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News Letter
18 November 2008

ANGRY Orange leaders have challenged Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie to withdraw “offensive” comments about the Loyal Orders.

Speaking at a weekend conference organised by the GAA, Ms Ritchie said she was deeply concerned that the media was linking them with the Orange, Royal Black Institution and Apprentice Boys.

She said: “While the Loyal Orders have some progressive people around who wish to move them forward to a better place, they remain, unlike the GAA, sectional and sectarian, and deeply divisive in our community. There is no equivalence in my mind.”

The SDLP Assembly member was addressing delegates at the second annual meeting of the Ulster GAA Community Development Unit.

Ms Ritchie stressed that she condemned all attacks on Orange Order and GAA property.

But last night a spokesman for the Loyal Orders said they were “gravely concerned” at Ms Ritchie’s attack.

He added: “If quoted accurately, these remarks are offensive to our members and must be withdrawn immediately.

“We feel that the timing and occasion of these remarks could in the minds of some people legitimise the attacks on our property.

“The Loyal Orders want to play their part in moving society forward. Ms Ritchie is clearly not prepared to move forward like so many other people in the community.”

At the end of last week, serious damage was caused to Bawn Orange Hall near Pomeroy when an explosive device went off inside. In the last few weeks, GAA clubs in Cookstown and Edendork, Co Tyrone, were attacked and loyalist paramilitary group the Orange Volunteers claimed responsibility.

Early on Saturday, the door of the Apprentice Boys’ Memorial Hall on Society Street, Londonderry, was doused with flammable liquid and set alight.

A 20-year-old man was arrested soon after the 1am attack and charged with arson and arson with intent to endanger life.

When contacted by the News Letter last night, Ms Ritchie would not comment personally on the furious reaction from the Order.

An SDLP spokesman said on her behalf: “The minister unequivocally condemns all attacks on all premises irrespective of their political, religious or community affiliation, which was clear and unambiguous in her weekend statement.

“Her remarks referred to the outlook, outreach and ethos of the organisations.”

He added that Ms Ritchie was committed to helping people work together to achieve a “shared future”.

Over the last few years, the Orange Order has sought to shed the negative image of the Drumcree years and reached out to the nationalist community north and south of the border.

Culture Minister for the Republic Eamon O’Cuiv has spoken about the importance of preserving the Orange culture and made a grant of £100,000 to assist in the development of Orange halls in border counties.

And the Irish government has announced it will spend more than £25 million to turn the Boyne battlefield site into a magnet for tourists.

News Letter
18 November 2008

THE alleged former leader of the IRA has launched a legal bid to block his trial for tax evasion.

Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy faces nine charges of failing to file returns on his income, profits or gains over eight years from 1996.

However, the republican accused Irish state lawyers of abusing the rules of justice after they gave his solicitor just four minutes’ notice when they applied to bring the case before a non-jury court.

Murphy’s farm in Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, straddling the border between Louth and Armagh was raided in 2006.

More than £140,000 in mixed currencies, 30,000 cigarettes and 8,000 litres of fuel were seized.

Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday, 18 November 2008

The family of IRA victim Danny McElhone were today hoping to finally give him a Christian burial as the last of his suspected remains were taken from a hillside.

Forensic detectives believe they have now recovered the west Belfast man’s entire remains from a remote bogland site in the Wicklow Mountains.

In a statement, Mr McElhone’s family said they were praying their agonising 27-year wait for the return of his body was coming to an end.

“It seems likely that they are the remains of our late beloved brother Danny but, unfortunately, the authorities have confirmed that they will be unable to verify this categorically for a further four weeks,'’ they said.

“We sincerely hope and pray that these are the remains of Danny and that their discovery will allow us to afford Danny a proper Christian burial and to finally lay him to rest.'’

Investigators found a human foot, a boot and a sock at Ballynultagh, on the side of Wicklow’s second highest peak, Mullaghcleevaun, near the village of Lacken nine days ago.

After a painstaking excavation of the site, the remainder of the suspected remains was today taken in a black hearse to the State Pathologist offices in Dublin.

More samples will be taken and sent to a special DNA database in England that contains the genetic codes of families of the so-called Disappeared, victims murdered and secretly buried during the Troubles.

