SAOIRSE32

RTÉ News

25 September 2005 20:35

RTÉ News has learned that the chairman of the decommissioning body, General John DeChastelain, will meet representatives of the Irish and British governments tomorrow to tell them that full decommissioning of IRA weapons has taken place.

General DeChastelain and his colleagues will hold a news conference in Belfast to provide details of the decommissioning.

Two independent witnesses will make a statement at the press conference to say that the promised IRA move has taken place.

It is understood the two witnesses are the Catholic priest Fr Alex Reid and Rev Harold Good, a Methodist minister.

Both governments will make statements tomorrow following General DeChastelain’s statement.

Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator, Martin McGuinness, has said he believes that Ireland stands on the cusp of a historic advance.

He said he was confident that tomorrow would bring the final chapter on the issue of IRA arms.

Mr McGuinness also said the IRA move will place a huge responsibility on the leadership of the DUP to re-engage in the political process and on the two governments to implement the Good Friday Agreement.

In July, The IRA called an end to its armed campaign and ordered all its units to dump arms.

It also ordered its members not to engage in any other activities of any kind.

BBC

The process of IRA decommissioning is to be confirmed

A report confirming that IRA decommissioning has been completed is to be given to the British and Irish governments on Monday.

General John de Chastelain, head of the body overseeing the disarmament, is then expected to give a news conference with the two independent witnesses.

The churchmen who witnessed the process were Catholic priest Father Alex Reid and ex-Methodist president Harold Good.

The IRA announced an end to its armed campaign in July.

The republican organisation said it would follow a democratic path ending more than 30 years of violence.

Statements are also expected on Monday from the IRA, both governments and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

Earlier on Sunday, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain IRA said any move on IRA decommissioning must be credible enough to convince unionists.

“I think the people of Northern Ireland will want to see it actually implemented,” he said.

He said once unionists knew decommissioning was credible and had been put in place, moves could be made towards restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland.

General de Chastelain, Andrew Sens and Tauno Nieminen - the commissioners of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning - have been in Ireland overseeing the latest round of decommissioning since the beginning of September.

BBC Northern Ireland security editor Brian Rowan said a meeting between the general and the IRA in July had started this latest process of decommissioning.

BreakingNews.ie

25/09/2005 - 14:01:12

The DUP MP Nigel Dodds has said that proceeding with IRA decommissioning without photographic or video evidence would be disastrous.

He insisted that this will further delay, rather than speeding up the power-sharing process.

The DUP is furious that the method agreed between the IRA and the Decommissioning Body on how it puts all its weapons beyond use does not include the party’s stipulations for a full inventory to be published, as well as evidence of weapons showing them at all stages of the decommissioning process.

It also wanted its nominee, former Presbyterian Moderator and opponent of the Good Friday Agreement, the Rev David McGaughey, to witness the process.

BBC

A senior police officer has condemned recent attacks on PSNI patrols and firefighters in west Belfast.

Rioters threw bricks and other missiles at officers protecting firefighters on the Andersonstown Road and Gransha Park on Saturday.

Inspector Norman Haslett said attacks on the emergency services “shouldn’t happen in a normal society”.

“I appeal to anyone with influence in the community to use that influence to stop these attacks,” he said.

“We were protecting our colleagues in the fire service as they attempted to resolve the situation and as we did so, we came under sustained attack by a group of approximately 150 youths.”

Two police officers were slightly injured when they came under attack by a crowd of youths on the Andersonstown Road.

Trouble began at 2200 BST after police and fire crews arrived at a petrol station on the Andersonstown Road when a gas cylinder was set alight.

One policeman suffered a head injury and a policewoman received a leg injury after officers were attacked with bricks and other missiles.

Elderly couple

Five Land Rovers were also damaged. One man and a teenager were arrested in connection with the disturbance.

Earlier, police were attacked with stones, fireworks and a petrol bomb after they were called to an incident at the home of an elderly couple in Gransha Park.

Paddy and Maureen Magee were treated for shock and the effects of smoke after fireworks were pushed through their letterbox.

Mrs Magee said they were targeted for “constant stone-throwing and harassment” but on Saturday their garden had “nearly went on fire with fireworks”.

“I do expect that coming up to Halloween, but not when they open your gate and throw them through your letter box,” she said.

“I shouted after them, ‘I’m going to phone the police on you lot, I’m not putting up with any more,’ and they started calling me bad names.”

‘Horror’

West Belfast SDLP Councillor Tim Attwood condemned the violence and said it was “deeply wrong” to have elderly people “living in fear of young hooligans”.

“In the last few weeks, people across the north watched on in horror as loyalist youths destroyed their own areas and property with mindless violence,” he said.

“Last night’s scene reflected some of that and it must stop.”

Sunday Life

25 September 2005

Martin O’Hagan

AMNESTY International has reiterated its support for the National Union of Journalists in its fight to have the killers of reporter Martin O’Hagan brought to justice.

Wednesday marks the fourth anniversary of the murder of the Sunday World journalist - shot dead by LVF gunmen in front of his wife, Marie.

At the time, Secretary of State John Reid and RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde vowed to have the killers put behind bars.

Cops know who was responsible, but say they don’t have enough evidence to bring charges.

It’s been claimed that several of the men involved in the drive-by killing are being protected because they are police informers.

At least a dozen members of the LVF gang have been questioned, but freed without charge.

The NUJ has met with senior police officers involved in the murder hunt, to express concern at a lack of progress in the investigation.

Amnesty International is also following the case closely.

Spokesman Patrick Corrigan said: “We are extremely disappointed that it’s four years on, and no one has been brought to justice.

