SAOIRSE32

Derry Journal
9 January 2008

Families of victims of the Troubles have reacted angrily to suggestions of an amnesty for groups prepared to reveal details of their campaigns.

Denis Bradley, the former Policing Board vice-chairman who jointly heads the consultative group on the legacy of the Troubles, said an amnesty had not been ruled in or ruled out.

But even the suggestion of such a move has infuriated those who lost loved ones during the 30 year period.

Billy Eakin whose eight year-old daughter Catherine was killed when three car bombs exploded in the centre of Claudy on July 31,1972, said jail was “the only place” for the IRA members responsible.

“They knew exactly what they were doing. Catherine was cleaning our shop window at the time the boy parked the car outside - he saw her and walked callously away.

“These people knew what they were about - there was no warning. They should rot in jail, they took the lives of innocents - people going about their daily business, women and children. Their crimes should not be forgotten.”

Mr Eakin added that the British Government should never concede that it fought a war in the North. “The IRA were nothing but terrorists and criminals so you couldn’t call that a war. A war is fought with one group a
gainst another. We were going about our daily business when they devastated the town.”

Shot on Bloody Sunday

John Kelly, whose teenage brother Michael was shot in Derry on Bloody Sunday said he could never support any move to let the British paratroopers involved get off the hook for the killings.

“We’ve always had three demands at the Bloody Sunday Justice Committee - the full declaration of the innocence of the victims, the repudiation of the Widgery Tribunal and the prosecution of all those who participated in and planned Bloody Sunday.

“Our stance has not changed. My brother Michael was just a 17 year-old boy when he was shot dead and the fact is that if you commit murder you should be prosecuted for that crime.”

The Consultative Group on the Past will be hosting a meeting in Derry next Tuesday, January 15th in St. Columb’s Park, House, Limavady Road, beginning at 7pm.

Derry Journal
10 January 2008

The IRSP in Derry have rubbished claims made in a national newspaper that the INLA is trying to become the largest drugs gang in the country.

A spokesperson for the IRSP in Derry claimed the allegations are part of a “smear campaign” against the republican socialist movement.

“These allegations are total rubbish. In Derry, the IRSP have been at the forefront of the struggle against the scourge of drugs in our communities in the Creggan and Galliagh areas. No members of the IRSP have been convicted of drugs offences, so I don’t know where these claims are coming from,” he said.

The IRSP spokesperson also suggested the allegations were designed to curtail the growth of the movement.

“The republican socialist movement has been growing dramatically in recent months, particularly in areas like Dublin and Cork and the authorities in the South don’t like it, so they are spreading rumours like these to try and stop the growth.

“We would challenge the people who are making these allegations to show us the proof. If the IRSP found that any of our members were involved in these type of activities it would not be tolerated,” the spokesperson added.

Irish Independent
Saturday January 12 2008

Sinn Fein members have met in Dublin today [Saturday] to finalise plans for their campaign against the new EU Reform Treaty.

The party claims the new deal for Europe is bad for the Irish economy, and gives too much power to the EU.

The treaty was signed by member states in Lisbon last month and Ireland will hold a referendum on it in the summer.

RSF news - Republican Sinn Fein - http://rsf.ie
Press Release/Preas Ráiteas

As a new year dawns all who believe in Ireland’s right to national freedom must be prepared to take on the issues which 2008 brings. Approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st Century the cause of a free Ireland has seldom faced bigger threats. The threats are twofold, the old imperialism of London in the form of continued British occupation of the Six-Counties and the new imperialism of Brussels and the ongoing attempt to construct a militarised EU super-state.

2008 will see the campaign to normalise British rule in Ireland intensify. Over the past year we witnessed the staging of an England rugby game in Croke Park and the playing of the English national anthem. We also saw visits by the head of the British colonial Police Hugh Orde to former strongholds of resistance in Ballymurphy and South Armagh, at the invitation of the Provisionals, now signed up to support and administer English, law, courts and police in Ireland.

Speaking on RTÉ radio on Christmas Eve the leader of the 26-County administration Bertie Ahern said that a visit by the Queen of England to the 26-Counties was now “inevitable”. In a statement the Vice-President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton pointed out: “Republican Sinn Féin will be to the forefront in opposing such a visit as we are in opposing the ongoing campaign to normalise English rule in Ireland.”

Such a visit would be the culmination of the entire process of normalising the partition and British occupation of Ireland. All the efforts and resources of the British government and the 26-County administration, with the support of the EU and US are directed towards bedding down the institutions of British rule in Ireland and such a visit would be an attempt signify to the world that British rule in Ireland had been finally accepted by the Irish people.

