SAOIRSE32

Breaking News.ie
03/11/2008

The rift at the heart of the North’s Government appeared to deepen today when the DUP accused Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams of withholding information on the whereabouts of the “Disappeared” victims of the Troubles.

While the West Belfast MP has faced the allegation before, the sight of senior DUP members repeating it on the floor of the Assembly suggested a resolution to the long-running stand-off between the two main parties in the power-sharing administration was as far away as ever.

The Cabinet has not met for more than four months amid deadlock over a series of outstanding issues, such as a timetable for the devolution of policing powers and legislative protection for Irish speakers.

During a debate on the continuing search for the bodies of people abducted and killed by republicans during the conflict, North Belfast MLA Nelson McCausland accused Mr Adams of being the Belfast Commander of the IRA in the 1970s and of setting up specialist units which killed and disposed of so-called informers.

While relatives of the Disappeared looked on from the public gallery, DUP chairman Maurice Morrow later backed Mr McCausland’s claims.

However, the Sinn Féin president strongly refuted the allegations before adding that the IRA continued to assist in the process of finding the remains.

The bodies of 15 Catholics killed by republicans during the Troubles were buried in secret locations.

Following the setting up of a special commission to locate the remains in 1999, four bodies have been found.

Mr McCausland said Mr Adams had information about the Disappeared and called on him to tell the truth.

“Of course Gerry Adams has always sought to distance himself from the whole gruesome episode but the fact is we don’t believe him,” he said.

“The violence is over and for that we are glad but is it not time for Adams to show some remorse for these crimes, is it not time that he showed some remorse for the evil inflicted on so many families by the organisation that he commanded?”

Mr McCausland then noted Mr Adams’ recent call for a truth commission to deal with outstanding issues relating to the Troubles.

“He says he wants the truth. Well then today perhaps he will tell us what he knows about the Disappeared, perhaps he will tell us what he knows about the perpetrators of those crimes for they are the people who know where the bodies are buried and it is only their information that can see the bodies of the Disappeared brought home for a proper burial.

“I would hope that today we will not simply pass this motion as a formality but that we might see some results from it and that those, particularly the member for West Belfast [Mr Adams], will do what he can and tell us what he knows so we can move in that direction.”

Mr Adams denied the claims laid against him.

“Before I speak to this motion, which I am supporting, I want to deny and refute the assertion made by the member for North Belfast [Mr McCausland],” he said.

“I want to commend and support all the families that have suffered a grievous injustice and who have campaigned with dignity for many years to locate the remains of their loved ones and I want to welcome them here today.

“I want to acknowledge once again the grave injustice inflicted on these families and to express my deep regret about this.”

He thanked those involved with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains and said that many republicans who did have information about the Disappeared had passed it on.

“For its part the IRA has apologised for the grief it has caused, it has acknowledged its intention, in working closely with the special forensic investigating team, has been to rectify this injustice and it has accepted full responsibility for its actions,” he said.

“I know this is of little consolation for the families involved; they want and they deserve a Christian burial for their loved ones.”

He added: “I also believe that the IRA has provided full disclosure of all the information available to it and republicans continue to work diligently on this important heartbreaking issue.”

Speaker of the House William Hay (DUP, Foyle) said he had some concerns about the remarks made during the debate and would be seeking to review them.

The motion was tabled by SDLP Newry and Armagh member Dominic Bradley who said there was a need to refocus attention on the issue.

“What they (the families) are simply asking for is the right to afford a Christian burial to their loved ones,” he said.

“Surely in this day and age in a Christian and civilised country that is not too much to ask.”

One of the relatives who travelled to Stormont was Anne Morgan, whose brother Seamus Ruddy, 33, was abducted by the INLA in France in 1985.

The family has had its hopes raised and dashed on a number of occasions after tip-offs failed to bring a result.

“I was present in 2000 at a dig in France for Seamus and I was also present this summer, in July this year, and being there again I thought I don’t want to be led up this garden path,” she said.

“I really feel it isn’t fair that we should be led up the garden path, it isn’t fair that they [the INLA] don’t give us information and it isn’t fair that we can’t give Seamus his rightful Christian burial.

“It’s unbelievable that people who are living in our society, who are members of the Northern Ireland community, that they still will not allow us any chance of peace and being able to put the bodies where they belong, which as far as I am concerned is in Irish soil in Northern Ireland.”

