SAOIRSE32

An Phoblacht

02 February 2006

Two nationalist families had lucky escapes after a unionist gang from the Tigers’ Bay area of North Belfast attacked their homes with petrol bombs on Tuesday night, 24 January.

One petrol bomb caused scorch damage to the upper floor of a house in Parkend Street while another landed on the pavement in Newington Street off the Limestone Road.

Sinn Féin Councillor Caral Ní Chuilin said nationalist residents are very concerned about ongoing sectarian attacks at the North Belfast interface and called for interface workers to continue to work together to stop attacks.

“It is my understanding that interface workers from both sides were in contact with each other after these sectarian attacks and that measures were taken to ensure the situation was brought under control. I very much welcome and encourage this extremely vital work and commend all those involved.”

An Phoblacht

02 February 2006

The 31st anniversary of the death in action of Sligo IRA Volunteer Kevin Coen from Riverstown was commemorated at his graveside in Sooey on Sunday 22 January.

Volunteer Kevin Coen tragically lost his life on 20 January 1975 during a gun battle with the British Army at Cassidy’s Cross on the Fermanagh/Cavan border.

A large crowd attended the ceremony this year including several generations of the Coen family. Poignantly also in attendance were relatives of Martin Savage from Ballisodare, the first Volunteer to lose his life during the Tan War, in December 1919.

Notable also this year was the large number of elected representatives present from a across party political spectrum.

Members of the Coen/Savage Sinn Féin Cumann laid wreaths on the grave. The main oration was delivered by Sinn Féin Councillor Seán MacManus who spoke movingly of Kevin Coen’s courage and selflessness. “His dedication to the cause of Irish freedom was amply demonstrated at a time when the establishment parties in this state were concerned only with their own self-interest. Kevin too could have ignored the plight of the nationalist population but instead took the decision to join the Republican Movement.

Although Kevin Coen lost his life in the course of this struggle it is thanks to him and other men and women like him, that the nationalist population today can hold their heads up high and look forward with confidence to a brighter future.” MacManus alluded to the scope of the republican vision, predicting that we would certainly see a United Ireland in our lifetime. He stressed however that “A new society is needed, one that is fairer and does not leave 20% of its population below the poverty level or allow its ill to languish on hospital trolleys.”

A minute’s silence was observed in honour of Kevin Coen before the ceremony concluded.

An Phoblacht

Thomas Devlin murder - North Belfast loyalist chief suspect

02 February 2006

It has emerged that the main suspect in the sectarian killing of North Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin in August last year was on bail at the time.

The 20-year-old suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was subsequently sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

According to neighbours of the North Belfast loyalist, he stabbed Devlin five times in the back as the schoolboy returned home from a garage where he had gone to buy sweets.

At the time of the sectarian killing the PSNI said the main suspects were two men who had been seen in the area.

Subsequently three men, including a juvenile, were arrested and questioned about the killing but were later released without charge.

An Phoblacht has been told that the killers are members of the UVF and its junior wing, the Young Citizen Volunteers and are known to the PSNI.

Members of the PSNI searched the suspect’s flat on the loyalist Mount Vernon Estate two weeks ago.

An Phoblacht

The IMC - In breach of the Good Friday Agreement

02 February 2006

Early in December 2005 Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy MP began proceedings in the High Court in London to have the establishment of the so-called Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) declared unlawful.

Sinn Féin is challenging:

• The IMC’s right to recommend sanctions against political parties

• The IMC’s lack of independence

• The IMC’s political bias

• The IMC’s procedures and failure to apply proper standards of proof in arriving at conclusions or attributions of responsibility for various activities.

Sinn Féin opposed the establishment of the Independent Monitoring Commission in January 2004 describing it as a breach of the Good Friday Agreement.

Its ability to recommend sanctions against a political party is fundamentally undemocratic and a subversion of the rights of citizens to vote for representatives of their choice.

It was a concession to the UUP’s David Trimble and has been used successfully by anti-agreement unionists and elements within the British system to delay and frustrate the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

The IMC is not independent. Its four members are all political appointees who bring to their task their own political baggage.