“The freedom of the Press is one of those freedoms that underpin a free society.

“We support the NUJ’s call for the police and the justice system to step up efforts to bring Martin’s killers to book.”

Sunday World Northern Editor Jim McDowell said he and his colleagues were also concerned that the case hadn’t moved on.

He said: “We have a very good idea of who was in that car the night Martin was murdered.

“In fact, I know that one of them - who is a well-known LVF drugs dealer - was drinking in a Belfast city-centre bar this week with other drug-dealers.

“It appals me that this individual can still run about as a free man.

“However, we are committed to doing all we can to bring this assassin and his cohorts to justice.”

Sunday Life

By Joe Oliver
25 September 2005

A BLOODY street battle surrounding two loyalist bands has sparked fears of a new feud between the UDA and UVF in north Belfast.

The violent clashes erupted during a Pride of the Shore parade and fundraising event, a week ago.

Up to half-a-dozen bandsmen were injured and one man was taken to hospital with head, neck and back injuries.

Women and children were also caught up in the hand-to-hand fighting that erupted along York Road.

One shocked observer told us: “It was mayhem and there could have been very serious consequences, had police not acted so quickly.

And last night, one UVF source claimed that UDA supporters had “ambushed” members of the Mount Vernon Volunteers band.

Claimed the source: “There has never been any trouble before at this annual parade - but then again, it was the first time a band from Tiger’s Bay had been involved.

“Their supporters clearly set a trap and were waiting on their own territory near the Grove baths for the Mount Vernon band.

“It was hot and heavy for a good 15 minutes before police arrived. There were quite a few cracked skulls. The Mount Vernon band was clearly outnumbered, and also separated at that point from their own supporters.

“It’s led to an uneasy stand-off in the area - who knows what might happen next.”

A loyalist source in north Belfast added: “This is being looked on as a very serious incident and clearly the UVF are not prepared to let it go.

“The view is that it is up to the UDA to discipline those involved, or there could be real trouble.”

A police spokeswoman described the condition of the man taken to hospital as “not life-threatening”.

She added: “Police inquiries into the matter are continuing.”

Sunday Life

Amnesty International voices concern

By Stephen Breen
25 September 2005

A LEADING human rights group last night hit out at the US government’s use of an Ulster airport in its war on terror.

Amnesty International claims RAF Aldergrove is one of a number of UK airports being used by the CIA as a refuelling point, before it flies Islamic terror suspects to interrogation centres in the Middle East.

The US administration uses the term ‘extraordinary rendition’ to describe the process of questioning suspects in such countries.

It is believed many terror suspects have been flown to countries including Egypt, Morocco, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Syria, where torture is widespread.

It’s not clear how many suspects have been flown from the province to be questioned in the Middle East.

Since 9/11, there is believed to have been at least one flight a week from the various UK airports.

Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan hit out at the process.

He said: “We fear that the use of Belfast as a stop-over location by the CIA - as has been alleged in recent reports - is just one small part of the much broader picture of US secret detentions around the world.

“Rendition is just a euphemism for outsourcing torture, and torture is a crime under international law.

“The UK Government should not be aiding and abetting this crime by permitting Belfast, or other airports in the UK, to be used in this way.

“We call on people and politicians across Northern Ireland to unite in saying no to torture, and demanding that the Northern Ireland Office and the Ministry of Defence put an immediate end to the use of Belfast Airport as a link in the chain which leads to the torture cell.

sbreen@belfast telegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

By Chris Anderson
25 September 2005

THE IRISH government has been lambasted over alleged slow progress in getting a public inquiry into the IRA double murder of two RUC detectives up and running.

It was back in December 2003 that the Irish government announced an inquiry into alleged Garda collusion into 1989 murders of Chief Superintentent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan.

But more than 18 months later, the inquiry doesn’t even have an office open for business, and no staff have been appointed to assist the judge, Peter Smithwick.

“It is an absolute disgrace,” said outspoken victims’ worker, Willie Frazer.

“Progress on the inquiry has been almost non-existent since it was first set up in December 2003.”

William Frazer said the Irish authorities were guilty of double standards in calling on the British government to implement the inquiries recommended by Judge Cory, when failing to make progress over Breen and Buchanan.

“They have yet to set up an office or provide any kind of contact details,” said the Markethill-based anti-IRA campaigner.

“There is no published list of issues for investigation. There are no details of the legal representation available to the families of the victims. The legal and administrative support teams have also still to be appointed.

“It’s almost two years since the Cory Report was published.

“Clearly, the Irish government has no appetite for this inquiry and will do everything in its power to stall progress,” he alleged.

A spokesperson for the Irish Justice Department confirmed offices for the Breen and Buchanan inquiry had been secured in Dublin, but were still being fitted out.

The spokesperson said contact details would only become available after the inquiry team occupied its offices.

The Justice Department also confirmed Judge Peter Smithwick was the sole member of the Breen and Buchanan inquiry.

The spokesperson said until the Dublin offices became available, Judge Smithwick was currently conducting preliminary, preparatory work from his home office.

RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan were shot dead in March 1989. They had been returning north after meeting senior Garda officers in Dundalk, when IRA gunmen ambushed their unmarked police car near the village of Jonesboro in south Armagh.

Sunday Life

Councillors say no to City Hall ceremony

By Stephen Gordon
25 September 2005

BELFAST councillors have controversially rejected a bid to honour Lord Fitt at the City Hall.

The late peer’s grieving daughters said last night they were “disappointed” at the decision to knock back the proposed memorial ceremony.

The ‘Miss Fitts’ - as doting dad Gerry called his five daughters - had planned to celebrated his life at an event inside the building, where he first made his name as a street-wise politician.

