SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph
Published: Tuesday 8, April 2008

Police officers today relived the horror of the Omagh bombing as they gave evidence in the civil action being taken by victims of the atrocity against the five men they believe responsible for the Real IRA attack.

Four officers took the stand on day two of the multi-million-pound action to recall the day - August 15 1998 - on which 29 people were slaughtered when a car bomb exploded in the heart of the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Their evidence was preceded by three harrowing home videos shot by people caught up in the bombing, which gave those in the courtroom at Belfast High Court an eyewitness view of the horror, death, destruction and injury.

None of the Omagh families were in the court to view the videos, which were played out to a silent courtroom where all eyes were fixed on the images on two large TV screens either side of the judge, Mr Justice Morgan, and projected on the wall above him.

Six Omagh families affected by the bombing have mounted a civil action against those they believe responsible for the bombing following the failure of the authorities to bring anyone to justice.

The five men named in the action are Michael McKevitt, alleged leader of the Real IRA, the man said to be his number two, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.

None of the men have attended court - two, McKevitt and Campbell, prevented by their detention in prison in the Republic for crimes unconnected with the Omagh bombing. All five deny involvement.

Constable Alan Palmer, who had been in the RUC for just a year when the bomb exploded, graphically recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed when the bomb exploded as police were trying to evacuate the town centre.

Warning calls had said the bomb was outside the courthouse at the top of the town and they directed people away from there down the hill towards Market Street - just where the car bomb had in fact been planted some 400m away from where police believed it to be.

Constable Palmer said: “There was carnage. It was a battlefield, it was horrendous.

“There was mayhem, people screaming and running around with body parts.'’

He added: “I saw a man jump into a hole, where he was trying to dig with his hands to see if there was anyone there.'’

The constable said there were cars on fire and casualties on fire and he did what he could to tend to the injured.

BBC
8 April 2008

A major row is brewing between Sinn Fein and the other Executive parties over the possible appointment of a chief victims commissioner.

Four victims’ commissioners have already been appointed

It led to the withdrawal of the consideration stage of the Victims Bill which was to be debated on Tuesday.

The bill is necessary because of the decision to appoint four victims commissioners rather than one.

It had been given an accelerated passage so that it would become law very quickly.

But DUP junior minister Jeffrey Donaldson told the Assembly on Tuesday that it would not now be moved.

No reason was given but it is understood Sinn Fein are unhappy with a series of proposed amendments which would allow for the appointment of a chief commissioner.

The party’s Francie Molloy said: “We had agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein as far as moving forward legislation with the accelerated passage.

“That agreement was reached before Christmas on the lines that we would have equality of commissioners - there can be no hierarchy of victims and no hierarchy of commissioners.”

However, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson said: “The only thing that strikes me is that Sinn Fein maybe do want to have a commission where they have got control over one member who then can veto everyone else.

“I’ve got to say I don’t think any fair-minded person would say that that is a reasonable way forward.”

Mr Donaldson said the bill would be discussed at the business committee.

One of the commissioners, Mike Nesbitt, said that it was important the legislation was right.

“They are simply taking the long view and trying to make sure this legislation will not need amended a second time, the way this legislation does,” he said.

Stalled

What will happen next is unclear, but unless a solution is found the bill seems unlikely to become law as quickly as the parties would have liked.

In January, details of Northern Ireland’s victims’ commissioners were revealed.

The four commissioners include broadcaster Mike Nesbitt and ex-interim victims’ commissioner Bertha McDougall.

The others are Patricia MacBride, whose brother was killed by the SAS and whose father died 17 months after being shot by loyalists, and Brendan McAllister of Mediation NI.

All four posts are full-time and receive the full advertised salary of £65,000.

The post is intended to promote the interests of victims of the Troubles.

BBC
8 April 2008

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said the IRA will not return to “dealing with criminality” in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

Mr Adams said the IRA will not deal with crime in nationalist areas

Mr Adams was speaking to party members ahead of a meeting with Security Minister Paul Goggins.

He said after recent murders in west Belfast “I heard some people say that they want the IRA back to deal with anti-social behaviour and criminality.

“Well, let’s get real. That’s not going to happen,” he said.

“The IRA made its position very clear when it instructed its volunteers to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.

“And this is what activists who were in the IRA are now doing.”

Between last September and March of this year, three men - Harry Holland, John Mongan and Frank McGreevy - have been killed in violent attacks in Mr Adams’ West Belfast constituency.

Following Mr McGreevy’s murder, Mr Adams criticised the police response to anti-social behaviour.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said the criticism was unfair and unjustified.

On Tuesday, Mr Adams said it was understandable that people were angry about crime in their areas, but it was something the whole community had to help resolve.

“Of course, no police service is perfect,” he said.

“And constructing a police service, which reaches the high standards we have set, is difficult given the legacy of bad state policing under unionist and then British control.

“But we knew that. It is a big job of work.

“But already republican efforts have achieved significant changes and improvements.”

BBC
8 April 2008

One of six men accused of helping to organise a UDA “show of strength” has been cleared of membership of the terror group.

George McHenry, 40, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of supporting the terrorists.

The trial of the remaining accused, including Ihab Shoukri, is continuing behind closed doors as legal arguments are being submitted.

The men were arrested at the Alexandra bar in north Belfast in March 2006.

Belfast Crown Court has been told the men were attending a dress rehearsal for a UDA show of strength at which the group was to announce it would never disband.

Mr Shoukri, 34, from Westland Drive, denies membership of the UDA, professing to be a member and supporting the UDA “by assisting in arranging or managing a meeting” of the terror group.

Gary McKenzie, 36, from Clare Heights and 39-year-old Samuel Todd Robinson of Arosa Crescent, Belfast, both deny UDA membership and supporting the organisation.

Bar owner John Davis, 50, of Glebe Manor, Glengormley, and 21-year-old Alan John McClean of Westland Drive, Belfast, both deny supporting the UDA.

BBC
8 April 2008

A police officer giving evidence to the Omagh bombing civil action has said it made the aftermath of another NI atrocity “pale into insignificance”.

Twenty-nine people were killed in the Omagh bombing

Sergeant Wesley McCracken described seeing bodies without limbs, some without clothes strewn across a tremendous flood of water.

He said it was “horrendous carnage”, many times worse than the Droppin’ Well bombing, which he also attended.

Two other police officers gave evidence on the second day of the civil action.

Giving her evidence, Constable Louise Stewart, who broke down, said what she saw that day was so horrific that words could never describe it.

In his cross-examination, Brett Lockhart QC questioned the officers about the time they had received the bomb warning and the discrepancies about its exact location.

The five accused Michael McKevitt - Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna - were not in court and will not be providing evidence. They all deny involvement in the bombing.

The men are being sued by relatives of some of the victims of the August 1998 atrocity.

Seventeen people, 11 of them soldiers, were killed by an INLA bomb at the Droppin’ Well pub, Ballykelly, County Londonderry, on 6 December 1982.

BBC
8 April 2008

There were “back channels'’ between Sinn Fein and the DUP during the peace process, Gerry Kelly has said.

Gerry Kelly confirmed there were secret contacts

The DUP, however, has persistently denied any secret contact.

Mr Kelly was responding to a BBC report in which Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said one such back-channel was “very important to the process.”

He said it was “very logical to have a number of different lines of communication… in all sorts of groupings”.

“That is a natural process in any negotiation process, whether it’s in South Africa, here or anywhere else.”

Mr Ahern said: “At the time we were trying to build up confidence, understanding and relationships with a political party which we did not have good communications with.”