SAOIRSE32

Posted to Seven Stars Republican Socialist News by Peter Urban

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Photo from >>here

Dear friends, supporters, and allies of Leonard Peltier,

Monday, September 12th, 2005 will be Leonard’s 61st birthday. Please send him a card, drop him a note, to wish him a good birthday.

His new address is:
Leonard Peltier # 89637-132
USP LEWISBURG
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1000
LEWISBURG, PA 17837
USA

He has told us that he has enough money in his inmate account to buy the necessary items at the commissary and for his art supplies. However he wishes that if you still want to give him a gift, that you do so by sending a donation to the LPDC (c/o Toni Zeidan, 2626 N. Mesa #132, El Paso, Texas) as he wants his office re-established close to where he is as soon as possible.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Leonard Peltier!

Paula Ostrovsky
Media/PR
LPDC

Sinn Féin

Published: 3 September, 2005

Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty speaking in Donegal this afternoon called for widespread Garda reform. He said “The fact remains that the Morris Tribunal will not bring us the whole truth. Many questions about serious Garda misconduct in all parts of the state remain unanswered. What we need to do now, is to take the leap as a society to admit that this is not just a Donegal problem. This is a systemic problem we have to confront. It is long past the time for the establishment of the fully independent complaints procedure under a single Garda Ombudsman.”

Mr. Doherty was speaking in Raphoe at an event organised by the McBrearty family and others who have had a similar experience at the hands of the Garda Síochána.

Mr. Doherty said:

“Reform and greater accountability of the Gardaí are urgently needed . The onus for change is on the Minister and the key to this is reform that introduces effective oversight of the Garda Síochána and real accountability to communities.

“The Gardaí are a legitimate police service, and I recognise the good work done by many Gardaí in our communities over the years. However, their history is not unblemished. And it is not just a case of a few bad apples in the Heavy Gang, or a bushel of them in Donegal. Misconduct has been much more widespread. The Special Branch has also been used as a political police force against republicans. The power of the Gardaí has been abused and those guilty have generally gotten off scot-free.

“The Morris Tribunal reports, detailing as they do the prejudiced investigations, the lies, the destruction and falsification of records, reports and other evidence. shows that there is an urgent need for “root and branch reform” of the Gardaí, the way the force is managed and how complaints against them are dealt with.

“This report explodes the myth of a few rogue cops in Donegal. We need only look at who was found to be corrupt, obstructive, or at the very least incompetent and negligent in Donegal: a Chief Superintendent, four Superintendents, and members of every other Garda grade.

“It points to a whole managerial system that allowed such activity to happen unhindered and unpunished. Indeed the comments of Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy in the aftermath of the Morris report, in offering a defence of the actions of the Gardaí involved in the investigation into the death of Richie Barron and the subsequent efforts to frame Frank McBrearty and Mark McConnell, shows that the mindset that was involved in the original investigation goes right to the top of the force.

“We also have the case of the deeply flawed investigation into the murder of Donegal Councillor Eddie Fullerton There was no proper examination of the scene, crucial forensic evidence was never examined and key witnesses were not interviewed. Three of the Gardaí, roundly discredited by the Morris Tribunal, were centrally involved in the flawed investigation into Eddie Fullerton’s murder.

“Many questions about serious Garda misconduct in all parts of the state remain unanswered. What we need to do now, is to take the leap as a society to admit that this is not just a Donegal problem. This is a systemic problem we have to confront aggressively and decisively if we are to solve it, and move on.

“The Irish people deserve to know the full truth about all these matters, and the real truth about policing and justice in this state. The era of impunity and cover-ups must come to an end.

“Clearly it is long past the time for the establishment of the fully independent complaints procedure under a single Garda Ombudsman. Indeed, the Good Friday Agreement commitment to equivalence in human rights protections north and south requires the establishment of a single Garda Ombudsman.

