will not be helpful to efforts to make political progress, whereas a peaceful and quiet summer would have the opposite effect. The Orange Order know this to be the reality also.

The strategy which they have embarked upon has the potential to undermine efforts to see political progress and many would contend that this is the motivation behind it. At a time when the Sinn Fein leadership and others are trying to put the political process back on track and when the IRA has embarked upon a process of internal consultation it is up to the Orange Order to explain in very clear terms the motivation and purpose of their strategy.

I would also congratulate the discipline and restraint shown by nationalist and republican communities who have had to endure provocative marches through their areas year in and year out.

And in the time ahead we must see progress on demilitarisation, human rights, equality, the Irish language, policing and justice. For what is beyond any doubt is that nationalists and republicans are determined that there will never be a return to the days of second-class citizens. And the people gathered here today and the thousands of republican activists across Ireland are the best assurance that our future on this island will be very different from our divided and painful past. The growing support for Irish republicanism across the island will continue to be the dynamic for progress towards equality, justice and peace. And, ultimately, it is the best guarantee of a united, independent Irish republic.

Sinn Fein stands over and is proud of the contribution we have made to the peace process and in transforming the political situation, not just in the north, but also throughout the island of Ireland. But there is much more work to be done. That is the challenge facing all of us gathered here today.There will be difficult times ahead. There will without doubt be more difficult decisions to be taken. We must rise to the challenges before us.We must take ownership of this process and we must not allow our opponents to distract us from our task in the time ahead.

Irish republicans have demonstrated time and time again our capacity to overcome adversity and advance our struggle for freedom and justice against enormous odds. We are deadly serious about turning the vision of 1798 into a reality. It will not be easy. The immediate weeks and months ahead present enormous challenges to everyone but especially for Irish republicans. I believe we are up these challenges. I believe we can complete the work of previous generations. I believe we will build the united independent Ireland- the new Ireland - which Wolfe Tone and all of those other generations fought for.” ENDS

BreakingNews.ie

Two Catholic families homeless after suspected arson attack

20/06/2005 - 08:43:42

Two Catholic families have been forced to abandon their homes in the Whitewell area of north Belfast following a suspected loyalist arson attack early this morning.

An oil tank was set alight behind one of the houses in the mainly nationalist Old Throne Park development at around 1am.

The blaze spread to two neighbouring tanks and the flames quickly engulfed two homes and damaged several cars. Another home was also damaged according to reports.

Two families were forced to flee and one man was treated for the effects of smoke inhalation.

Local residents have blamed loyalists for the fire.

Tensions have been rising in the area for many years, with loyalists from nearby White City resenting the fact that nationalists have been moving into new homes in the locality.

Sunday Life

Real IRA target hoods

By Stephen Breen
19 June 2005

COPS last night warned that all so-called ‘hoods’ in north Armagh are on a Real IRA hit-list.

Senior security sources told Sunday Life that a new unit of the dissident terror group is set to target thugs, who engage in anti-social behaviour in republican areas of Craigavon and Lurgan.

It has also vowed to attack well-known criminal families, whom it accuses of orchestrating acts of intimidation.

And, it’s feared the new terror group, which has secured weapons and is recruiting members, could launch a campaign of violence over the marching season.

Although it has not targeted the security forces yet, it has been blamed for a number of paramilitary-style attacks.

The unit’s leaders are confident they now enjoy more support in north Armagh, because of growing disillusionment with the Provos’ peace strategy.

Sources claim the Real IRA unit could go on the offensive, if the IRA signals it is to disband.

Said a source: “The people who live in the nationalist districts of north Armagh are turning more and more to the dissidents for help.

“They realise their traditional ‘defenders’ can’t do anything, because they’re on the brink of disbanding, and the spotlight is on them.

“The people still don’t trust the police, and they seem to be more happy with paramilitary-style justice - that’s why they have turned to the dissidents.”

But, a senior IRA figure told us that dissidents offered nothing to the nationalist and republican community.

Said the source: “If the dissidents wanted to kill a policeman, they could quite easily walk down any street and pull the trigger. But they haven’t done that.

“There is very little support for groups like the Real IRA, because they have no strategy and have nothing positive to offer society.

“If they want to deal with criminals, they should look more closely at their own ranks.”

sbreen@belfast telegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

Implants spark alert
NHS is to monitor Ulster patients with device fitted

By Joe Oliver
19 June 2005

HEART patients in Ulster are living with devices that could short-circuit and fail to save them if they suffer a cardiac arrest.