John Alderdice is a former leader of the Alliance Party and an avowed political opponent of Sinn Féin. Alderdice is currently the President of the International Liberal Alliance.

Another member, John Grieve is a former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police and National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism who at one stage expressed a desire to become an Assistant Chief Constable in the RUC, a force he apparently held in high regard. John Grieve is the Chairman of the John Grieve Centre for Policing and Community Safety. The John Grieve Centre receives financial payments from the PSNI whose members deliver lectures and receive training at the centre. Ronnie Flanagan, former Chief Constable of the RUC is a Board member.

Another member is Richard Kerr, former Deputy Director of the CIA.

The other IMC member, Joe Brosnan is a former senior official on the Irish Department of Justice.

The IMC’s primary sources for information are from within the ranks of the PSNI, British Army, NIO and others within the British security system — the same people who have been behind a whole series of allegations and politically-motivated actions against republicans, including the disgraceful arrest of Sinn Féin MLA Francie Brolly, and the raid on Sinn Féin’s office at Stormont.

These are the same people and agencies who were indicted in the Barron Report, in the Cory Report and who stand accused of involvement in decades of torture and murder, including colluding with unionist paramilitary death squads.

Occasionally information is drawn from the unsubstantiated accusations of political opponents of Sinn Féin.

Standards of Proof

When challenged by solicitors about the standards of proof it applies to the information it receives and publishes the IMC said: “We are not bound by the strict rules of evidence applicable in a court of law.”

In fact, the IMC’s procedures are fundamentally flawed. It refuses to hold public hearings. It denies affected parties any opportunity to be present when evidence is being heard. It denies affected parties access to documentation or information or any opportunity to challenge allegations against them.

The IMC’s conclusions are based on untested and unpublished information from unidentified sources which are inherently unreliable and are incapable of verification. It therefore sits in judgment on Sinn Féin and on its electorate without any fair or public hearing.

When Sinn Féin asked the IMC what standards of proof it employed to reach its conclusions it couldn’t say. It could only suggest that the party should not approach the IMC as it would a court of law, or a tribunal.

The IMC regards itself as ‘unique’. The ‘uniqueness’ of the standards of proof they apply can be gauged from their liberal use of phrases such as ‘we believe’, ‘we are persuaded’, ‘may be attributable’, ‘we are convinced’, ‘we are satisfied’ etc, etc, without ever presenting a single shred of evidence to back up its assertions.

Moreover, while accepting that Sinn Féin is not in a position to determine the policies or operational strategies of the IRA the IMC has, on the basis of alleged activities by the IRA, recommended sanctions against Sinn Féin which penalises the party’s electorate and benefits its opponents. This is entirely undemocratic.

Bias and incompetence

In February 2005 the IMC issued a report, without evidence of any kind, in which it alleged that senior members of Sinn Féin sanctioned the Northern Bank robbery, as well as other robberies.

In stark contrast the IMC has never mentioned the DUP links with Ulster Resistance or the fact that the bulk of the guns imported by Ulster Resistance remain in their hands. Not once has it mentioned the fact that guns from this consignment were used by unionist death squads to kill hundreds of nationalists.

It also managed to present reports on loyalist paramilitary violence without mentioning, even once, the role of the Special Branch, British agents or the issue of collusion. In fact, the reports have reduced unionist paramilitary activity to a postscript and exonerated the British state entirely.

Quite apart from the political bias it has shown the commission has also displayed a degree of incompetence which is entirely unacceptable. For example, they wrongly attributed the death of Michael O’Hare in a fire in Bangor in March 2003 to unionist paramilitaries. This was subsequently found to be untrue.

The Commission wrongly said that the INLA was made up of “disaffected members of the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA following the 1972 ceasefire”. Anyone with any knowledge of these matters knows that the INLA was a breakaway group from the Official IRA which was formed in 1975.

In its October 2005 report, the IMC made a series of unsubstantiated allegations against the IRA which do not stand up to scrutiny. For example they refer to two assaults which they attribute to the IRA. We questioned the truth of these allegations and asked for information on these two assaults from the British Government. Neither the IMC nor the two governments have been able to provide any evidence that these incidents ever occurred.