“Sinn Féin wants to see an all-island police service established. In the interim, we want policing services North and South that can attract widespread support from, and that are seen as an integral part of, the community as a whole. We want effective policing with local democratic accountability, shaped as a community service and imbued with that human rights ethos. We have an opportunity now to shape the policing of the future for the people of Ireland. It is critical that we get it right.”ENDS

Belfast Telegraph

By Claire Regan
cregan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
03 September 2005

THE DUP today urged the Government to retain at least one of the three home service Royal Irish Regiment battalions which are to be axed in less than two years.

Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson called on Defence Secretary John Reid to consider keeping one of the threatened Northern Ireland-based battalions along with the RIR’s foreign service battalion which is to continue.

Speaking to the BBC’s Inside Politics programme, the DUP man said: “It is our view that the Government should retain a second battalion based here as part of the garrison of 5,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland.”

The DUP was outraged when the Army announced last month that the RIR’s three home battalions are to be disbanded as “there will be no military requirement” for them if the IRA sticks to its pledge of standing down.

The decision will see some 3,000 members of the battalions, who provide military support in Northern Ireland alone, paid off over the next two years. It came as part of a number of security cutbacks, including the dismantling of security posts, set out in response to the IRA declaration.

Belfast Telegraph

By Debra Douglas
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
03 September 2005

A DUP councillor was lambasted today for “failing to criticise” loyalists engaged in criminality in the same terms as republicans.

Ulster Unionist MLA Esmond Birnie hit out at Belfast councillor Ruth Patterson for condemning Sinn Fein’s response to a number of incidents in Belfast - including the rape of a teenage girl which was not carried out by paramilitaries - during a television interview but failing to criticise the PUP and loyalists.

He said: “Is Councillor Patterson implying that it is somehow less wrong for the UVF, etc to be killing people than for the IRA to be doing that?

“For several years, various figures in the DUP have tried to steer that party towards a more ‘centre ground’. Now and again, however, the mask slips.”

But defending her comments, Ms Patterson said: “In the interview, I was specifically discussing the rape of an innocent 15-year-old girl. It could be clearly seen that this terrible story was having an emotional impact on me.

“I was then asked a purely political question and needed a few seconds to gather my thoughts, then applied the same terminology to both parties. No distinction was drawn.”

Ex-Lord Mayor, Alliance’s Tom Ekin, said Ms Patterson’s comments were “incredible”. “In the chamber, the DUP were making clear their opposition to all violence, but outside afterwards they were fumbling.”

BBC

The centre of Hillsborough, County Down, has been evacuated due to a security alert.

It is understood Army technical officers have found two devices in the village which is hosting its 13th annual oyster festival.

Police were warned that a number of devices had been left in the village just after 1330 BST.

The festival has been postponed, but organisers say they intend to resume the event later in the day.

The Hillsborough Oyster Festival raises funds for cystic fibrosis.