They hoped old friends and rivals from across Ulster’s political divide would gather at the “neutral venue” to remember the former SDLP leader, who died last month aged 79.

But on Friday, a powerful council committee unanimously rejected the request, made on the family’s behalf.

The all-party policy and resources committee - chaired by Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey - stuck firmly to the council rule-book.

They accepted advice from council officers that the proposed event did not meet the guidelines for functions inside City Hall.

The news came as a blow to Gerry’s five daughters - Joan, Eileen, Betty, Patsy and Geraldine - who knew their proposal fell outside the usual criteria.

But, in a letter to the council, they expressed the hope that an exception could be made, given Lord Fitt’s long service to the council.

The letter stated: “It is envisaged that the event would be non-denominational in nature, with music, poetry readings etc, to celebrate his life.”

Lord Fitt’s funeral took place at Westminster Cathedral.

His family believed the city hall event would enable many other friends, who were unable to attend the London service, to pay tribute to him later this year.

It is understood that while some councillors on the committee were sympathetic to the family’s request, there were concerns that the event would set a precedent, opening the doors to many similar demands.

Gerry Fitt’s family hope the full council will reconsider the decision when it meets in October.

And there is speculation that they might look to Stormont Parliament Buildings as an alternative venue.

The SDLP’s Alban Maginness, who was not present when the committee rejected the Fitt family’s request, said he was disappointed that the application had been turned down.

But he added that he didn’t think the matter should become a public row, which would only be hurtful to Gerry Fitt’s memory and his family.

Mr Maginness said he thought St Patrick’s Church in Donegall Street, where Gerry Fitt worshipped, would be an appropriate venue to celebrate his life.

But, if the family preferred a non-church venue, he would be happy to support a request to hold the tribute at Stormont.

Said Mr Maginness: “Stormont would certainly be fitting.

“It was at Stormont that Gerry Fitt (then leader of the SDLP) reached the pinnacle of his political career, taking part in the greatest political initiative of the era - the power sharing Executive.”

Sunday Life

Sicko claiming to be Craig McCausland’s killer sends deadly email warning that he will kill two-year-old next

By Stephen Breen
25 September 2005

UVF murder victim Craig McCausland’s toddler son is at the centre of a sinister death-threat.

Cops are probing a threat made against two-year-old Dean McCausland on a website launched to highlight his father’s killing.

Mr McCausland, whom police have confirmed had no links to any paramilitary group, was murdered by a UVF gang in July.

Police believe he may have been targeted in a case of mistaken identity.

The north Belfast man was the second of four people murdered by the UVF during its feud with the LVF.

The sick message - on www.justiceforcraig.com - was posted by a mystery user known as ‘Mercer’ last week.

It read: “CC six-feet under. Dhu Varren Park - I was there. You were a w*****. You will hurt even more now because I’m going to take your son’s life next.”

The mystery user claims to be the gunman who blasted Craig at his home, last July.

Police are hoping to trace the source of the email to establish the user’s identity.

The dad-of-one’s cousin, Nicola McIlvenny, who is spearheading the campaign to have killers brought before the courts, last night branded the threat “disgusting”.

Said Ms McIlvenney: “This may be the work of some sick individual, but we still had to take it seriously.

“How could anyone stoop so low to send such a message and threaten an innocent child?

“The user also claims to be Craig’s killer and we now have to see what the police do.”

Added Nicola: “We expected messages like this on the website and we have already removed a lot of them, because we don’t want the site being used as a chatroom.

“This message will not stop us in our quest for justice and we are determined to carry on. The website is one way of highlighting Craig’s murder and we will continue to monitor it.”

Since the site was launched, the murder victim’s family have been forced to remove postings from the site, because it was being used as a chatroom.

But, they have received information on the alleged killers and this has now been passed on to police.

They have also received messages of support from around the world, including the US and Syria.

sbreen@belfast telegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

Feelings are running high inside the RIR. Most locally-based troops now want out of the army and have their sights trained on pay-offs equal to the RUC Patten deals. Stephen Gordon and Chris Anderson report

By Stephen Gordon and Chris Anderson
25 September 2005

“THEY can stuff the Northern Ireland garrison,” said an RIR corporal from Portadown.

“I want out and I want a package that secures my family’s future,” added the 37-year-old with 18 years’ service.

“I won’t be treated like a second-class citizen simply to appease Sinn Fein or anyone else.”

His anger and sense of betrayal seems to sum up the mood among the majority of the RIR’s home-based troops.

Fury at learning via the BBC that their jobs were to go in August 2007, has given way to a desire for parity with the RUC on severance packages.

But, without a union or federation to fight their corner, there is a suspicion they’ll come off second best.

“At the moment we are being told nothing about severance deals,” said another soldier from mid-Ulster.

“We are treated just like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed s***!

“We have a right to be treated the same as the RUC, we have the same family commitments as they had. We also took the same risks as they did.

“There’s no way RIR soldiers will take this lying down. Tony Blair shafted us and we will screw him and his Government for every penny we can get.

“We want the same deal as the RUC and won’t settle for anything else.”

A number of other soldiers expressed similar views.

Unionist politicians have been pressing the Government to save the RIR battalions.

But none of the soldiers we spoke to expressed any interest in remaining in the Army after August 2007 - even if the Government did a U-turn and agreed to include home-based troops in the proposed 5,000-strong Ulster garrison.

One senior NCO said RIR soldiers felt betrayed by the Government and unionist parties.

“Politicians continually reassured us the future of the RIR was safe,” he said.

“Next thing we know, the BBC announces the RIR is to disband.