The Commission’s reports and recommendations are clearly discriminatory. The Good Friday Agreement provides a basis for sanction of those parties which breach the Agreement. Sinn Féin supports the use of sanction within the terms of the Agreement. It rejects all sanctions outside the terms of the Agreement.

Sinn Féin rejects the partisan quango that is the IMC and rejects its attacks on the party and its electorate. The IMC is a tool of British securocrats.

It should be declared unlawful on the grounds of bias and lack of any application of standards of proof. Sinn Féin is seeking the reports of the IMC to date declared void and the reliance on these reports by the British Secretary of State declared unlawful. It is undemocratic, unaccountable and entirely unacceptable. It should be decommissioned.

An Phoblacht

BY FERN LANE
02 February 2006

Bloody Sunday 34th anniversary - Hopes and fears for Saville Inquiry

With the Saville Inquiry due to announce its findings later this year, more than ever before this year’s Bloody Sunday commemoration march felt like the collective holding of breath of a community which has so longed for, and fought so hard for, justice for those of its members who were gunned down on their streets by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment 34 years ago.

On the one hand, there is a tentative daring to believe that the truth about Bloody Sunday — already known to the families of the dead and the people of Derry — might now be acknowledged by the British state and that justice will, finally, be within grasp; but on the other, a fear that, it may still, at the very last, be snatched away once again by an establishment which has consistently violated the rights and violently suppressed the aspirations of the nationalist community in the Six Counties.

Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness joined the thousands of people who, led by the families of the dead, wound their way down from the brilliant sunshine of the Creggan into the gathering mist of Free Derry Corner. There the rally was addressed by Kay Duddy, whose brother Jackie Duddy was killed on Bloody Sunday, Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney, Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice and Derry SDLP Councillor Colm Eastwood.

Kay Duddy spoke of the Bloody Sunday families’ hopes and fears for the outcome of the Saville Inquiry, saying that 2006 had the potential to be a watershed year for their campaign and for others who have lost loved ones at the hands of the British state. “It has the potential to send a wave of hope or a sea of despair to all the other victims of state violence on this island,” she said. “Bloody Sunday has long been seen as a litmus test for the British Government in Ireland, and as a beacon of hope for many other families and campaigns which have not had the opportunities nor witnessed the progress we have achieve.

“We are conscious that there are many families throughout Ireland who are looking to the Saville Report to get a sense of whether the British state is now prepared to face up to the consequences of their actions in Ireland. The true challenge of 2006 will be whether the British state can come to terms with the conclusions which I am confident the Saville Inquiry will deliver”.

She set out what the families require from Lord Saville’s report. “Firstly, that it will state clearly that British soldiers committed murder on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday. Secondly, that there was never any justification for the British Army’s actions carried out on the day. Thirdly, that the circumstances and atmosphere created within the Parachute Regiment immediately prior to their deployment in Derry were a direct contributor to their murderous actions. Fourthly, that culpability for events on the day lies with the British Government’s Ministers and British Army officers who made a decision to murder the civil rights movement on the streets of Derry, and that the British state must finally take full legal and political responsibility for the actions of their agents. And finally, that the lies and evasions which have characterised British state policy in relation to the murders are forever purged from the history books.”

Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney spoke about the effect which Bloody Sunday had on him, saying that it remained one of the seminal days of his life, an experience shared by many others of his generation.

“Whatever idealism we had that the Civil Rights Movement could deliver for us equality of opportunity and citizenship; whatever hope we had that those who created and nurtured the Northern state would accede to those demands, ended as we watched the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment charge up this street 34 years ago.

“Our hope and idealism collided with the might of the British state and it lay crushed alongside those who were killed and wounded only yards from where we now gather.”

He said that those in power often use the policy of “placing blame on those who are without blame, and guilt on those who are without guilt”.

“They decree that political opposition is unlawful and that activists are classed as enemies of the state and therefore not ‘true democrats’ — all neatly packaged within a policy of demonisation and criminalisation. That is why the march on Bloody Sunday was deemed illegal and banned.”