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes

Almost 1,000 people living in the North have been forced to flee their homes in the past year as a result of intimidation.
During the period from April 2004 to April this year, 959 householders contacted the Housing Executive seeking alternative accommodation because of threats, the vast majority from loyalist paramilitary gangs.
Families living in Belfast were on the receiving end of 471 threats — half the total. The Housing Executive has recorded cases throughout the North.
Cases of intimidation last year accounted for five per cent of the North’s 17,500 homeless cases. This statistic is likely to increase this year following the increase in sectarian attacks during the summer.
Homes occupied by Catholics have been targeted on north Belfast’s interfaces and in loyalist towns in north Antrim. Catholics have flooded the Housing Executive with requests to be rehoused because of paramilitary intimidation.
In recent weeks, 12 Protestant families from Belfast have also approached the Housing Executive after being intimidated out of their homes by feuding loyalist paramilitaries.
One Catholic family forced to flee their home are the McCalls from the Whitewell area of north Belfast.
At the beginning of the summer, their home on Old Throne Gardens was attacked by loyalist arsonists. Since then they have been homeless. However, the PSNI’s refusal to confirm they have been intimidated from their home means the Housing Executive is under no obligation to buy it from them.
Under a scheme known as Special Purchase of Evicted Dwellings (SPED), the Housing Executive has a responsibility to buy homes from owners who have been the victim of paramilitary intimidation.
Speaking to Daily Ireland yesterday, Peter McCall said it was disgraceful how his family has been treated,
The grandfather was asleep in the house with his wife, four children and grandchild when loyalists attempted to burn his home.
He said: “My house was under regular attack for three years. I had the windows broken and my daughter was stoned while she played in the garden.
“You could not go outside without running the risk of being hit with a brick.
“The house is a mess now; it was completely gutted by the fire.
“If it wasn’t for our insurance company paying the rent in our new house, I don’t know what we would do.”
Mr McCall had harsh words for the PSNI and Housing Executive which he believes are turning a blind eye to his situation.
“The house next door to mine was also burned by loyalists yet the Housing Executive bought that on a SPED after the PSNI confirmed the family staying there were being intimidated. What is so different about my case?
“The Housing Executive did try and find me alternative accommodation but that was in an empty house in south Belfast whose previous owner had been forced out by loyalist paramilitaries. I couldn’t possibly have moved there.
“It doesn’t surprise me that so many people have been forced from their homes by paramilitaries. I know there are hundreds of people in my situation around the country.”
The Old Throne area was again targeted by loyalists at the beginning of this week.
A spokeswoman for the Housing Executive claimed it was making every attempt to rehouse the McCalls.
She said that because the PSNI had not confirmed the family were the victim of paramilitary intimidation the Housing Executive had no obligation to buy their home from them.
A spokesperson for the PSNI said it did not comment on individual cases.

Examiner

By Ryle Dwyer
03/09/05

WHEN Gerry Fitt died last week, he was celebrated as a democrat who eschewed the gun in politics.

But many people knew of a different story that he managed to distort over the years by exploiting our crazy libel laws.

On February 25, 1967, Fitt warned a London conference that northern nationalists had had enough: “If reforms are not forthcoming, who could blame them for taking whatever action they see fit in the circumstances. I, for one,” he said, “would certainly not blame them.”

The then prime minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O’Neill wasn’t impressed.

“Mr Fitt is like that remarkable animal, the chameleon, which changes its colours to suit its background,” he told a meeting in Strabane in May 1968.

Fitt addressed a gathering in Derry in July of the same year. “The day for action has arrived,” he said.

“If constitutional methods do not bring social justice, if they do not bring democracy to Northern Ireland, then I am quite prepared to go outside constitutional methods.”

He blamed the Dublin government for their inaction. “I wonder sometimes if the Southern government is prepared to accept the responsibility for the reunification of Ireland,” he told the United Ireland Association in Manchester later that week.

“They could be much more forceful in demanding their right to the six county territory.”

In January 1969, Fitt reportedly told the Labour Party conference in Dublin: “The young people who had thrown stones and burned police tenders in Newry were justified in doing so because they had been walked on and oppressed for many years of frustration.”

On September 13, 1969 he met with Captain James J Kelly, an Irish intelligence officer who was in Belfast to assess the situation for Military Intelligence.

John Kelly, a Belfast republican, and his brother, Billy, also attended the meeting, which took place in Fitt’s home.

Fitt pleaded with Captain Kelly to persuade the Dublin government to provide Northern nationalists with weapons for defensive purposes.

“Fitt made clear the urgency of the situation and that it was of paramount importance to get in arms immediately,” Captain Kelly reported next day. “I suggest that there might now be a short period of calm in which to organise.”

“No, you have it all wrong,” Fitt replied. “It could happen any time. It could happen this minute.”

A number of deputations went to Dublin pleading for weapons.

“The deputations consisted of people who would be looked upon as responsible members of the community - members of parliament, surely all opposition members must have come at some time and to my own knowledge each of the SDLP members came.”

In his 1974 book We Won’t Stand (Idly) By, Kevin Boland wrote: “They asked for the means to protect themselves, their families and their homes. They wanted respirators to protect themselves from CS gas and guns to repel their enemies - these and the money to buy them.”

Although Boland did not name the members of the deputations in his 1974 book, he did name them three years later in a further book, Up Dev!