“RIR soldiers are sickened at the way it was handled. They just want out as soon as possible with the best re-settlement package they can get.”

He added that many RIR soldiers were apprehensive about their severance packages.

“RIR soldiers can’t be treated any differently than the RUC or Prison Officers,” he said.

“We have mortgages, families and cars, just like RUC officers had. We want a fair deal and we want it negotiated openly.”

The senior NCO said morale in the RIR was at rock bottom.

UUP leader Sir Reg Empey met with Defence Secretary John Reid last week to demand a £200m redundancy package.

Sir Reg also urged Mr Reid to retain some RIR troops to serve with the reduced Northern Ireland garrison.

No guarantees were given during the meeting.

Sir Reg’s proposals for redundancy terms include an extra £60,000 for all full-time members and £1,500 for part-timers for every year of service.

Sunday Life

25 September 2005

NORTHERN Ireland is set to lose one of its two Army Brigades as a result of Government plans to reduce troop levels to 5,000 by August 2007.

The province is currently divided into two brigade areas which match the two police regions exactly.

Shackleton Barracks, Ballykelly, is the headquarters for 8 Infantry Brigade, which covers an area from the Glens of Antrim through south Armagh to Fermanagh.

The 39 Brigade, run from Lisburn, has responsibility for the Belfast area.

However, security sources said that within two years, 8 Infantry Brigade will have been disbanded and military command centralised at Lisburn.

The Army has described the claims as “speculation”.

But our sources say the single new brigade will be known as 39 Airborne Brigade and will be supported by three regular Army infantry battalions, two of which will be based at Ballykinlar and Palace Barracks in Holywood, and the third at either Ballykelly or St Lucia Barracks in Omagh.

Disbandment of 8 Infantry Brigade will inevitably lead to more civilian job losses.

Sunday Business Post

25 September 2005
By Declan Power

The loyalists can tear open the heart of Belfast but when the IRA mentions decommissioning the spotlight immediately swings back in its direction. Gerry Adams has centre stage again and you can be sure the media circus will be at his beck and call as the curtain comes down on the final dramatic act of decommissioning.

Yet the real story concerning stability in the North continues to lie in the loyalist/unionist camp. Large swathes of the Protestant people in Northern Ireland feel their position in society in being undermined.

Perhaps the most disturbing images from the Protestant rioting were the sight of women and children lining the roads to form ad-hoc roadblocks along with the bowler-hatted and suited members of the Orange Order to hector and threaten the PSNI.

Did this behaviour meet with censure from mainstream unionist leadership? No, because no unionist politician attentive to grassroots frustration can afford to go against such heartfelt feelings that have now pervaded into the mainstream unionist psyche.

It was little surprise then, that the recent decision to disband the home service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment was greeted with dismay by middle class unionists. The perception has created an unclear grasp of reality.

Even the mention of disbandment is somewhat disingenuous, as it is only the home-service battalions of what was really the old Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) that are going, rather than the regular RIR component of the British army.

The 1st Battalion Royal Irish, the regular unit formerly commanded by Col Tim Collins in Iraq, is still very much a part of the regular British army. In fact Collins, now retired, greeted the disbandment of the home-service battalions with positive nonchalance.

The professional soldiers of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish felt little kinship with the home-service ‘troops’.

Unlike Territorial Army (TA) reservists, home-service RIR men were not liable to serve anywhere outside the North. They only had to venture to Britain when undertaking certain courses. There was never any question of finding themselves deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or subjected to the same rigorous training regime.

As far as most of the regular soldiers were concerned, the home-service element only clouded their long-held regimental tradition of being an All-Ireland contingent.

There were many solid military and political reasons to disband what in effect was a militia. In order to progress the attractive nature of a police career to Catholics, it was always going to be necessary to abolish a force that had been tainted by sectarianism.

Policing was reconstructed, but the old UDR - as the new RIR - had too much baggage.

Leaving it in existence was just a further impediment in recruiting young nationalists into both the police and army.

Notwithstanding those sound reasons, for mainstream unionism it was to be a traumatic event. If the working class areas of loyalism have their perceived protectors in the shape of the UDA and UVF, middle-class unionism felt the RIR would always be there for them in time of chaos.

Yes, it may have been the unspoken unionist militia, but it was also a symbol of legality and the British state’s intention to support their own, when the chips were down.

Middle class unionism feels part of their bulwark of protection has collapsed.

Perception is reality. On the battlefield this maxim has been used to great effect, often turning the tide in an engagement where a physically inferior force should have lost.

With this in mind, the two governments will come under pressure to allay these fears within the Protestant community. There is no point moaning that unionists lack imaginative leadership or that they are constantly antagonistic or suspicious.

History tells us that much of unionism was born of insecurity and fear. In fact the Act of Union of 1801,was initially resisted by the Orange Order such was their distrust of British government intentions.

Now unionism is faced with a well-led Republican community where everyone is ‘on-message’. Much like the way New Labour in Britain have played ducks and drakes with the dissent-ridden Conservatives, Sinn Féin are lining up do to the same and increase their influence in Northern Irish society.

In this context the two governments are likely to consider ways of helping the creation of a ‘new’ unionism that can start to allay the fears of the heartlands and dissipate their current fearful perceptions.

Declan Power is an independent security and defence analyst and author of Siege at Jadotville.

Sunday Business Post

By Paul T Colgan
25 September 2005

The British and Irish governments could be forgiven for thinking that just as they solve one apparently intractable aspect of the peace process another comes along. With IRA disarmament now almost complete after nearly three weeks of secretive work involving the head of the decommissioning body, General John De Chastelain, and his two colleagues, the governments are laying the ground work for some significant political movement.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, along with Justice Minister Michael McDowell and Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, met a Sinn Féin delegation in government buildings on Friday, leading to increased expectations that a statement from De Chastelain may be forthcoming later this week.