He reminded those present that 2006 also marks the 25th anniversary of the Hunger Strikes. “Ten men died to defend the integrity of the struggle for justice and equality. They defeated Britain’s policy of demonisation and criminalisation. Let us re-affirm those who ignore the legacy of the H-Block/Amagh Hunger Strikes — that we will not allow our struggle to be criminalised. Ever.”

He also spoke about the current difficulties in the Peace Process and called on unionists to enter into genuine power-sharing with nationalists. “They have run out of excuses,” he said, “and their rationale from not engaging is threadbare. Now is the time for all those who are genuinely interested in seeing the Peace Process advanced to show leadership and make a real and genuine effort to end the political vacuum.”

Daily Ireland

By Jarlath Kearney
01/02/2006

Major changes to the North’s education system were announced by direct-rule secretary of state Peter Hain yesterday.
During a major speech about future political and social developments in the North, Mr Hain said changes to the education system would take place.
A major focus will be on the development of students from the age of 14.
“We will continue to increase spending on public services in Northern Ireland each and every year, but we must be prepared to abandon established and entrenched spending programmes whose value has diminished with the passage of time,” Mr Hain said.
With the 11-plus exam scheduled to be phased out by 2008, all students will undertake a comprehensive education between the ages of 11 and 14.
Announcing an independent review of the education system, Mr Hain declared that the North’s new single education authority would be a given a strategic role in relation to the education of students between 14 and 19-years-old. He said: “That means an entire re-orientation of the education system around the critical age of 14 and the key life decisions young people must make at that age about their future careers.
“We need to see whether a new model of schooling, sharing across sectors, could help us achieve higher standards, better facilities and a better use of resources,” Mr Hain said.
Calling for action rather than words, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said the British government should now stop funding new schools, such as gaelscoileanna. “It [the government] encouraged Irish-medium schools and integrated schools, creating even more layers of providers. Hopefully, the secretary of state’s rhetoric will now be matched with actions,” Mr Wilson said.
“It is utter madness to be creating new schools and school places when there is not the new pupil numbers to fill them, especially when there are already spaces within the existing schools,” Mr Wilson said.
Sinn Féin education spokesperson Michael Ferguson insisted that the education reforms will have to bring about meaningful changes.
“We need our own local assembly and a local accountable minister to deliver a real budget to support education and learning. “Falling rolls should allow us the opportunity provide better teacher pupil ratios but instead, while pupil numbers are falling, class room sizes are rising. Falling rolls should allow us to better integrate special needs children into mainstream education as required under the new legislation but instead we have one class in Poleglass with 30 children and 19 of them have special needs,” he said.

Daily Ireland

01/02/2006

A new hospital with a difference was opened in Belfast yesterday.
The PetAid hospital in the city’s Antrim Road offers free veterinary treatment to the sick and injured pets of local people in need. It will serve over 73,000 eligible households, home to some 47,500 pets.
To be eligible to receive free veterinary care, pet owners must live within the postcode catchment area of the PetAid hospital and must provide proof of a current award of Housing Benefit and their identity. The catchment area for the new PetAid hospital is BT1-BT21, BT23-BT29, BT32, BT36-BT43 and BT62-BT67.
Appointments are available from today. To make an appointment pet owners should call the PetAid hospital on 02890 770977.
Senior Veterinary Surgeon at the PetAid hospital, Valerie Maguire, said: “It’s really wonderful being a part of PDSA’s first PetAid hospital in Northern Ireland. The facilities are excellent and we are looking forward to making a real difference to the lives of sick and injured pets.”