“Even people like Gerry Fitt,” Boland wrote, “went along with the tide and came to Dublin lobbying the minister for arms and respirators for the Citizen Defence Committees.”

According to Eamonn McCann in his book, War and an Irish Town, Fitt told a crowd at the corner of Victoria Street in Derry on the morning of January 5, 1970, that “it’s time to get the guns out.”

FITT never tried to take any legal action over any of those reports. But in January 1993 the northern edition of the Sunday Press accused him of being “involved in the creation of the Provisional IRA,” because his request for arms had “set the scenario from which the Provisional IRA emerged”.

The authors of the article suggested that Fitt had asked Captain Kelly for guns for the IRA, but the captain’s report only stated “Fitt asked me to convey a request to the Dublin government for guns for the defence of nationalists”.

The Sunday Press might have been able to defend those assertions but the article had some glaring errors.

The authors said that Fitt’s party colleague, Paddy Kennedy, was at the meeting between Fitt and Captain Kelly and would support the captain’s version of events. But Kennedy was not there.

The authors also mistakenly stated that a BBC programme on the troubles a few days earlier had raised the issue of Fitt’s efforts to procure arms.

Fitt initiated legal action against the Sunday Press and it promptly capitulated.

Two weeks to the day after the offending article appeared, the newspaper published an apology and agreed to pay Fitt a reported £50,000 in damages.

Both the article and the subsequent apology were published only in northern editions of the Sunday Press.

In May of that year, 1993, on RTÉ’s Sunday Show, Conor Cruise O’Brien challenged me to explain how Charles Haughey could justify providing money for arms. “What about the money voted for relief of distress and applied to other purposes?” he asked. “That’s where the smoking gun is!”

I replied: “You had people like Gerry Fitt coming down here looking for arms to protect themselves against armed unionist thugs.

“Gerry Fitt demonstrated the benefit of having a legally held weapon by facing down a republican rabble who broke into his home.”

I added the whole thing had nothing to do with the Provisional IRA, because it had not yet been set up.

“You have to look at it without the Provos in the background,” I emphasised.

Fitt had apparently got a taste for easy money as a result of what happened with the Sunday Press. He threatened to sue RTÉ over my remarks.

RTÉ asked for my sources and I outlined the foregoing information. If I could get a copy of Captain Kelly’s report, that would nail the case, I was told. Captain Kelly produced the report and was prepared to testify to its veracity, as were John Kelly and his brother Billy. Eamonn McCann was also prepared to testify about what Fitt said in Derry.

RTÉ, which was known as a soft touch at the time, agreed to pay Fitt some £20,000.

I had already written on similar lines for the Sunday Tribune and that article had been repeated in Scotland on Sunday. The latter paid Fitt around £15,000, but he tried to screw £50,000 out of the Sunday Tribune. He settled virtually on the steps of the courthouse for £4,000. In each case, the papers believed that even if they won the case, they would lose money, because Fitt would be unable to pay their costs. By settling they actually cut their inevitable losses.

In 1999 Captain Kelly published the details in his book Thimble Riggers, and Gill & Macmillan decided to fight Fitt, if necessary when they published similar details in Justin O’Brien’s book, The Arms Crisis.

Fitt’s past has caught up with him, but not before he had successfully used our crazy libel laws not only to distort the details of a crucial part of our history but also as a personal means of legalised extortion.

Ryle Dwyer will be talking and answering questions on his book, The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins at Cork City Library, Grand Parade on Monday (September 5) at 7.30pm.

Scotsman.com

Hungry, thirsty and scared - hurricane victims blame Bush

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT

A BELEAGUERED George Bush flew to the devastated Gulf Coast and met weeping survivors of Hurricane Katrina yesterday, as criticism of his handling of the disaster threatened to plunge his presidency into crisis.

The president has been accused of failing to grasp the seriousness of the situation facing the tens of thousands of people who have lost everything in the worst disaster to hit the United States since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Four days after the hurricane made landfall, with law and order breaking down, looters and armed gangs roaming the streets and reports of people dying while they waited for help, Mr Bush admitted: “Now we are in the darkest days.”