The British government has meanwhile been keeping a close eye on events and is in regular contact with the Sinn Féin leadership.

Both governments are keen to use De Chastelain’s statement as a launching pad for renewed negotiations between Sinn Féin and the DUP.

They are faced with a serious roadblock however; unionists still appear unprepared to deal with republicans. Instead of welcoming the IRA’s decision to formally end armed struggle and dump arms, the unionist political establishment, led by Ian Paisley, has consistently sought to play down the importance of the move and dress it up as yet another act of grand deception.

Unionists have been told that the IRA is attempting to hoodwink them. Republicans, said Paisley, have refused to countenance the presence of a DUP-endorsed clergyman at its acts of decommissioning so that they can pull the wool over the eyes of the unionist people.

Against this backdrop, loyalists have insisted that they are being “left behind’‘ by the political process and that they will not be cowed into a United Ireland. With both main loyalist paramilitary groups - the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) - still fully armed and seemingly willing to bring their muscle onto the streets at times of tension, Paisley’s fiery language is proving unsettling for nationalists.

The Ballymena man maintains that the governments have conspired with the IRA to dupe unionists into believing the republican movement is now committed to exclusively political methods.

The reality, according to the DUP, is that the IRA will remain armed and ready to re-engage in violence if it sees fit.

Ahern and Tony Blair will have their work cut out in attempting to convince Paisley of the merits of the IRA initiative. Blair’s credibility amongst unionists is shot whilst Ahern, as all previous taoisigh have discovered, carries absolutely no clout in the loyalist heartlands.

Despite all this, loyalists still maintain there is much the two men can do to properly sell IRA decommissioning. According to David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which has links with the UVF, the event needs to be “managed’‘ by the governments. “It needs to be managed properly by the two governments if it is to go down well amongst loyalists,” said Ervine.

“The average grass-roots loyalist will be asking himself just what the IRA is getting for itself out of all of this. The issue here is whether IRA decommissioning is irrefutable.

“If it is irrefutable, then there may be a possibility of movement. I’ve never gone in for photographs but the governments need to show that it has definitely happened.”

Ervine would not be drawn on whether he believed the UVF would choose to abandon its weapons. The organisation, which was involved in a bloody feud that left five men dead over the summer months and the fierce rioting of two weekends ago, was the subject of a report by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) last week.

Its findings confirmed what most people in the North had already known - that loyalists remain heavily armed and engaged in violence. The UVF’s ceasefire was recently declared bogus by the Northern secretary Peter Hain.

Loyalist sources quoted in The Sunday Business Post last week, said that while the UVF might at some time wind down its activities, it would never give up its guns.

Meanwhile, the DUP has ruled out any political movement until well into next year. DUP negotiator, Jeffrey Donaldson, told this newspaper that he feared De Chastelain’s announcement on IRA decommissioning might leave the political process “stuck in the mud’‘.

“Because the IRA have not agreed to publish photographs and there hasn’t been agreement on the role of the independent witnesses, or indeed even who those witnesses should be, it makes it more difficult for unionists to give credence to any supposed act of decommissioning,” said Donaldson.

“If the IRA had any sense they would provide the detail needed to give confidence in the process. You have to ask what’s the point in doing it if no-one believes it has happened. If we don’t get clarity it will further delay the prospects of restoring the political institutions.”

The Lagan Valley MP said the DUP would be putting little stock in next month’s scheduled report from the IMC on IRA activity.

He said the party would examine the IMC’s second report in January but it would require “much longer than that’‘ to establish whether IRA activity had come to a conclusive end.

The DUP’s relationship with government buildings is also on rocky ground with little sign that it is prepared to let go of the Colombia Three issue. Donaldson said unless Ahern returns the three men to Colombia, things could turn particularly sour between the government and the DUP.

The MP was in Colombia recently on a fact-finding mission and will be hosting its vice president Francisco Santos when he visits the North early next month.

Donaldson refused to completely draw the curtains on the political process instead hinting that there may be a time in the future when the DUP will cut a deal with Sinn Féin. The recent comments of his party boss have suggested however that such a prospect is slim.

Paisley, at the height of the loyalist rioting two weeks ago, issued a broadside against republicans putting particular emphasis on Gerry Adams.

“Of course the great ingredient in Adams’ so-called tongue is lying and atrocious deliberate and hellish deeds,” said Paisley. “No words of mine would be strong enough to denounce his ways. The blood of the innocent cry out against him.

“Those who seek to follow his behaviour are only revealing the blackness of their own heart. They would seek to be part of the same den of wickedness.”

Just how Paisley brings himself to share power with a man capable of “hellish deeds’‘ is anyone’s guess - not least those of Blair and Ahern.