The devices - made by an American company - have been implanted into patients suffering from a condition known as cardiomyopathy.

The defibrillators, which are implanted in a patient’s chest wall, provide a shock to help restore the heart to a normal rhythm, when it senses a cardiac arrest.

But, the makers have admitted that one person has already died in the US, after his device failed to fire.

The Guidant Corporation also acknowledged other cases of short-circuiting.

The faults have now been reported to the government’s Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

And the MHRA is making urgent inquiries before issuing advice to the NHS.

The Department of Health at Stormont said it was not possible to provide accurate information on the precise number of people in the province who suffer from cardiomyopathy.

The condition, a disorder of the heart muscle, includes a number of different clinical disorders, with different causes.

A spokeswoman for the department said it was known that a number of patients in Northern Ireland had cardioverter-defibrillators in place.

She added: “But we do not hold data on how many devices from a specific company have been implanted.

One source, who works for a local heart charity, told us: “There have been no reported incidents of these devices short-circuiting in the UK.

“But, obviously it will now be monitored closely although it would be important not to panic patients with the devices.”

slnews@belfast telegraph.co.uk

The Scotsman

**Now The Scotsman is also requiring registration.

UK helped train massacre army

JAMES KIRKUP
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Key points
• British soldiers helped train the Uzbekistan army last year
• Army of the central Asian republic then killed 173 civilian demontrators
• Raises questions over UK support of Uzbek president, Islam Karimov

Key quote
“Our limited activities in Uzbekistan are designed to sow the seeds of democratic management and accountability of the military. The Uzbek defence minister is very forward-leaning in his desire to modernise and increase professionalism in the armed forces.” - MOD STATEMENT

Story in full
BRITISH soldiers helped to train the army of Uzbekistan, which last month slaughtered hundreds of pro-democracy protesters, The Scotsman can reveal.

The government of the central Asian republic has admitted that its troops killed 173 civilian demonstrators on 12 and 13 May in the city of Andizhan - and the true toll is believed to have been much higher. Human rights groups have condemned the massacre.

Last year, about 150 British Army veterans of the Iraq war travelled to Uzbekistan to train with the army responsible for the killings. According to one independent witness, the British soldiers “shared tactics” with the Uzbeks.

The revelations will raise fresh questions about the UK government’s support for the autocratic regime of Islam Karimov, the Uzbek president.

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who has been critical of UK policy towards Mr Karimov, was outraged that British troops had worked so closely with Uzbek forces.

“One of the most chilling things about the massacre was that it was not a spur-of-the-moment thing,” he said yesterday. “The morning after, the soldiers searched the square, methodically killing the wounded with bullets to the head.

“The idea that British Army soldiers were training alongside people who do that is simply appalling.”

Last autumn, 150 officers and men of the Royal Regiment of Wales travelled to Uzbekistan to take part in a major army training operation that apparently included combat operations.

The Uzbeks codenamed the operation Timur Express, a reference to the 14th-century warlord known in the West as Tamburlaine. The exercise took place at the Farish training camp, 200 miles south-west of the capital, Tashkent.

Pictures of the operation obtained by The Scotsman appear to show British and Uzbek troops firing a machine-gun and engaging in combat simulations.

The Welsh soldiers are members of the Territorial Army and most of them had served at least one tour in Iraq,

“The soldiers were able to use their experience gained in Iraq and other operations to train the Uzbeks using British tactics,” said one person who observed the Farish training operation.

Previously, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence have admitted offering only support and training to selected Uzbek army officers, hoping to encourage democratic reform and Uzbekistan’s participation in international peacekeeping missions.

The government has been reluctant to admit providing operational support to the Uzbek army. The last time the MoD told parliament about military support, in February 2004, ministers said Britain had provided training and advice … focused on assisting the Uzbekistan ministry of defence with its defence reform efforts”.

The United States has also faced questions about its military support for Uzbekistan, seen as a key ally in the war on terrorism. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Uzbek army units involved in the Andizhan killings had benefited from US military training.

In a statement last night, the MoD said: “Our limited activities in Uzbekistan are designed to sow the seeds of democratic management and accountability of the military.

“The Uzbek defence minister is very forward-leaning in his desire to modernise and increase professionalism in the armed forces.”

The MoD described the Welsh troops’ presence in Uzbekistan as an “annual peacekeeping exercise”. A spokesman was unable to say whether there would be another such exercise this year.