The results were not acceptable, he said, but he vowed to get on top of the situation. Shortly after arriving in Mobile, Alabama, to be briefed on the relief efforts, he added: “We have a responsibility to help clear up this mess.”

He urged Americans to do their bit to help. “Now is the time to love a neighbour like you would like to be loved yourself,” he said.

In Biloxi, Mississippi, he met sobbing victims who told him they had lost everything. With his arms around them, he promised: “I will help you. Hang in there.”

With her sister Kim, 21, by her side, Bronwynne Bassier, 23, told the president her house was in ruins, as she clutched a black plastic bag she hoped to use to collect some items from what was left of her home. “Sorry you’re going through this,” Mr Bush said, hugging both women.

But critics of the relief effort pulled no punches. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, raged: “I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. Now get off your asses and fix this. Let’s do something and let’s fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.”

Estimates suggest that a million people are homeless, and one Louisiana senator, David Vitter, said the death toll in that state alone could be as high as 10,000.

Much of the criticism has been directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but its director, Michael Brown, said staff were working “under conditions of urban warfare”.

The father of one young Briton trapped with thousands of other refugees in the Superdome echoed that description. “It’s like a scene from Mad Max in there,” said John Graydon, whose son, Mark, had sought refuge with his girlfriend, Gretchen Heiserman. Instead of safety, said Mr Graydon, his son was in fear of his life. “He told me he was very concerned about his life and his girlfriend’s. He said, ‘Dad you have to get us out of here’. That is the first time he has said that. He has been pretty brave until now. “They are being abused and threatened. His girlfriend has been threatened with rape.”

Perhaps conscious of the level of anger among the survivors, Mr Bush had no plans to enter the devastated city, preferring instead to fly over it in a helicopter before staging a walk-about through the hard-hit suburbs of Biloxi.

Inside the city limits, New Orleans teetered on the brink of anarchy. Rescuers, law officers and helicopters were shot at by storm victims, while fights and fires broke out inside the Superdome as thousands of people waited in misery to board buses for the comparative luxury of the Houston Astrodome.

Corpses lay out in the open as the looting continued.

Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, called the looters “hoodlums” and warned that she was sending in hundreds of National Guard troops to restore order.

“They have M-16s and they’re locked and loaded,” she said. “These troops know how to shoot and kill, and I expect they will.”

But even the National Guardsmen were helpless in the face of a furious mob. At the Superdome, a group of refugees broke through a line of heavily armed troops in a scramble to get on to the buses.

Eddie Compass, the police chief, said officers who went in to check out reports of assaults were forced back.

“We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,” Mr Compass said.

A military helicopter tried to land at the convention centre several times to drop off food and water, but the rushing crowd forced it to back off.

Troopers then tossed supplies to the crowd and flew away.

Mr Bush warned that there should be “zero tolerance” of looters, but the chief of the Louisiana state police said he had heard of numerous instances of New Orleans police officers - many from flooded areas - turning in their badges rather than take on the armed gangs. Colonel Henry Whitehorn said: “They indicated they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives.”

To add to what some described as an “apocalyptic” atmosphere, an explosion at a chemical depot rocked the city yesterday morning, starting a fire which burned throughout the day. And a huge oil spill was spotted near storage tanks on the Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans.

The United Nations offered to support the relief effort “in any way possible” and Asia-Pacific nations - including Sri Lanka, battered by the tsunami - promised to send money and disaster-relief experts.

John Howard, the Australian prime minister, said: “There should not be an assumption that because America is the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, this isn’t a major crisis.”

Australia promised A$10 million (£4.1 million) to the American Red Cross, Japan offered $200,000 and the Toyota Motor Corporation pledged $5 million. Sri Lanka pledged $25,000.

• Americans have donated an estimated $219 million (£119 million) to the relief effort.

In the first ten days after the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks, $239 million (£130 million) was raised - a figure certain to be surpassed in half the time by the current appeal.