Daily Ireland

By Jarlath Kearney
01/02/2006

The Democratic Unionist Party has ruled out any power-sharing government with Sinn Féin before May 2007.
Ian Paisley’s party made the announcement the day before today’s publication of the latest Independent Monitoring Commission report.
The party yesterday published the content of an “options” paper given to the British government earlier this month. The paper — entitled Facing Reality — contains a range of suggestions to replace the inclusive power-sharing executive at the heart of the Northern assembly.
Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty said unionists must not be allowed a “veto” over political progress.
The DUP’s starting point is that a power-sharing executive is not “a prospect for the foreseeable future”.
“It is sufficient, at this stage, to say: waiting for the conditions required for executive devolution to arrive is likely to cause the opportunity for any form of devolution to pass, given the need to have the assembly operating before May 2007,” the DUP document said.
DUP leader Ian Paisley said: “The very idea of a power-sharing executive with Sinn Féin is just not tenable.
“Unlike the previous situation when the UUP led for unionism, the government will find that we will not be budging on our assessment of the situation.
“We will not be browbeaten or forced into submission on this point. We have outlined a realistic and viable process that will allow for the democratic community in Ulster to move forward with confidence.
“If it is devolution the parties want, it will be on this basis or else no devolution will occur. The choice is there and it is now over to others to make that choice, to face up to reality and to grasp the opportunity before them.”
Pat Doherty said the British and Irish governments must now “press ahead with the implementation of the Agreement, as demanded by the overwhelming majority of Irish people.
“The Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty passed overwhelmingly by the Irish people in referendum. The two governments have an obligation to press ahead with its full implementation in the time ahead,” Mr Doherty said.
“The DUP cannot be allowed to veto this process.
“The IRA initiatives of last year provide an opportunity for the two governments to speedily put together a process which will deliver a restoration of the political institutions. We have been pressing the governments to do this in discussions over recent weeks and this has to be the focus of the planned talks in early February.”
Mr Doherty described the DUP proposals as “an attempt to subvert the political process and delay the process of change”.
“The two governments have an obligation to stand by the Agreement and its power-sharing core. This includes the power-sharing executive. Sinn Féin will not countenance a move away from the fundamental principles which underpin the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Democratic Unionists needed to accept that they “have no right to write off the Good Friday Agreement”.
Mr Durkan said his party “will never accept” the dilution of “executive devolution”.
“Even if other parties are ambiguous, we are clear that there is no acceptable level of direct rule. Finally, not once in what the DUP has said today have they mentioned the North-South agenda. Yet it too is a fundamental part of the Agreement and an integral part of what the SDLP has always stood for. DUP papers which do not address North-South simply don’t address political reality,” he said.

Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

01/02/2006

A retired member of the RUC yesterday said he believes his former colleagues will try to kill him.
Former RUC man Johnston “Jonty” Brown made the claim during a BBC Radio 4 interview.
During the interview, it emerged that the former CID detective sergeant had recently been warned that the Ulster Volunteer Force in north Belfast had his home address and vehicle details and was planning to attack him.
After confirming that he was in fear of his life, Mr Brown told interviewer Fergal Keane that he believed some of his former police colleagues would help try to kill him.
“I fear that the people that are nominated as those who are coming after me have been sent in my direction by those sinister elements to which I refer within the Special Branch.”
Mr Keane then asked the former Special Branch man: “So you believe your police colleagues in Special Branch are still trying to kill you?” Mr Brown replied: “Yes, I do.”
A spokesperson for the Police Ombudsman’s office last night said the team would examine Mr Brown’s remarks closely.
“We will get a tape of the programme and look at what Mr Brown has said.
“We need to examine what Mr Brown has said and hear the context in which he said it,” said the spokesperson.
Johnston Brown served in the RUC and PSNI for almost 30 years.
He was responsible for helping to put former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) boss Johnny Adair behind bars in 1995 on charges of directing terrorism. Adair’s UDA C company faction carried out a pipe-bomb attack on Mr Brown’s Co Antrim home in October 2000.
The former RUC detective sergeant recruited one-time UDA hitman Ken Barrett as an informer in 1991.
To date, Mr Barrett is the only person to have been convicted in connection with the murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane, who was gunned down in his north Belfast home by the UDA in 1989.
It was Mr Brown who revealed that RUC Special Branch had switched undercover recordings of Ken Barrett confessing his part in the Finucane murder before the recordings were handed over to officials from the Stevens inquiry.
Despite having a taped admission made to Mr Brown in 1991, the RUC refused to prosecute Ken Barrett.
Instead, Special Branch recruited him as an informer.
Mr Brown recently described Ken Barrett as “the most sinister man I ever met”.
The PSNI last night rejected Mr Brown’s remarks that his life was under threat from former colleagues.
“We reject absolutely any allegation that a member of the PSNI would seek to harm Mr Brown. Where we receive information to suggest that someone’s personal security is at risk, we take steps to inform that person.
“We never ignore anything that would put someone’s life in danger. Should anyone have a complaint, they should make contact with the office of the Police Ombudsman,” said the PSNI.

