SAOIRSE32

BN.ie

09/05/2006 - 19:42:44

The Irish Government must search US planes landing at Shannon Airport to establish whether they are carrying terrorist suspects, an United Nations expert on torture said tonight.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups claim the CIA is ferrying prisoners through the Mid-West hub en route to interrogation camps in other countries.

The Government said it has received repeated assurances from US authorities that nothing untoward was taking place on US aircraft stopping to refuel in Shannon.

But UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak today said in Dublin: “I think there is so much evidence that flights have also been used for rendition purposes so I would say that for the future there should be preventive measures to search these planes to make sure that they are not used for rendition purposes.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern recently called on anybody with any credible evidence of wrongdoing on the issue to contact the gardaí.

Mr Nowak was speaking at an international law seminar in Dublin on the issue of extraordinary rendition flights organised by Amnesty International and the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway.

A survey in March by Amnesty International’s Irish Section found three out of four respondents in Ireland share the organisation’s concerns about extraordinary rendition flights.

The purpose of today’s seminar was to assemble key international human rights experts and arrive at expert conclusions on this aspect of states’ duties in the context of extraordinary renditions.

Other speakers included Mona Rishmawi, juridical adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Roisin Pillay, legal officer for Europe at the International Commission of Jurists.

Irish Independent

‘BORDER Fox’ Dessie O’Hare, once the most wanted man in Ireland, is now living in fear and will not return to the North because he believes he will be shot.

The former INLA man, who was granted extended temporary release from prison late last month after serving 18 years of a 40-year sentence, fears he will be executed in a scenario similar to that which saw IRA spy Denis Donaldson shot dead.

Now living at an unknown location in, O’Hare is said to be under siege by reporters seeking to interview him.

Yesterday the man given the task of helping him to re-integrate into society, said O’Hare “could not and would not” talk to the media because it would breach the terms of his temporary release.

Paul Hogan, a member of the visiting committee at Castlerea Prison where O’Hare had been incarcerated before his release, gave an interview yesterday to strenuously deny that O’Hare was living in his home in Moycullen.

Mr Hogan, a Galway training centre supervisor who was appointed to the Castlerea Visiting Committee by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, said that an article in the ‘News of the World’ which featured a photograph of his house in Co Galway was “completely untrue”.

And he criticised a recent front-page article in ‘Ireland on Sunday’ which claimed O’Hare had asked for €10,000 for an exclusive interview as similarly untrue.

Speaking on Galway Bay FM, Mr Hogan said he wanted to make it clear that what Dessie O’Hare did - kidnapping and mutilating dentist John O’Grady - was “disgusting”.

But he stressed that 20 years had passed since that event.

“Dessie O’Hare is one of the most gentle people that I know on this earth,” Mr Hogan said. “If I thought any different, I would have nothing to do with him.”

He explained that one of his functions as a member of the Castlerea Prison Visiting Committee was to ensure that the welfare of prisoners was looked after.

“Over the years I got to know Dessie and befriended him. As the time approached for his temporary release, I was asked by Brian Purcell, Director General of the Irish Prison Service, to liaise with the welfare service and with the Governor of Castlerea prison to facilitate with this man’s release.”

Said Mr Hogan: “Dessie cannot go home because of a fear of his life, that he will be shot. And it is quite a legitimate fear when you take the Donaldson case as a scenario because when it appeared in the papers where Mr Donaldson was living, he was shot dead a couple of weeks later.

“Obviously, Dessie O’Hare has a past and he would have enemies in the North of Ireland that have been traumatised themselves.

“I would like to stress that there is nobody undermining the pain and suffering that people in the North have gone through.

“There is nobody undermining the pain and suffering that Mr O’Grady went through during the kidnapping, but that is not at issue here.”

He added that O’Hare had been told to keep a low profile and not do any media interviews.

Brian McDonald

Teenager’s family view floral tributes left where he was attacked

The mother of a 15-year-old boy murdered in a gang attack in County Antrim has paid tribute to her son.

Michael McIlveen, a Catholic, died in hospital on Monday evening after being beaten with a baseball bat in an alley in Ballymena, on Sunday.

His mother, Gina, said her son was “popular” with Catholic and Protestant friends: “I just can’t understand this at all - he didn’t deserve it.”

Four men and a juvenile are still being questioned about the sectarian assault.

Earlier on Tuesday, Michael’s uncle, Francis McIlveen, told the BBC’s Nolan programme the family wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened again.

“The family’s distraught at the minute, so they are,” he said.