Scots on holiday ‘forced to join looters to find food’

THE daughter of a Scots holidaymaker caught up in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina told last night how her mother had been forced to join in the looting to find food.

Teresa Cherrie, 42, a nurse, and her partner, John Drysdale, 41, a lorry driver, from Renfrew, are marooned in New Orleans. The couple are desperately awaiting rescue on the roof of an apartment block with ten American refugees in the French quarter of Baton Rouge, while hiding from armed gangs.

Her daughter, Nicola Cherrie, 21, a dental nurse, said: “She phoned this morning at half past two just to let us know they were okay. She was awfully upset and she just said she’d never been so starving in her whole life, she’d never seen so many guns, she’d never been so scared.

“She said they had a tin of ravioli and a packet of biscuits for their dinner tonight. They’ve had to loot supermarkets for food and scavenge what they can.

“It was meant to be a dream holiday but it’s turned into a nightmare,” she said.

Irish Independent

AN eight-year battle that has pitted conservationists and Church traditionalists against the Bishop of Cloyne’s plans to alter the inside of historic St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, could be resolved next week when local planning authorities give a decision.

Bishop John Magee wants to make internal changes to conform better to the requirements of the modern Mass. Traditionalists want the interior to remain almost as it has been since it was built more than 100 years ago - and conservationists consider it an architectural masterpiece. Since the diocese formally applied for permission to make changes six weeks ago, Cobh Town Council has received more than 200 objections. This is in addition to 24,000 protest signatures against the plan six years ago.

One of those leading the opposition is independent councillor, Sean O’Connor. Objections have also been received from An Taisce, the Irish Georgian Society and the Pugin Society.

Augustus Pugin is regarded as one of the foremost architects of the 19th century and he helped design the cathedral in the 1860s.

The changes proposed by Bishop Magee, which are likely to cost several million euro, include removing a large section of the altar rails, extending the sanctuary area which will cover 85 feet of mosaic floor, and replacing the present altar, installed in the 1960s.

Traditionalists object particularly strongly to the removal of a section of the altar rails

The bishop says the interior of the cathedral must be “re-ordered” to suit the requirements of the New Mass, one element of which is people receiving Communion standing before the priest.

It is likely that however next Friday’s decision goes, it will be appealed.

David Quinn,
Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent

Irish Independent

‘BELOVED Enemy’, the 1936 feature film based on the life of Michael Collins and recently restored by the Irish Film Archive, is to be premiered at the 50th Cork Film Festival in October.

Made by legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, the 86-minute feature stars Merle Oberon as the daughter of a British diplomat in Ireland in 1921, Brian Ahearne as a fictionalised version of Collins and David Niven as a British army officer.

“In the year that Cork City, birthplace of Michael Collins, holds the mantle of European Capital of Culture, it is fitting that local audiences will have the first opportunity to see the restored version of this rare film,” Kasandra O’ Connell, head of the Irish Film Archive, said.

The film is a love story which romanticises the events that led up to to the signing of the treaty with the British.

Although other copies of the film exist, this is the only known surviving copy to feature the unhappy ending where the hero dies. In the 1930s the film was considered too downbeat for Hollywood audiences and went on general release with a more uplifting ending.

This rare print was originally discovered at the Limerick Film Archive and its restoration by the Irish Film Archive was funded by the Heritage Council’s Museum and Archive fund.

Following its Cork showing, ‘Beloved Enemy’ will be screened at the Irish Film Institute on November 16.

Philip Molloy

Irish Independent

TWO gardai will travel to Colombia on Wednesday to widen the force’s inquiries into the case of the Colombia Three, convicted there of training Farc terrorists. Agreement on the matter between the Garda and Colombian police was reached yesterday and the two officers have been selected. The two forces made contact right after Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly turned up here unexpectedly last month.

A senior garda confirmed to the Irish Independent last night that the two officers would continue inquiries already under way in relation to possible criminal offences in this jurisdiction.