Daily Ireland

BY Robin Livingstone

Can’t say I’m over the moon about the IRA getting rid of its weapons. Not because I want them to go back to shooting elderly UDR milkmen up country lanes, or because I think it’s a good idea for them to resume lobbing barrackbusters into PSNI stations or anything.
No, it’s a purely selfish concern – more a self-preservation instinct than anything else. Perhaps I should explain…
The last major loyalist pogrom in the North took place in August 1969 – I should know, my Beano collection and my Matchbox cars went up in the flames.
What happened was that a huge crowd of baying Prods came flooding down our street burning houses as they went. Think of the mob with flaming torches in the Frankenstein movie making their way up the mountain to the castle and you’ve got the picture.
The loyalists burnt what they wanted to burn for the simple reasons that there was nobody there to stop them. Well, there were people there, of course, but they didn’t have any guns and that lot weren’t likely to be deterred by a stern ticking-off or even a clip with a hurley.
If there’d been somebody at the bottom of my street with a machine gun, though, we’d have been alright. One volley over their heads and they’d have been back up to the Shankill quicker than you can say educational underachievement/weak community infrastructure.
Next day the place looked like the village in Saving Private Ryan, but even as the houses smouldered, amid the sullen anger you got a sense that this would never be allowed to happen again.
And it hasn’t. Well, up to now anyway because the tidal wave of petrol bombers has so far been held back by a dike built of hard experience and eastern European materials.
Certainly there have been regular leaks in the form of peaceline confrontations, but there’s a reason why the restive sectarian hordes don’t raze the terrifyingly vulnerable Short Strand or why the Orangemen in bowlers and their supporters in baseball hats don’t pour over the Springfield Road into the little terrace streets: some bloke would step out and let off a burst on full automatic and they’d have to leg it pronto.
I don’t mind admitting that if the people who burned Belfast last week made it as far as my street, in the sure and certain knowledge that Trevor would be otherwise engaged, I would be very grateful for the assistance of P O’Neill and Comrade Kalashnikov.
True, angry loyalists are not likely to make it as far as my gaff so I can afford to be fairly sanguine about this dumping arms business, but you can bet your last Northern Bank fiver that some people in the Short Strand, north Belfast and Portadown are tugging anxiously at their shirt collars at the prospect of the IRA giving up their gear.
Maybe the Irps are in for a bit of an Indian summer.

~~~~~~~~~

Throw well, throw Shell

I don’t get it: a million pound tank in Basra destroyed by a 5p petrol bomb and its fleet-footed occupants forced to display a bit of the old Dunkirk spirit. You’d think that at the design stage somebody might have worked out that at some point a tank is liable to come into contact with something burny. Obviously not.
Kid in my class disabled a saracen once with a hicker, which impressed the rest of us no end. Fair enough, a saracen didn’t cost a million quid – probably about the same price as a Morris Marina – but it was still a good example of not much achieving quite a lot.
3.35pm, Glen Road, winter 1975 and the footpaths outside St Mary’s and CBS were heaving with black-blazered schoolboys making their way home in the gathering gloom.
First thing new British army regiments did when they arrived in west Belfast was to take a drive at school letting-out time along the Falls and Glen roads to get a bit of local colour and excitement. We never let them down, of course, and schoolbags were dropped in the scramble to find something to throw at the saracens.
Clearly, having glass windscreens in saracens was not a good idea, and in their place was a series of narrow hatches at the front, side and back which could be raised and lowered as the circumstances required.
On this particular day the hatches were all open and I watched as a brick hurled by a fifth year traced a graceful arc against the darkening sky and, as if in slow motion, entered the front hatch without even touching the sides.
The noisy engine groaned and the vehicle lurched sideways, losing speed and coming to a rest against the red brick wall of the Bass Ireland brewery.
The passenger and back doors of the saracen flew open and the soldiers debussed at speed, one of them opening the driver’s door to pull the injured man out and drag him to the pavement and behind the vehicle.
The stoning stopped as suddenly as if somebody had flicked a switch and we shouldered our schoolbags and watched as a medic attended the injured squaddie, whose face was covered in blood.
A military man would tell you that that was the time to be ruthless and press home the attack, but to tell the truth, like everybody else I was paralysed by the realisation that this throwing bricks lark wasn’t a game.
When the incident wasn’t reported on the teatime news, I perked up considerably, though, and the tale I told in the youth club that night, while bearing little or no similarity to actual events, could comfortably have occupied a chapter in Great Military Victories of the 20th Century.
In all likelihood, there’s a young fella in Basra right now regaling his chums with tales of how he brought the British army to its knees.
His story’s probably embroidered a little, but it’s bound to be better than the gung-ho-ho Fleet Street version, which was along the lines of ‘Hero soldiers in tank manage not to get killed by blokes in sandals’.
Although I suppose, given how things are going in Iraq at present, any victory will do.

Sunday Times

Liam Clarke
September 25, 2005

Crossmaglen - photo by CHRISTOPHER FURLONG

BRITAIN deliberately delayed the demolition of its army watchtowers in Northern Ireland for political reasons, even though they had become an unnecessary financial burden, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland has revealed.

Peter Hain said the only reason they had stayed up for so long was to provide him with a reciprocal opportunity after the IRA had made its statement renouncing violence.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Hain said Lt General Sir Redmond Watt, the commander of British forces in Northern Ireland, regarded the towers as a drain on resources and was pressing for them to be demolished. Sir Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, had also told the secretary of state they were of no value to him.

Hain said: “People assume the taking-down of the watchtowers was some premature concession. The truth is that [they] have not been of any practical use to us in surveillance and security terms for some time.”

This assessment contradicts unionist claims that the demolition of the towers was a security gamble to appease the IRA. Hain insisted they had been a waste of manpower because “each of them requires nine soldiers to guard it all the time. Dismantling them and releasing the resources is something that the army wanted to do and had been pressing me to do”.

He added: “I kept them until after the IRA had made a statement to see what it contained . . . Then I thought it appropriate that the army would do what they wanted to do anyway.” His advice is that the watchtowers would not be needed “even if the IRA campaign resumed”.

