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Derry Journal

23 January 2007

“HOLDING POWER to Account’ is an appropriate theme for this year’s Bloody Sunday commemoration,” The Bloody Sunday Weekend Committee said this week, “when remembering those who died on Derry’s streets in January, 1972, and those still dying every day in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the so-called War on Terror.”

“Hooding, sensory deprivation and torture - the ‘deep interrogation’ of prisoners was practised by the British Army at Girdwood and Palace barracks long before Abu Graib or Bagram Airbase became torture centres.”
The statement came as final preparations got underway in the city for a host of commemorative events to mark Bloody Sunday’s 35th anniversary last week.
The committee said that the failure to hold power to account for what is done today has consequences for tomorrow.
“The two soldiers convicted of the murder of Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride and then allowed to rejoin their regiment were then posted to Basra, in Iraq. The message to other soldiers? The British Army will support child killers.”
The spokesperson added: “The most senior officer in the British Army today, and who led the attack on Iraq, is General Mike Jackson. Though on duty in Rossville Street on Bloody Sunday he has stated that he “did not see any soldiers firing their weapons”.
“There was a failure to hold power to account for Bloody Sunday, and 35 years on British troops are murdering people in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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Each year on the weekend of the Bloody Sunday commemoration the people of Derry and beyond have an opportunity to both remember the victims and their families and to reach out in solidarity to other groups and people who are engaged in their own struggles., the committee said.
“In each of these struggles there are people who have inspired, iconic figures who symbolise the fight for justice against enormous odds.”
This year, the route of the march will be decorated with images of some of these people. The Bloody Sunday Weekend Committee have revealed that these images will be interspersed with images of the Bloody Sunday victims. As the families and the wider Derry community await the outcome of the Saville Report, they say it is important to remember the human costs amid all the legal machinations.
“Fourteen Derry families lost a son, a husband, a father, a brother. Whether in the Bogside in 1972 or Basra in 2007, abuses of power must be challenged and held to account.”

Derry Journal

23 January 2007

FOUR FAMILIES of Derry IRA men killed on active service have called on Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams to apologise for what they’ve branded “cheap shots at fallen volunteers”.

A statement from the families of George McBrearty (shot by SAS in Creggan in May 1981), Paddy Deery (killed in an explosion in Creggan October 1987), Patsy Duffy (shot by British Army in Maureen Avenue in November 1978) and Brian Coyle (killed in an explosion in July 1986 in the Bogside) have hit out at comments made by Mr. Adams at a public meeting in Co. Tyrone on Saturday.
“At a Sinn Fein meeting in Galbally, Gerry McGeogh (veteran republican, former gunrunner and anti-PSNI activist] pointed out that the current direction being taken by the Sinn Fein leadership is the opposite of the republican tenets held by fallen volunteers in the conflict at the times of their deaths.
“Gerry Adams mocking reply to Gerry McGeogh - “do you have a Ouija board” - was in very bad taste.
“It marks a new low in the debate on policing. We never thought a so-called republican leader would stoop so low as to take cheap shots regarding fallen volunteers.
“To speak disrespectfully of the dead volunteers is shameful and he should apologise immediately.”
In a letter to the editor in today’s edition of the ‘Journal’, the Deery, Duffy and Coyle families show their support to the McBrearty family who spoke frankly in last Tuesday’s edition in opposition to Sinn Fein’s plans to back the PSNI.
“We too have felt a deep sense of betrayal at the direction taken by the Sinn Fein leadership. We have been silent until now because we have seen how voices of dissent have been subjected to ridicule, intimidation and smear campaigns.
“W have received invitations to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis and another political briefing. We will treat these invitations with caution. We do not want to be used as political window-dressing for the endorsement of the RUC/PSNI,” the letter reads.
Meanwhile, the brother of George McBrearty (24) - who along Charles ‘Pop’ Maguire (20) died in a hail of British Army bullets as he approached a car on Lonemoor Road at the height of the 1981 hunger strikes - has called a meeting of all republican ex-prisoners in the North West for tonight.
Speaking to the ‘Journal’, Danny McBrearty said: “Given the ongoing debate on policing in the republican community and signs that the Sinn Fein leadership are about to endorse joining the RUC/PSNI, I feel that concerned Republicans have to organise now.
“I am appealing to all ex-internees and republican socialist POWs who have been through the system this last 36 years to contact me with regard to attending a meeting on Tuesday, January 23 at 8pm sharp.” For Further details ring Danny McBrearty on 07734108189.

:::u.tv:::

WEDNESDAY 24/01/2007 15:54:31

The father of a man murdered by loyalist paramilitaries a decade ago has called for former PSNI Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan to be sacked from his role as head of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

In a statement released to UTV, Raymond McCord Senior said he doesn`t believe Mr Flanagan`s version of events in reponse to the Ombudsman`s report released earlier this week.

Mr McCord also challenged senior unionists to a live debate where he could press them on why they have so far failed to call for the arrest of his son`s killers.