During the debate the case of Lisa Dorrian, the 25-year-old Co Down hairdresser who went missing from a caravan park in Ballyhalbert in 2004, was also raised.

Loyalist paramilitary elements have been accused of involvement in her disappearance.

By Bobby Storey
Andersonstown News
Belfast Media

It is pity that the Andersonstown News did not speak to any of the organisers of the rally in Bank Square this Sunday, November 2, hosted by Sinn Féin in conjunction with the victims of British state murder, before it published an editorial opinion in last week’s paper.

Let me restate the problem our city and our society faces. The British army record in Ireland is one of wholesale repression, curfews, collusion, torture and murder.

The UDR – now called the RIR – is a discredited force with a long record of violence in our country. Even the British government official archives brand it “subversive”.

The British Ministry of Defence plans to take over Belfast city centre and turn it into a military circus with three British army regiments, including the RIR/UDR; a saluting stand; a military band; and a fighter jet fly-over. The British MoD plan is unprecedented, excessive and offensive.

That is why Sinn Féin, together with victims of British state murder, will assemble in Bank Square, beside Kelly’s Cellars this Sunday to protest.

No-one voted for the British army march.

SDLP spokesman Alex Attwood has falsely claimed that “a decision was taken by the Council to have a parade in this city – as democrats we have to respect that”. The British MoD has made the same false claim.

Belfast City Council did not vote for the British army march. The Council was asked to allocate a grant to the British army for a civic reception in the Waterfront Hall. 45 per cent of councillors voted against that. After arranging the civic reception and a service in St Anne’s Cathedral, the British MoD then applied to the Parades Commission to have a march claiming that the Council was the march organiser. Belfast City Council issued a statement refuting that claim.

The problem remains: the British MoD proposes to hold a British army march which no-one in Belfast voted for.

There have been many events and marches into Belfast city centre. Some of these are commemorative, cultural or political. None of the previous events has any comparison to the British Ministry of Defence plans. The last time an event like this occurred was more than 60 years ago when the British army marched through Belfast city centre at the end of the Second World War. The British MoD plans for Belfast also have few comparisons in England. Most councils in England have not had any civic receptions or town centre parades. Many British army regiments have had homecoming events on their own parade grounds, within their army barracks.

So why propose a different, high-profile military circus in a city divided down the middle on the issue? This is the second largest city in Ireland, not a catwalk for the British army.

The British Ministry of Defence plans are high-risk. The British army has always brought disruption to Belfast.

Our rally will be peaceful, lawful and dignified. Our protest will be silent and solemn. We have no plan to physically disrupt the British MoD events. We have deliberately arranged our assembly point at Bank Square, beside Kelly’s Cellars, to be a substantial distance from the British army and others. We have also carefully picked a route and protest within line of sight of the British army march, but without crossing paths or colliding. The Parades Commission and others have acknowledged that.

The timing and location of the rally and protest has been informed by our engagement with others. For any public figure to suggest that the families of British state violence are potential troublemakers is a slur that I utterly reject.

The British Secretary of State is hosting yet another ‘homecoming reception’ at Hillsborough Castle the following week. Similar events are now being planned in Larne and Ballymena. You have to wonder how many civic receptions does it take to make a ‘homecoming’.

The RIR Chaplain, David Latimer, expressed objection to his regiment’s return being “hijacked by politicians”. He declared his preference for “one centrally organised religious service” and warned against “rushing into a fanfare of parades and celebration”. The British MoD has disregarded that caution, just like our own objections.

Families who have loved ones in the British army will be glad to be reunited. The civic reception and service is for them.

Our rally and protest is not against those families. It’s for the hundreds of families who cannot be reunited because of the British army’s role in Ireland. Now the same fate is being visited on families in Iraq and Afghanistan. The people responsible for this appalling vista are the British government. They must face up to the truth.

• Bobby Storey is the Belfast Chair of Sinn Féin.

DAN KEENAN
Irish Times
03 Nov 2008

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The march and protest were peaceful affairs - but the reaction of one group was frightening, writes Dan Keenan

IT WAS the type of ugly, spitting behaviour that had powered long years of physical violence and political turmoil.

Baying loyalists, incensed by the Sinn Féin protest against the British army parade, were held in check by armoured PSNI vehicles and dozens of police officers in full riot gear.