No such line can be drawn under Irish history, the centuries long resistance of the Irish people to English occupation will go on, and the lesson of our history is that English rule will always be actively resisted. This message was spelled out at the annual Dáithí Ó Conaill commemoration on New Year’s Day by Josephine Hayden, Ard Rúnaí of Republican Sinn Féin: “The group of people who set up a caretaker executive in the West County Hotel, Dublin in 1986 pledged to uphold the Republican position enshrined in the Sinn Féin constitution - they never had, and never will have, any intention of selling out those who gave their lives for Ireland. They never had, or will have, any intention of implementing British rule in Ireland; of accepting partition or recognising the RUC as a legitimate police force in Ireland. They will not welcome the Commander in Chief of the British Forces, Queen Elizabeth of England, to our shores while her subjects in the British Army and police walk the
streets of Occupied Ireland, raid homes, arrest, charge and imprison Republicans and innocent civilians”

This year will also see a 26-County referendum on the EU constitution. Since 1972 RSF have been to the forefront in opposing the creation of an EU super-state viewing it as merely a substitution of the old imperialism of London with the new imperialism of Brussels. Republican Sinn Féin reiterates its determination to spearhead the campaign for a No Vote in the coming referendum: “The EU Constitution, despite the cynical attempt to fool people by calling it a treaty, marks one of the final steps in the creation of an undemocratic, militarised super-state
“The comments of EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy on December 3 that the Irish people would be the laughing stock of Europe if they reject the EU constitution exposes the arrogance and patronising attitude to the Irish people of the political elite. Neither the French or Dutch people were so described when they rejected the EU constitution in 2004.
“By rejecting the EU constitution, the people of the 26-Counties far from being a laughing stock would be giving a lead as well as representing the views of people throughout the EU who are being denied an opportunity to voice their opposition to the creation of an EU super state. In the case of the French and Dutch people their views as expressed in their respective referenda in 2004 are being ignored. This is not unique to France and Holland; the democratically expressed views of the people of the 26-Counties were ignored in 2001 when they rejected the Nice Treaty.
“Republican Sinn Féin is calling on people who are serious about building a society based on real economic and political democracy, workers rights and equitable distribution of wealth, who believe in national democracy, who support neutrality and oppose involvement in imperialist wars, to join the campaign to reject the EU constitution.”
Republican Sinn Féin will also using the coming year to mobilize and prepare for the 26-County local elections due in 2009.
Republican Sinn Féin is the only political organisation which provides an unambiguous Republican platform for all those who wish to work for a free Ireland. RSF gives clear and principled leadership to those who cannot be neither purchased nor intimidated into accepting the writ the English Crown in Ireland.

Ends.

Henry McDonald
Sunday January 13, 2008
The Observer

Sir Ronnie Flanagan is to be called to give evidence in a civil action being taken by the widower of an Omagh bomb victim. The civil action against the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Secretary of State alleges failure to prevent and properly investigate the Omagh bombing of 1998, during Flanagan’s tenure as RUC Chief Constable.

Laurence Rush, whose wife, Libbi, was one of 29 victims of the bomb, said his civil action could now progress after Sean Hoey was found not guilty of the bombing. ‘What is much more damaging regarding the Omagh investigation is the evidence that wasn’t presented in the Hoey judgment, which really rubbished police actions,’ Rush said.

‘The car that was left lying under a tarpaulin for four years so it rotted away and was of no value as evidence is probably about the worst. The so-called investigation was not only flawed, as Mr Justice Weir said, but non-existent. My case has been on hold since Sean Hoey was charged four and a half years ago. The authorities have put every obstacle in my way. Hopefully it will go ahead this year.’

Michael Mansfield QC will represent Rush, whose case is separate from another civil action - given the go-ahead by a judge last week - being taken by several Omagh families against a number of alleged Real IRA figures.

Speaking last night, the former army agent known as Kevin Fulton, who infiltrated both the Provisional and later the Real IRA, said he was prepared to speak at either of the two civil trials. Fulton’s evidence formed the central elements of Nuala O’Loan’s Police Ombudsman report in 2001 which heavily criticised the RUC’s handling of the Omagh investigation. The British agent claimed he delivered warnings to the RUC that an attack was about to take place at Omagh but was ignored. ‘If I receive a legal document asking me to come forward then I will obey it. I have no problem giving evidence,’ he said.