“Forty-eight hours after the publication of Mrs O`Loan`s report I have yet to heat Unionist politicians call for the arrest of the murderers of my son and the other victims of this UVF murder gang,” said Mr McCord.

“All I have heard from them is criticism, from Ian Paisley Junior and from Lord Maginnis directed and Mrs O`Loan and the report.

“These politicians have failed to contact me and ask what my opinion of the report is, bearing in mind it was my complaint that led to the investigation in the first place.

“We listened last night to good policemen confirm that the Special Branch was a law onto themselves and destroyed evidence.

“Can Ian Paisley Junior and Lord Maginnis explain to me how these killers were allowed to operate with immunity? Rather than criticising the report, they would be better off trying to help the victims get justice.

“I sincerely believe that what ot comes down to is pointscoring by unionist politicians rather than seeking the truth and justice and helping victims within both the unionist and nationalist community.

“I would challenge Ian Paisley Junior, Lord Maginnis and Fred Cobain to a live debate in front of a studio audience.”

“And still I echo the thought that Sir Ronnie Flanagan should be sacked. The present Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, got it right on Monday when he said the buck stops at his door.

“Why is this not the case for Sir Ronnie Flanagan? I simply don`t believe his version of events.”

“My family are awaiting our meeting woth Tony Blair which is the very least a Prime Minister could offer us at this time.”

Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday January 21, 2007
The Observer

The father of a loyalist murder victim is to take civil action against the RUC Special Branch officers who ran his son’s killers as police agents.

Raymond McCord says he will go to court in an attempt to prosecute the officers, who will remain anonymous in a report being published tomorrow by Nuala O’Loan, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, which reveals damning evidence of collusion between detectives and paramilitaries.

Only Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Chief Constable Hugh Orde will see the confidential part of O’Loan’s report, in which up to six Special Branch and CID officers are named. The Observer has learnt that the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland will not recommend that any of the officers should face trial.

The officers stand accused of knowing that their informers were committing murder and not doing anything to prevent killings in north Belfast between 1993 and 2000. Their victims included a gay Presbyterian minister falsely accused of importing paedophile pornography into Northern Ireland and a female Catholic taxi driver.

Raymond McCord Jnr, 22, was beaten to death on 9 November 1997 at a quarry on the northern outskirts of Belfast. He had been facing charges of possession of cannabis, which was provided to him by the Ulster Volunteer Force commander in the Mount Vernon area of the city. The local UVF leader, named in the Irish parliament as Mark Haddock, dispatched a terror unit to abduct and kill the ex-RAF cadet.

His father said last night: ‘I will take a civil action against the handlers of these informants. Young Raymond would have been alive now if the CID had been allowed to do their job and put those responsible for previous murders dating back to 1993 in jail.’

Newshound

(Allison Morris, Irish News)
22 January 2007

DUP leader Ian Paisley is coming under pressure to apologise to the family of three brothers murdered by the UVF in south Armagh 31 years ago.

It emerged this week that the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) has apologised to the elderly mother of the Reavey brothers for security force treatment of the family in the aftermath of the shootings.

David Cox, the head of the team looking into Troubles-related deaths, also confirmed the men were “innocent victims of senseless sectarian violence”.

John Martin (24), Brian (22) and Anthony Reavey (17) were killed when up to six loyalist gunmen burst into their Whitecross home on January 4 1976 and opened up at close range.

Two of the brothers died at the scene, while Anthony – the youngest sibling and a promising footballer with St Killian’s minor GAA team – lost his battle for life four weeks later.

Shortly afterwards what was believed to be the same gang murdered three members of the O’Dowd family 15 miles away in Gilford.

The following day around a dozen gunmen ambushed a minibus full of Protestant workmen at Kingsmill crossroads as they returned home from work, killing 10 and injuring one.

In 1999 Ian Paisley used parliamentary privilege to implicate a brother of the Reavey victims in the Kingsmill atrocity.

Speaking in the House of Commons – which prevented the comments being legally challenged – the DUP leader read out the names of 20 individuals he claimed were involved in various republican attacks, among them Eugene Reavey.

Mr Reavey said yesterday (Wednesday) it meant a lot to his family to receive the HET apology and have his brothers’ names cleared.

“However, when Paisley read out my name in the Commons claiming I was an IRA man it was yet another blow for my family,” he said.

“I was a father-of-seven myself at the time and it put my own family in grave danger. For over 25 years my entire family, including my mother, were victimised and mocked by members of the security forces.

“Five years and 14 heart attacks after my brothers’ murders, my father died. He had to experience not only the loss of his sons but the whispering campaign that took place afterwards.

“There is a small window of opportunity here for past wrongs to be undone. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.”

SDLP assembly member Dominic Bradley also said the Reavey family’s suffering was made worse by the “despicable whispering campaign and security force harassment” following the murders.

“Ian Paisley colluded in this whispering campaign under the protection of parliamentary privilege he too should do the right thing and withdraw his remarks and apologise to the family,” he said.

When contacted yesterday a spokesman for the DUP leader declined to comment.

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This article appeared first in the January 18, 2007 edition of the Irish News.