A senior member of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and an officer from the crime and security section at Garda HQ are heading to Bogota. One is fluent in Spanish. Their visit will focus on the men’s use of false passports while in Colombia.

Monaghan and McCauley travelled on bogus British documentation, which is not an offence here, but Connolly used a false Irish passport and gardai hope to delve deeply into that aspect of the case.

Connolly’s passport had been issued in Dublin in the name of David Bracken, an infant, who died. The former Sinn Fein representative in Cuba gave his name as David Bracken when he was stopped by police at Bogota airport and later when he was under investigation there.

Connolly may have committed an offence by his use of the passport even though he might have been in Cuba while it was being issued.

Gardai are also anxious to establish the whereabouts of the three men after they fled Colombia following their conviction, and to pinpoint how and when they came back here. The three refused to divulge any such information when quizzed by gardai last month.

Inquiries will be made into the behaviour of the three while in Colombia. All information will form a vital part of a file to be submitted to the DPP here. The Colombian government has so far not sought extradition of the three to serve their jail sentences.

There is no extradition treaty between the countries but Justice Minister Michael McDowell has said he is not opposed to one if it is sought. Another option he outlined at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting was whether the three could serve sentences handed down in Colombia here.

Tom Brady
Security Editor

Guardian

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Saturday September 3, 2005
The Guardian

The IRA is to begin dismantling its weapons arsenal within days and decommissioning should be completed in weeks, sources close to the British and Irish governments said yesterday.

The disarmament chief, retired Canadian general John de Chastelain, arrived in Ireland on Wednesday after a Finnish brigadier, Tauno Nieminen, was appointed to his three-man team in anticipation of the heavy workload over the next few weeks.

The British and Irish governments have been anxious for disarmament to begin since the IRA’s statement in July that its armed struggle with Britain was over and all weapons would be “put beyond use … as quickly as possible”.

When decommissioning showed no sign of starting last month, unionists grew irate over the government’s disbandment of the home-based battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment, and what they saw as the audacious return of republican fugitives, the Colombia Three, to Ireland.

When decommissioning begins, weapons will be neutralised in a series of separate decommissioning acts. Once these are complete and all weapons have been put beyond use, General de Chastelain will report to the governments. A source close to the British government said the general’s report was expected “as soon as physically possible”.

He is also expected to give the governments an inventory of arms that have been neutralised, but it is not clear when that could be published.

The IRA’s arms cache is thought to include M60 machine guns, Armalite rifles, AK-47s, handguns, explosives and timer devices stored at various locations.

In its three previous acts of decommissioning, the IRA has demanded confidentiality. All sides are keen to avoid a repeat of the debacle of two years ago when General de Chastelain emerged from witnessing the secret act of decommissioning and, restricted by confidentiality, was unable to provide enough detail to satisfy the Ulster Unionists.

David Trimble then pulled the plug on the process which was to lead to the restoration of a power-sharing Stormont assembly.

This time two clergymen, one Protestant and one Catholic, will be invited to witness the final disarmament process and afterwards state to the public they were there.

But Ian Paisley’s hardline Democratic Unionist party will not get the photographic evidence of decommissioning that it demanded.

The Irish justice minister, Michael McDowell, said this week that he did not expect decommissioning would happen by “one single press of a button or by one single act of decommissioning, at one single place.” Disarmament would involve a series of acts which would happen “in one sequence of events” and “in fairly rapid order”, he said.

The next test for Northern Ireland’s political process is a report next month by the ceasefire watchdog, the International Monitoring Commission, examining whether the IRA has stuck to its word not to engage in criminal activities or recruitment since it announced the war was over.

But the government is under pressure to address the outstanding issue of whether loyalist paramilitaries, currently involved in a bloody feud, will also decommission their weapons. The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, has been urged to declare the that the Ulster Volunteer Force, which is attempting to wipe out the smaller splinter group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, has broken its ceasefire.

The SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, said he was concerned that the Northern Ireland Office was content to let the UVF get on with its “cleaning-up operation” in the hope it was a “prelude to something more positive.”