RTÉ

01 February 2006 19:47

The DUP leader, Ian Paisley, told RTÉ News that he wants General De Chastelain to reopen the issue of decommissioning following today’s reports by the Independent Monitoring Commission and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.

Ian Paisley said that originally his party had been told all IRA guns had been decommissioned but that he had recently received a letter from the General saying that his commission ‘may have been misinformed’.

The DUP leader said that having seen the IMC report he did not think that republican paramilitaries had made any progress.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has called for the resumption of powersharing in Northern Ireland. Dermot Ahern was speaking in London following the publication of the reports.

Mr Ahern said the IRA had made significant progress in switching off its paramilitary machine. He said the IMC report contained enough to re-start talks on the resumption of powersharing.

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, told MPs earlier that, while it was crucial that all criminal activity must cease, there had been considerable progress and that the IRA’s decommissioning statement last July remained significant.

The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning today said it had investigated media reports and suggestions by security sources in Northern Ireland that individuals and groups in the IRA had retained a range of arms.

However, the head of the IICD, General John de Chastelain, and his colleagues have concluded that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the assessment they made about IRA weapons decommissioning in September remains correct.

RTÉ

01 February 2006 15:43

The IRA has denied allegations that the organisation had gone back on the pledges it made last year.

A statement signed by P O’Neill today said that the IRA has honoured all public commitments made in July last year, and that any allegations to the contrary were politically motivated.

The statement follows the release of the latest report by the Independent Monitoring Commission.

In its report the IMC says its firm view is that the present IRA leadership has taken the strategic decision to end the armed campaign and pursue the political course.

But it also says there are some signs that are neutral and a few more that are disturbing.

It says there are indications that the IRA appears to retain long-term intentions to gather intelligence, which the IMC says is a matter for concern.

The commission says it believes the IRA continues to engage in intelligence gathering, and has no present intention of doing otherwise.

It says it believes this is an activity that is authorised by the leadership and which involves some very senior members. While some of it may be for defensive purposes, the report says such activity is predominantly directed towards supporting the political strategy.

On the issue of republican paramilitary involvement in criminality, the IMC report says it does not believe that recent punishment beatings were sanctioned by the leadership but that the contrary appears to be the case.

Referring to allegations that an IRA member or former member may have been involved in the killing of Dublin man Joseph Rafferty in April 2005, the IMC report says it has no reason to believe the murder was carried out on behalf of the IRA.

However, the IMC believes that members of both Sinn Féin and the IRA were aware in advance of the threat and ‘did not take sufficient action to prevent it’.

Loyalists

Turning to loyalist paramilitary groups, the IMC says it believes the Ulster Defence Association was behind the killing of one of its former leaders, Jim Gray, in east Belfast last October.

While UDA leaders signalled last November that they wanted to engage with the Government in talks about their organisation’s future, the IMC also accused them of a sectarian attack in early September, trying to procure weapons, drug dealing, extortion, money laundering, producing and selling counterfeit goods and robbery.

The commission claims that that the UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force orchestrated disturbances after restrictions were imposed on an Orange Order parade in the Whiterock area of west Belfast in September.

The UVF and Red Hand Commando remained, in the IMC’s view, active, despite the ending of its feud with the rival LVF in August.

The commission said UVF members carried out shootings and assaults and also sectarian attacks between September and late November.

The IMC said the UVF had tried to acquire weapons and while it remained involved in organised crime, the leadership was making efforts to reduce criminality, especially drug dealing, within its ranks.

The IMC noted that the Loyalist Volunteer Force declared in October that it would stand down its military units. But the commission said there was no evidence of this occurring as yet.

During the period under review, the LVF, which ended a bloody feud with the UVF in August, remained heavily involved in organised crime, including drugs, said the IMC report.

BN.ie

01/02/2006 - 13:54:43

The so-called Rossport Five have decided to cease their cooperation with the man appointed to mediate in their dispute with the global oil firm Shell.