“They just can’t believe it that wee Michael’s gone, a wee child, 15-years-of-age, lying in that bed, dead.”

The teenager, from the Dunvale area of Ballymena, was attacked after buying a pizza on Sunday. He had been on a life support machine at Antrim Area Hospital where his family had been at his bedside.

“I think now’s the time, if any time, in the memory of Michael McIlveen to put an end to sectarianism.”
Terry Shevlin
PSNI district commander

Michael was a pupil at St Patrick’s College in Ballymena which held a special assembly on Tuesday morning.

School principal Kate Magee said everyone was shocked by the death of Michael who, she said, had been very popular.

“We feel very much his loss,” she said. “We are supporting one another. It is very much a whole community effort to try to support the young people.”

Young people have been holding vigils in the teenager’s memory and flowers are being laid at the spot where he was attacked.

Michael McIlveen died after being attacked in Ballymena

Superintendent Terry Shevlin, who has pointed to a sectarian motive for the attack, said he there was a lot of emotion and anger at the murder.

“There’s maybe a turning point within Ballymena - that not just young people but adults, who at times behind the scenes would orchestrate young people to get involved in sectarianism, I think now’s the time, if any time, in the memory of Michael McIlveen, to put an end to that.”

‘Appeal for calm’

Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley, who is the local MP, said: “As we move towards the marching season, I would appeal for calm.”

He added: “I would call on all sides to pull back from the brink before tragedy is multiplied by catastrophe.”

Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey said the killing “illustrates the distance we have still to travel as a society to what could be described as normality”.

The Orange Order said in a statement that “no claim to political loyalty or religious affiliation can possibly justify such a reprehensible and wicked crime”.

Michael McIlveen was chased before being attacked

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said political leaders needed to work to “eradicate deep rooted sectarianism and discrimination wherever it exists”.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said it was a “sickening sectarian attack” which dragged Northern Ireland “back to the dark days of the past”.

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary David Lidington said “such naked sectarianism and savagery can have no place in any civilised society”.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said the killing was a “shocking reminder of the evils of sectarianism”.

Meanwhile, since the death of the youth, a large number of postings have been made about the killing on a website chat room used by young people.

Many make accusations against others in the town over the death.

A police spokesman said they were aware of the website and were monitoring it.

Daily Ireland

by Mick Hall

A life-SIZE sculpture of one of Ireland’s most celebrated trade union leaders was unveiled last night at a ceremony in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.
The bronze statue of Big Jim Larkin by the Belfast artist Anto Brennan was unfurled at the gable wall of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions office in Donegall Street Place.
This is close to Waring Street, where Larkin led the Belfast dockers’ strike of 1907.
The project started two years ago. It was jointly funded by the union federation and the Laganside Corporation.
The artist said: “It is appropriate that this sculpture should be unveiled on the eve of the centenary of those formative events in 1907.”
Mr Brennan and his studio Open Windows Productions form part of a new generation of artists located in the Cathedral Quarter, whose work is geared to representing the city’s cultural diversity.
The launch was complemented by a slide show of old Belfast by the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission, live music, poetry, and refreshments in the form of a soup kitchen and bar facilities provided by the neighbouring John Hewitt pub.
Many participants were dressed in period costume. John Gray, a historian based at Belfast’s Linen Hall library, delivered a talk about the significance of Larkin and the events of 1907.
Mr Gray said Larkin had “galvanised the previously unorganised and impoverished unskilled workers of the city, recruiting all the dockers and carters to the National Union of Dock Labourers”.
He added: “The strike was marked by extraordinary working-class unity across the sectarian divide and in the face of the overwhelming hostility of employers and the political establishment.
“Events in Belfast preceded and foreshadowed the famous Dublin lockout of 1912-13. They were the first milestone on the road to the organisation of unskilled workers in Ireland, a road on which there are still many milestones to be passed in achieving justice and equity for all.”

BN.ie

09/05/2006 - 19:07:34

No loyalist paramilitary disarmament is imminent, Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde said tonight.

And as new crime figures revealed Protestant terrorists carried out more than 90% of security-related shootings last year, a hardline Ulster Defence Association unit has been identified as the biggest barrier to the organisation abandoning violence.

But Sir Hugh warned loyalist bosses his officers were prepared to put even more behind bars.

He said: “Where are all the brigadiers now? The vast majority are charged with serious offences.

“The notion that we are doing nothing is just false.

“If they are going to commit crime we are going to come after them.

“I think we have shown we are going to do that, and we can do that at the most senior levels of their organisations.”

During 2005/06 there were six security-related deaths, up two on the year before.