Some had scaled the scaffolding of Church House from where they screeched provocatively the vilest abuse at the republicans.

“Scum, scum, scum,” they chanted in football terrace fashion - the rhythm marked by stabbing fingers pointing towards west Belfast from where the republican protesters had marched.

They sang Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen, the verses punctuated with shouts of “No surrender”. They danced pogo-style on the spot.

The chants switched from “The Famine is over - why don’t you go home”, “Take a bath you f***king scum,” and “Do you want a chicken supper Bobby Sands”.

Some treated it as a boisterous, leering laugh. But more than a few seemed possessed by a kind of nihilistic rage that is frightening.

The fury bubbled when the closely marshalled republicans, numbering no more than 1,000 and carrying funereal posters evoking those killed by British soldiers, released symbolic black balloons. These escaped upwards from the threatening din and into the blue.

A lone figure appeared on the street with a home-made placard which proclaimed “Jesus said: Love you’re [sic] neighbour as yourself.” He seemed about as clued in as the two Irish wolfhounds which headed the 250-strong parade of service personnel in desert camouflage and the military pipe band.

The music was drowned out by the building cacophony from the loyalists as the soldiers paraded by - arms swinging in unison.

Plastic lemonade bottles and some stones were thrown, a few fireworks exploded, but despite the edgy atmosphere it came to nothing.

Indeed the military march-past seemed to ease the tension of the crowd, switching the focus from the sombre republicans just 25 metres away.

Just around the corner on Howard Street and near City Hall the atmosphere was different.

Away from the Rangers shirts, the shaved heads and the Northern Ireland soccer emblems, many more thousands had congregated.

Little Union flags in hand and with welcoming yellow ribbons pinned to their coats, they were there simply to show by force of numbers their support for the British army.

Well before the small parade had even assembled, coach loads of middle-aged and probably middle-class people descended on the city centre to line the short route for the homecoming parade which had been branded an exercise in thanksgiving for a safe return from foreign fields of battle.

Fifteen and 20 deep they crowded the broad streets around City Hall, clapping warmly when Peter Robinson and Jeffrey Donaldson arrived at the platform accompanied by nameless dozens in chains of office and other finery. They were defiant, but quietly so. This was a show not of strength but of resolve - to stand by the British army, the British flag and the British connection.

The presence of so many police and the drone of helicopters overhead told the truth about the palpable sense of menace that hung over the scene.

It was all over in minutes. The growing tension of the previous week just dissipated, rather like the crowd which now simply melted away.

The soldiers with their fixed blank expressions stepped off towards an official reception at the Waterfront Hall. Only the police stayed put, those in riot gear looking like aliens, while Belfast regained its composure.

The Herald
03 Nov 2008

Loyalist supporters clashed with police ahead of an armed forces homecoming parade in Belfast yesterday.

Ahead of the parade of 250 service personnel, thousands of loyalists waving Union flags and singing pro-British songs massed behind barriers - yards from where a planned Sinn Fein protest was expected to arrive.

At one stage, the two sides came within 50 yards of each other and riot police moved quickly to prevent violence erupting on the route of the march as loyalists charged their lines.

When the republicans moved into position minutes before the parade was due to pass, the situation came close to boiling over.

A number of loyalists surged toward the demonstrators, prompting riot police to swoop in armoured Land Rovers. While loyalists and officers were involved in scuffles, a direct clash with republicans was averted.

The situation remained tense for around 10 minutes with loyalists chanting at the protesters, most of whom stood in silence, holding placards accusing the Army of involvement in the killings of Catholic civilians during the Troubles.

Senior republicans such as Sinn Fein Stormont junior minister Gerry Kelly and former IRA leader Bobby Storey were among the demonstrators, while loyalist paramilitaries, including Ulster Defence Association chief Jackie McDonald, were on the other side of the barriers.

Police Service of Northern Ireland superintendent Nigel Grimshaw said: “At the end of the day, those who wished to protest were able to protest and those who wished to support the parade were able to do that. Clearly, tensions were quite high but I am satisfied nobody was seriously hurt.”

The flashpoint was near the start of the parade route and once the troops passed they continued on through the city where they were greeted by tens of thousands of supporters in front of City Hall.

After the parade, they made their way to the city’s Waterfront Hall for a civic reception. Earlier, around 200 dissident republicans were at a protest march from west Belfast which was stopped by police near the Westlink junction with Divis Street.