The five Co Mayo men spent more than 90 days in prison last year for refusing to obey a court ruling ordering them not to obstruct work on the Corrib gas pipeline.

Former trade union official Peter Cassells was subsequently appointed by the Government as a mediator to oversee talks aimed at resolving the dispute.

However, the five men have now announced that they will no longer be meeting Mr Cassells in protest at alleged interference in the mediation process by Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey.

A spokesperson said the men were angry at this interference as they were led to believe that the mediation process would only involve Shell and the local community.

IAIS

02/01/06 05:28 EST

The IRA has ceased recruiting and training new members but the group is still involved in intelligence gathering and organised crime, the highly contentious International Monitoring Commission (IMC) alleged today.

Today’s report follows the relevation earlier this week that the IMC’s independence was being challenged in the courts with a claim that a company connected to one of its members receives payments from the PSNI.

High Court proceedings in London, issued on behalf of Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, argue that it cannot be seen as independent because of former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve’s position as director of the John Grieve Centre for Policing the Community Safety.

Legal submissions obtained state: “The John Grieve Centre has confirmed that it receives payments from the PSNI for PSNI delegates who attend Commissioner Grieve’s centre. The John Grieve Centre also confirm that PSNI officers deliver lectures to seminars and conferences organised by, and for the benefit of [the centre].”

Mr Murphy’s lawyers argue that any direct or indirect financial relationship between Mr Grieve and the PSNI renders the IMC incapable of delivering “independent or fair” reports.

In its eighth report on the activities of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, the group said there was “no evidence” of recruitment or training for paramilitary purposes, although non-paramilitary briefings ‘appear’ to continue.

In July last year, the IRA announced that it had formally ordered the end of its armed campaign. This statement was backed up in September when the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) said the organisation had put all of its weapons beyond use.

But today’s report implies that a certain number of arms may have been retained “such as a limited number of handguns kept for personal protection or some items the whereabouts of which was no longer known” .

“These same reports do not cast doubt on the declared intention of the PIRA leadership to eschew terrorism. For our part, we are clear that this latter is their strategic intent.”

The reports on the retention of weapons emanate from “security sources in Northern Ireland”, according to a letter from the IICD to the two governments, published in conjunction with today’s IMC report.

Sinn Féin has accused securocrats of trying to wreck the peace process by providing the basis for the suggestions the IRA has not fully decommissioned its weapons.

The IMC, however, believes there is “no intention” by the IRA to target members of the security forces for the purposes of attack and there is no evidence that the PIRA has carried out any authorised paramilitary attacks in the period under review the report. The leadership of the group has given instructions that members should not be involved in rioting, the IMC reports.

However, the report goes on to allege that the IRA continue to engage in intelligence gathering and have “no present intention of doing otherwise”.

“This is an activity which we believe is authorised by the leadership and which involves some very senior members,” the report said. “While some of it may be for defensive purposes, it is predominantly directed towards supporting the political strategy.”

The alleged intelligence gathering involves, among other things, the continued attempt to penetrate public and other institutions “with the intention of illegally obtaining or handling sensitive information”, according to the Commission.

The Commission report also alleges there are indications that IRA units in some areas have been closing down criminal operations and getting rid of contraband goods.

But members and former members continue to be “heavily involved in serious organised crime, including counterfeiting and the smuggling of fuel and tobacco”, the report says.

The PIRA also seemed to be using experts and specialists able to assist in the management of illegal assets, it adds.

In its last report in October, the IMC reported that, although it was too early to draw firm conclusions about the IRA ending all activities, there were encouraging signs to show the organisation was moving away from its armed campaign.

The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in January 2004 to monitor the activity of paramilitary organisations. Three of its four members are appointed by the British government and it bases its assessments on security force briefings from the PSNI and British Intelligence in Northern Ireland.

The IRA had been challenged over allegations that it held on to some weapons after claiming all its guns and explosives were dumped. But General John de Chastelain, head of the international decommissioning body, carried out an investigation when accusations by the security forces against the IRA were made to him in Northern Ireland last week.