Shooting incidents fell by 6.6% from 167 to 156, although bombings surged by nearly 69% from 48 to 81.

Rioting which flared around a disputed Orange Order march in Belfast has been recognised as a major factor in that rise.

Police also seized 365 guns and 112,748 rounds of ammunition during the last 12 months.

With the IRA announcing last July that it had abandoned violence, the overwhelming majority of paramilitary punishment attacks were blamed on loyalists.

There were 152 people injured, split evenly between shootings and beatings.

Loyalists carried out 92% of the gun attacks and three quarters of the assaults, according to police figures.

“Beatings and shootings in republican circles are almost zero,” Sir Hugh said.

“The paramilitary beatings within loyalism indicates where loyalism is in terms of the peace process.

“Clearly they still think its okay to take the law into their own hands to control some of their communities through fear.”

The Chief Constable insisted some of the paramilitaries were attempting to go down a new route.

“I do think there are some people within the UDA who are looking for a way out,” he said.

The UDA‘s North Belfast division is thought to be the most fiercely opposed to any new peacetime strategy.

Other commanders are rumoured to be on the verge of ousting brothers Andre and Ihab Shoukri, who run the unit, because of their lifestyle.

Questioned about the theory that this wing of the organisation poses the greatest barrier to a total shift away from violence, Sir Hugh replied: “I think that‘s a particular issue. Yes, I would agree with that.”

The Chief Constable confirmed, however, that police have no intelligence that either the UDA or Ulster Volunteer Force are planning to follow the IRA and disarm.

He said: “They need to get responsible and take a lead from what others have done. But I‘m not optimistic.”

If you click on the following link, you can download Irelandclick’s special Hunger Strike supplement. It is approximately 2.5 MB. Once it downloads, you can ‘Save as’ a .pdf file on your computer for viewing at any time.

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Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

Fear stalked the streets around the home of sectarian attack victim Michael McIlveen yesterday as the 15-year-old lost his battle for life in a Co Antrim hospital last night.
Family and friends of the Saint Patrick’s College pupil held a vigil at his bedside since he was taken to Antrim Area Hospital in the early hours of Sunday.
The teenager suffered serious head injuries during a sectarian assault as he made his way through the centre of Ballymena at 12.30am on Sunday.
Family members say he was beaten about the head with a baseball bat while a gang of up to a dozen loyalist youths jumped on his head.
The PSNI was treating the attack as attempted murder, but that’s expected to be upgraded to a fully fledged murder inquiry.
Tension has been high in the teenager’s home estate, Dunclug, since the savage assault.
On Sunday night dozens of young men gathered on the streets around Michael’s home after the PSNI flooded into the area.
The scene was very different yesterday morning as Dunclug residents woke up to find that Michael had made it through the night despite grim predictions from medical experts, but any hope was dashed last night.
Shock, mixed with foreboding, has fuelled a sense of dread in local residents
Empty streets gave an indication of the fear and gloom that has descended on the district.
For years locals have complained that they are the target of constant sectarian attacks, while elected representatives warned that someone might be killed if the attacks continue
Many Dunclug residents refused to put their names to comments made to several media outlets yesterday.
One frightened resident said it was too dangerous to be seen publicly condemning a brutal attack on an innocent neighbour.
“People can’t use their names. If they do they will be identified as a Catholic the next time they go into town. That’s how bad it is,” she said.
Project manager at Dunclug Partnership Colum Best said the community was filled by a sense of disbelief.
“People have a feeling that this is unbelievable, the whole community is devastated,” he said.
The community development worker said there were concerns locally about how local politicians have approached the attack on Michael McIlveen.
“My concern is that there politicians who in a situation like this are trying to score points about what should be done and what isn’t being done.”

BBC

Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan has published her findings

A police officer has been cleared of any involvement in the death of a teenager in County Armagh in 1991.

The police ombudsman said there was no evidence that the death of Alice McLoughlin, 16, was “anything other than a tragic accident”.

The teenager died after being shot in the head while she was in the car of an off-duty police officer in Portadown.

Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan partially upheld a complaint of “significant failings” in the RUC investigation of the death.

She said these were particularly in forensic aspects of the investigation.

“I suspect that if the forensic strategy had been more thorough it may have dealt with many of the issues which were to cause Alice’s family concern over the years and have answered many of the allegations which the police officer had to face,” she said.

However, Mrs O’Loan rejected an allegation that the officer was responsible for the death of Alice, that he lied about knowing her and that police conspired to cover-up the relationship.