Hain has also decided to disband home service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment with more than 3,000 soldiers, formerly known as the UDR. The home service battalions cannot be sent abroad and were a permanent military backup for the police during the Troubles. The decision has been criticised by unionists as another sop to terrorism.

Quoting previously unpublished statistics, Hain said: “The figures shown to me by the army before July 28 [when the IRA formally ended its campaign] indicate that the home battalions were operating at 4% of capacity.

“Even over the weekend of violence which followed the re-routing of the Whiterock parade only 1,200 out of 3,000 RIR home-service soldiers were actually deployed on the streets. So in a very difficult situation, with the police under fire, you still didn’t need a lot of them. You can’t actually justify them on security grounds or on the wider imperatives of the United Kingdom’s strategic defence needs.”

Even in peacetime about 5,000 regular soldiers would be garrisoned for training at Northern Ireland bases, and there would, Hain says, be more than enough to back up the police in any emergency.

The secretary of state is not counting on violence resuming. He believes the IRA is in “shut down” mode and he is working to get the loyalists to do the same.

Over the summer he was pressed by most of the political parties to declare the UVF ceasefire at an end by “specifying” the organisation that murdered four people as part of a feud against the rival LVF. Hain, however, stayed his hand until he thought the moment was right. For several days he claimed not to have had time to read an independent monitoring report showing that the UVF ceasefire was at an end.

Hain revealed that he delayed the decision to allow for mediation between the rival factions. “There were attempts to broker an end to the feud,” he said. “A premature specification could have got in the way of that.”

He insists he had kept up the security pressure throughout the summer and had “personally authorised a whole series of preventative measures, to stop murders taking place”. This could be coded language for bugging and surveillance operations, but the minister refused to elaborate.

For the time being Hain has vetoed negotiations with loyalist paramilitaries and removed funding from organisations in which they are involved.

In the longer term he argues that “dialogue with people who claim a political objective is always the best way forward. We are a long way away from that but let’s just say we have an intensive process of engagement ahead. I hope it will be successful and I have every indication that it will be”.

Sunday Times

Anne McIlhenny

ANNIE MAGUIRE, who was wrongly jailed in 1976 for running an IRA bomb factory in England, has said the Catholic church deserted her when she needed it most.

Writing in a recently published book, Why I am Still a Catholic, Maguire says she was rejected by the clergy and congregation in her parish while she served nine years in prison, and had a series of battles with prison chaplains who wanted her to admit her guilt.

She, her husband and two of their four children, then teenagers, were part of a family group, known as the Maguire Seven, jailed for supposedly running a bomb factory at their London home. Maguire was an aunt of Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four wrongly imprisoned for an IRA bomb attack that killed five people.

Maguire reveals she had a blazing row with a priest who heard her confession in prison, because she would not ask for forgiveness for the offences for which she was convicted. The 69-year-old great-grandmother is scathing about how she was treated by a church she had been faithful to all her life.

“There were things that hurt me about the church when I was inside. Nobody from the parish I had lived in all those years made any effort to contact me,” she said. “I had no help whatsoever from the church in London. And the Irish church didn’t hurry to support me. Bishop Edward Daly of Derry came to Durham to visit Ann and Eileen Gillespie [two IRA prisoners from Donegal] but he didn’t see me.

“That hurt because although I lived in London I was Northern Irish. He must have known I was there.” Daly said yesterday that he had not intended to cause Maguire any hurt. “If she had asked I would have seen her. I am very sorry she’s hurt; there was no hurt intended.”

Maguire says prison chaplains angrily refused to accept that she was innocent. She recalls a stormy confrontation during confession with one chaplain, who had previously served in the British Army. The priest rejected her claim that she had nothing to confess, saying “that’s nonsense, you are in prison”. When Maguire protested her innocence the priest warned her “not to go down that road”. She replied that if she was not allowed to tell the truth there was no point in a confession. He asked her: “Who do you think you are, the Virgin Mary herself?” Maguire walked out of the confession.

Maguire says her Catholicism did help her forgive those behind the miscarriage of justice. “I didn’t struggle with the forgiveness. I couldn’t hate everybody who did this to me ” She praised Cardinal Basil Hume, who eventually campaigned to clear the seven. “I remember looking up at God and asking, ‘Is this the one you’ve sent’? I didn’t see Basil Hume so much as sent by the church as by God.”

Jon Ungoed-Thomas

A FORMER Special Branch officer has been cleared of breaching the Official Secrets Act by leaking classified documents to a Sunday Times journalist.

Peter Adamson, 50, a retired detective, was found not guilty last Friday after a court in Ballymena, Co Antrim, was told the crown would offer no evidence against him because the prosecution was not considered in the public interest.

The documents allegedly leaked to Liam Clarke, Northern Ireland editor of The Sunday Times, and Kathryn Johnston, his wife, were transcripts of tapped phone conversations recorded by MI5 and Special Branch at the home of Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator from 1998 to 2001.

The transcripts are of conversations between McGuinness; Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president; Jonathan Powell, chief of staff to the prime minister; and the late Mo Mowlam, then Northern Ireland secretary.

In them, Mowlam addresses McGuinness as “babe” and outlines her differences with Tony Blair while Powell describes unionist MPs as “asses”. Mowlam authorised the tap.

The content of the calls, including the “babe” reference, had been referred to in The Sunday Times in 2002 and the documents were reproduced in full as an appendix to a biography of McGuinness by Clarke and Johnston entitled From Guns to Government, published in April 2003. On the night of the book’s publication, Adamson’s home was raided by armed police who arrested him. The next evening there was a similar raid on the home of Clarke and Johnston and on the office of The Sunday Times in Belfast, where police battered down the door. Clarke and Johnston were taken to a terrorist holding unit and questioned over a 20-hour period.

It later emerged that the warrants used in the raid on the journalists’ home and the Sunday Times office were unlawful.