Republicans questioned IRA commanders as part of their own inquiries and later stated that no guns had been retained and hidden in secret hide-outs.

At the same time, police in the Irish Republic also said it had no intelligence to back up the claims, according to Gen de Chastelain.

The report also said the IRA had made progress since last July, when it declared an end to its armed campaign, to transform itself from a paramilitary organisation into a peaceful one.

London, Dublin and Washington will see this report as confirmation that the IRA is showing clear signs of a commitment to the peace process, even though claims that some of their men held on to weapons are likely to raise Unionist suspicions that there are elements within the IRA prepared to return to violence.

Last September the IRA said they got rid of all their remaining guns and explosives, an act carried out under the supervision of Gen de Chastelain, who said he was satisfied that all weapons under their control had been decommissioned.

In his new report to the British and Irish Governments, he said in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the assessment remained correct.

But these new allegations by unnamed security sources are bound to anger the Sinn Fein leadership of Gerry Adams, which is due to have talks with the British and Irish Governments on Monday in a bid to get the troubled peace process back on track.

The Rev Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionists, the Ulster Unionists, SDLP and the Alliance Party will be at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, as well, but there is virtually no chance of getting the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly restored in the foreseeable future, even though Secretary of State Peter Hain said today`s IMC report was a positive one.

He said: “It shows that the IRA is moving in the right direction and is closing down, no murders, no recruitment and no bank robberies. There is enough progress in this report to make the process of talking meaningful, not an Executive up and running tomorrow, but the beginning of a process of genuine and purposeful engagement.”

He added: “For the good of the people of Northern Ireland, we need to strive to get to where we want to go, and not get mired in where we`ve been.”

Today`s IMC report also claimed:

:: The emergence of two new hardline dissident republican groups;

:: Concern that paramilitaries are using some neighborhood justice schemes as a cover to control communities;

:: The loyalist Ulster Defence Association, which shot dead one of its former leaders Jim Gray last year, may disarm if it feels the British Government is addressing socio-economic concerns in Protestant communities.

Irish foreign minister Dermot Ahern, who was with Mr Hain in London for today`s publication, will also be at Hillsborough on Monday for separate meetings with the parties.

Mr Hain said it was hugely significant that Gen de Chastelain`s IICD saw no reason to change its assessment of the IRA`s disarmament last September. But he said the picture painted in the report was not ‘perfect’.

He said: “It takes more than six months for the closing down of such a complex organisation. Even so, there is understandable and justified concern about criminality. We have always said that there are complex assessments to be made to distinguish between the criminal activities of individual PIRA (Provisional IRA) members for their own gain, and criminality carried out by PIRA members which is authorised by the organisation.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair`s official spokesman said: “What the IMC shows is that most of the signals, most of the signs, are positive. What that means is a very significant change in terms of IRA activity. Just, therefore, as it would be unreasonable for us to say everything`s perfect, so it would be unreasonable for people to say something significant has not occurred in relation to the IRA. What we are not saying is that the Executive should be set up tomorrow, but the dynamic is very firmly in the right direction.”

“There are issues in relation to organised crime and intelligence which have to be addressed, but the overall dynamic is very firmly in the right direction. The analogy which the IMC uses is of a supertanker which takes time to complete its turn and in doing so there is some turbulence in its wake.”

BreakingNews.ie

01/02/2006 - 07:34:44

The High Court in Belfast has frozen £700,000 (€1m) worth of assets belonging to two alleged fuel smugglers from south Armagh.

The assets include several properties in Co Armagh and Co Louth, as well as money in a range of bank accounts.

The Assets Recovery Agency claims the cash and property are the proceeds of fuel smuggling and the evasion of excise duty and VAT.

RTÉ

01 February 2006 11:26

Gardaí have raided more than 20 properties including a pub, a hotel and a number of solicitors and accountants’ offices in Dublin and Meath as part of an investigation into IRA money laundering.

More than 100 detectives carried out the searches over four days last week in an operation being led by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Gardaí believe the pub and the hotel were bought with the proceeds of crime and are being used to launder IRA money.

Three businessmen are suspected of being involved.

A man in his 50s from south Armagh is believed to be at the centre of the illegal operation.