The findings, published on Tuesday, followed a two-year investigation by the police ombudsman’s office into the incident.

Alice died on 6 July 1991 after being taken to Craigavon Area Hospital by an off-duty police officer.

Cash shortage

She had a gunshot wound to the head, caused by a bullet from his gun and was pronounced dead within minutes.

The police officer said he had met Alice less than an hour earlier when he found her walking along a road. He said he gave her a lift as she appeared “agitated and drunk”.

The officer said he was running out of fuel and went to a cash machine to get money to buy petrol.

He said that on returning to the car he drove a short distance when Alice shot herself with his gun, which had been lying in the car.

The RUC launched a murder investigation. The DPP subsequently directed no prosecution of the officer, but he was later disciplined for failing to secure his gun properly.

Alice’s family have always disputed an inquest finding which concluded that the teenager shot herself.

They went to see the police ombudsman to outline their concerns and a formal investigation was launched in December 2003.

A full report on the ombudsman’s investigation has been sent to the Secretary of State, the chief constable and to the Policing Board.

Belfast Telegraph

Two days after being savagely assaulted by a dozen bigoted thugs, 15-year-old Michael McIlveen loses his fight for life

By Emily Moulton and Debra Douglas
09 May 2006

Police have launched a murder inquiry following the death of a Co Antrim teenager who was savagely beaten in a sectarian attack in Ballymena at the weekend.

Michael McIlveen (15) from Dunvale was brutally attacked by a gang of up to a dozen thugs during the early hours of Sunday morning as he was on his way home from a pizza parlour at about 12.30am.

It is understood the St Patrick’s College student had been chased by the gang after a row flared at the IMC cinema complex in the town.

While police would not confirm how many people were involved or the exact details of what happened to the 15- year-old, his family claimed he was beaten with baseball bats by a gang of at least a dozen attackers who also jumped on his head.

Early yesterday evening his family, who were too distraught to talk to the media, were maintaining a bedside vigil at Antrim Area Hospital in the hope Michael might pull through.

It is understood the teenager received serious head injuries in the attack and was on life support, but he lost his battle for life at around 8pm last night.

Last night Ballymena Borough Council adjourned its regular council meeting as a mark of respect to the McIlveen family.

Mayor Tommy Nicholl said he was deeply saddened by the news of Michael’s death and wanted to convey his deepest sympathies to the family on behalf of the people in Ballymena.

Appeals for calm made in wake of murder

Mr Nicholl also called for both sections of the community to remain calm and pledged his full support for the PSNI investigation.

“I am encouraging the PSNI to follow all lines of inquiries in an effort to bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said.

“I can only imagine the pain the McIlveens are going through right now and I would encourage both sections of the community to remain calm to show respect to the family.”

Earlier yesterday DCU Commander Superintendent Terry Shevlin said detectives were studying CCTV footage in a bid to identify the gang members.

He said police were “quite clear that the motive for this assault was of a sectarian nature” and joined local politicians in appealing for calm and called on those with influence to step in to prevent any further attacks.

He said: “I’m making a clear appeal to civic leaders, community leaders and others with influence in the Ballymena area to not only condemn this, which every rightthinking person would do, but to exercise whatever influence they can to prevent any retaliatory attacks that would have another family in the position this family is currently undergoing.”

Four youths were being questioned about the incident last night.

It is thought one of them is Catholic.

A fifth youth was arrested late last night in connection with the incident.

Sinn Féin
Published: 9 May, 2006

Sinn Fein Assembly member for North Antrim Philip McGuigan has extended his deepest sympathies to the family of Michael McIlveen who was brutally murdered in Ballymena by a loyalist mob in a sectarian killing over the weekend.

Mr McGuigan said:

“I would wish to extend my deepest sympathies to the McIlveen family at this time. This murder was unjustifiable and was motivated entirely by sectarian hatred and bigotry.

“I was in Ballymena last night and there remains much anger at the events of the weekend and indeed at the years of discrimination and inequality which led directly to the circumstances which gave rise to this horrific crime.

“The catholic community in Ballymena have as much right as anyone else to live, worship and conduct business in that town as any other group. Unfortunately there are those within unionism in the town who have for decades sought to demonise and discriminate against nationalists and republicans in Ballymena.

“The local DUP controlled Council fail to share power with nationalists and republicans. The local MP and leader of the DUP Ian Paisley refuses to share power with nationalists and republicans in an Executive. Ian Paisley needs to reflect seriously on his position in the light of this murder and reflect long and hard about the message he is sending out to those within his community who engage in this type of violent anti-Catholic hatred.” ENDS