Meanwhile, the father of a young boy who died in the Omagh massacre revealed yesterday that Flanagan - who is now head of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), which is responsible for enforcing policing standards in the UK - has been in touch with him in recent days. Victor Barker, whose son James was killed in the bomb blast, said he hoped after the phone call he would be able to meet him.

Barker said: ‘It was Ronnie Flanagan’s RUC whose investigation came in for such withering criticism (in the Hoey judgment). The judge said the means of storing evidence was very poor. For example, the tagging was not done properly and there was no way of knowing if evidence had been interfered with. Ronnie Flanagan said he would fall on his sword if anything was wrong with this investigation. I will give him the sword.’

Last week the Prime Minister said he backed Flanagan and his stewardship of the HMIC.

Beaten, bruised and paraded down the Shankill Road … Years after the Troubles, paramilitaries deal out brutal justice in broad daylight - and the police are nowhere to be seen

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday January 13, 2008
The Observer

Heads bowed in shame, two young men, one bearing the signs of a vicious beating, were forced by vigilantes to walk down a main street near their home wearing placards that revealed the verdicts of a brutal kangaroo court. This is rough justice in Northern Ireland, where many estates are still ruled by groups of paramilitaries.

Despite ceasefires and historic power-sharing agreements between unionists and republicans, loyalist terror groups are still openly defying the police and taking the law into their own hands

The two teenagers, from the Greater Shankill area of north Belfast, were forced by the Ulster Volunteer Force to take what locals call their ‘walk of shame’ after being accused of a spate of house burglaries and a break-in at a bakery over the past few weeks.

A loyalist source said that the pair had been abducted by the UVF and then taken to a local bar.

‘One was stripped to the waist and severely beaten while the other was forced to watch,’ he said. ‘Then they were marched out of the pub and on to the Shankill Road. Three guys stood behind them, all with dogs on leashes, including a pit bull terrier, and the boys were made to march up and down the road for an hour.’

The marks of their encounter were starkly evident to passers-by. One had heavy bruises and cuts on his head as well as blackened eyes. The physicals scars were only part of their punishment, however. As the pair were paraded along the road, the men marching behind shouted abuse and laughed at them.

It was a sight that has sent shivers of fear and distaste through Belfast. ‘These young lads were clearly terrified and the thugs walking behind them were laughing at them and shouting insults,’ said eyewitness Kathy McIlvenney, whose family has already suffered at the hands of loyalists. Her nephew, Craig McCausland, was shot dead by the UVF in 2005.

‘I was disgusted by what I have seen,’ she added. ‘What sort of justice is that? These people have no right to do this sort of thing.’

Public humiliation inflicted by paramilitaries dates back to the very start of the Troubles. The IRA tarred and feathered a number of young women at the beginning of the conflict because they claimed the girls had been having relationships with British soldiers.

Loyalists took up the practice and several young men were severely beaten before being tied to lamp-posts with placards hung round their necks claiming they were guilty of crimes ranging from house-breaking to rape.

With the end of the Troubles, the practice appeared to have stopped, only for it to abruptly reappear in the past few months. Last August, on the loyalist Taughmonagh estate in south Belfast, a local man accused of drug dealing was kidnapped by a masked Ulster Defence Association gang and left with tar and feathers over his body. A placard placed over his head stated: ‘I’m a drug-dealing scumbag.’

However, with the appearance on Friday of the two beaten men on Shankill Road, a new stage in the use of the ‘walk of shame’ appears to have been reached.

Apart from the pair punished by the UVF, a third man was also forced to stand on Shankill Road, again with a placard, it was revealed yesterday, although this time the victim had been punished by the UDA, an organisation that is officially on ceasefire and which has publicly eschewed violence for political ends.

Sources on the Shankill said that all three men had been told they would be ‘exiled’ or shot if they gave evidence to the police or spoke out to the media. Their families were also issued with warnings that they were not to speak about the incidents.

Such impunity by loyalists groups enrages local people and has raised fears that paramilitary organisations are strengthening their stanglehold on the city’s estates. Several shopowners were told last week that the alleged burglars were about to be punished.

Despite this being common knowledge, there was no police presence on Shankill Road until after the men had been forced to walk up and down the road for an hour.

This point was stressed by McIlvenney. ‘There wasn’t a police officer in sight. The people of the Shankill don’t want this sort of justice, this is the sort of thing that has to be left behind.’

She added that the time was now right for the Northern Ireland authorities to pull the plug on publicly funded bodies which employ anyone with paramilitary connections.

Last night a spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that placards had been seized from the men concerned following a report from a member of the public. However, he added that because none of the men had made any complaint, no further action would be taken at this stage.