Nuala O’Loan, the Northern Ireland police ombudsman, subsequently ordered disciplinary action against eight officers from constable to chief superintendent. In a highly critical report, which was accepted without dispute by the police service of Northern Ireland, she condemned the police action as “a poorly led and unprofessional operation” and listed 32 separate breaches of the rules committed by the officers.

“It is a big relief to myself and my family who possibly suffered even more than I have,” Adamson said through his solicitor.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP MP for Lagan Valley, has championed the case. “This was a man who served the community well and saved countless lives as a result of his police expertise,” he said. “Yet he had to endure all of this while former terrorists are able to walk the streets.”

Sunday Times

Extradition for Colombia three ‘to fail’
THE extradition request from the Colombian authorities for the return of the Colombia three stands little chance of success without significant revision, Irish officials say.

The say weak legal grounding, slipshod presentation and poor translation are among the significant flaws in the 400 pages of documentation sent from Bogota seeking the return of James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly to serve sentences for training Farc guerrillas.

Further requests for documentation from Bogota and a process of negotiation between legal advisers to both governments are expected to improve the quality of the Colombian extradition bid.

“This is likely to be a very long process,” said a government official. “The papers are not in the best shape. This is the beginning of a process, and it is likely to go back and forth until the optimum level of application is there.

“The legal people are just not happy with the basis on which the Colombian application has been made.”

Another government source said: “It is not going to stand up to any kind of extradition process, it is not even done very well. A 400-page document arrived that was written in Spanish and translated into English over there before they sent it. It is coming from a very different legal system and at the end of the day we don’t have extradition with them.”

The taoiseach raised the question of the Colombia three in talks with Sinn Fein at Government Buildings last week. Bertie Ahern told Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness that the circumstances surrounding the three’s return was clearly “an issue” affecting the peace process, but the case would now go through the legal process and was out of the hands of government.

Dermot Ahern, the minister for foreign affairs, met Carolina Barco, his Colombian counterpart, last week on the fringes of the United Nations assembly in New York. Ahern told Barco that whatever decision was eventually made on extradition, the government expected it to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court by either the three men or the state.

The examination of the papers from Colombia will take several weeks, if not months, before a decision is reached on how to proceed.

It is the responsibility of Michael McDowell, the justice minister, to certify that an extradition request has been received in respect of the three men. The chief state solicitor would then apply to the High Court for arrest warrants for the three, which would trigger a hearing of the court.

Any ruling by the High Court would inevitably be appealed to the Supreme Court. Domestic rulings on extradition are not amenable to further appeal in European courts.

One of the three men, Jim Monaghan, took part in the Sinn Fein-organised Rally for Irish Unity in Dublin yesterday. Monaghan joined a number of men carrying a banner bearing the slogan “Free all political prisoners now”.

Monaghan revealed the return of the men in August when he was interviewed at a secret location by RTE. He subsequently made himself available for interview by gardai at a Dublin station.

Sunday Independent

CAROLINE CRAWFORD

MINISTER for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday described as “a grotesque pageant of political necrophilia” a Sinn Fein rally in Dublin where children posed with replica rifles. **Ahhh, ‘replica’ rifles–all we’re left with… ‘Political necrophilia’–what a catchy phrase!

JUST 24 hours before the GAA’s showpiece All-Ireland football final between Kerry and Tyrone, Dublin authorities allowed the city grind to a halt for the blatant display of IRA propaganda.

Children posed with replica rifles in their hands yesterday as thousands of SF/IRA sympathisers brought the streets to a standstill at the height of a busy Saturday afternoon.

Among the 3,000-strong crowd that choked traffic along O’Connell Street for the march, some participants wore paramilitary uniforms while others dressed up as British soldiers.

Gardai drafted in to police the event stood around as children and adults posed for photos clutching replica machine guns in their hands and paramilitary-style floats sailed past.

As tourists, including many British visitors, milled around near the GPO, SF/IRA supporters erected a fake British security tower near the Spire.

Signs of “Welcome to South Armagh, Brit training ground” covered what organisers were describing as “a float”.

Parents queued up to have their children, some only months old, sit between men who were made up in combat gear wielding imitation rifles.

More posters demanded, “Remove these gunmen from South Armagh” but failed to say exactly which gunmen they were referring too.

Other floats had celebrated the hunger strikers, cloaked in brown blankets, as pipe bands brought them all along O’Connell Street.

One women stared on in amazement as the entire group went past before muttering “I hope there won’t be trouble.”

Children ran among the crowds with their faces painted in the tricolour while on the main stage, men dressed as the hunger strikers read from the diary of Bobby Sands, while others dressed as Padraic Pearse read pieces of verse.

Tourists caught up in the crowds seemed shocked by the entire event. “It’s a little overwhelming. It’s a different side of Ireland than we’ve seen before,” said Kaitlin Fronczek, from Pennsylvania who is studying here.

One tourist from Sweden said he was “surprised by the amount of support Sinn Fein were getting.”

Mary Lou McDonald addressed the crowd between the entertainment, describing it as “a day of celebration and optimism and remembrance.” She added that the crowds showed the “extent of our confidence as Irish Republicans.”

The party bizarrely claims to be the republican party of the same name founded in 1905, a claim roundly rejected by politicians including Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

That claim was also rejected in a Supreme Court judgement in 1948 in the celebrated case of Buckley versus the Attorney General in what became known as the Sinn Fein Funds case.

Drivers expressed frustration as traffic ground to a halt and city centre streets were closed to accommodate the rally attended by hundreds of Sinn Fein/IRA sympathisers and which addressed by Sinn Fein’s leader Gerry Adams.

Gardai at the scene confirmed that they had been inundated with complaints by angry commuters, furious that the city was being disrupted for such an event.