It is hoped this will provide a match with samples already taken from the McElhone family and positively identify the remains as that of the teenager who vanished in 1981.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR), which is leading the search, said its work at the Wicklow site was now complete.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
18 Nov 2008

THE leader of Ireland’s Catholics has made a direct appeal to republican dissidents to end attacks on police.

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In a special edition of The Irish News today Cardinal Sean Brady says those who target police officers “challenge the very principles of a just and a free society”.

Pointing to the support for the Good Friday Agreement, he says attacks on the PSNI are “immoral and a direct challenge to the overwhelming and freely expressed will of the people of Ireland.”

Ten years after the Omagh bombing, in which dissident re- publicans murdered 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, Dr Brady adds unequivocally that anyone with information about the attacks has “a clear moral duty” to give it to the PSNI or gardai.

More than a dozen police officers have been injured or had narrow escapes in efforts by dissident republicans to kill them during the past year.

Two were shot at close range while they were off duty in Derry and in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, last November.

Another was dragged to safety when a device exploded under his car in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, in May.

Dissidents have also caused other misery. Former Real IRA member Andrew Burns was killed in February, while pizza-delivery driver Emmett Shiels (22) was murdered in June.

Dr Brady is critical of politicians who have been unable to choose “the common good over party-political good”.

He says the failure of the executive to meet since June “is undermining those who believe Northern Ireland has a brighter future”.

“It also encourages those who want to promote the failed ideologies of the past,” the cardinal says.

“It gives space to those who promote the lie that violence has something to offer our future.”

Dr Brady also cautions against the “glamorisation” of previous violence.

“There is a real danger that, as the years go on in Northern Ireland, we will forget the futility, destruction and misery wrought by the violence of the past”, he says. It brought “nothing but despair”, the cardinal adds.

“It set back the prospects of justice, peace and freedom with every violent word and action.”

IAIS
17 Nov 2008

The Northern Ireland Executive is almost certain to meet on Thursday of next week, November 27th, for the first time since June 19th.

After a protracted series of meetings between Sinn Féin and the DUP aimed at resolving differences on key policies, First Minister Peter Robinson told the Assembly progress had been made.

Asked in the chamber today when the next Executive meeting was scheduled he simply told members: “The next Executive meeting is scheduled to take place on November 27th. However, in circumstances where an agreement was reached to hold an Executive meeting, it could take place sooner.”

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness did not address the House on the issue, but Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he was hopeful a meeting would go ahead.

Speaking in Belfast city center where he held talks with Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, Mr Adams said: “There has been a lot of work done. Sinn Féin’s position has always been that the Executive and the other institutions should be functioning - but on the basis of a partnership and equality. I hope we will be able to go forward on the basis I have just outlined.”

Sinn Féin had said the DUP was unwilling to address policy issues republicans considered of importance and that this was evidence of an unwillingness to treat them as equals. The DUP was angry that Sinn Féin had used its veto to block Executive meetings.

News of the scheduling of an Executive meeting followed DUP and Sinn Féin party meetings at Stormont at which Assembly members were briefed on the progress made at talks between the two sides.

Mr McGuinness and Mr Robinson will meet tomorrow in private session the committee charged with overseeing the devolution of policing and justice powers, a core issue separating the two parties.

It is understood that while no precise timetable for devolution will emerge just yet, a set of steps will be agreed to prepare for the transfer of justice responsibility to Stormont from Westminster.

These could include the preparation of draft proposals relating to the handing over of the powers to be agreed before the Christmas recess and the outline of any legislation needed to be presented at Westminster.

It is further understood the DUP will engage in a series of party meetings at all levels to ensure its membership and supporters are in step with the party leadership on what is a sensitive issue for unionists.

There was no news tonight on progress on other contentious points of disagreement between the two sides including education reform, an Irish-language act and development of the former Maze prison site.

An Executive meeting this week would be expected to address financial issues including measures to relieve hardship among the elderly and the most vulnerable caused by the sharp rise in energy costs.

David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent
Times Online

A convicted Eta terrorist wanted in Spain began receiving social security benefit payments a week after arriving in Belfast.

Juan Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 53, was released last night on £5,000 bail after a day of legal activity which began with his arrest after agreement between his lawyers and police.

De Juana, who served 21 years of a 3,000-year prison sentence for murdering 25 people, presented himself in court and left again, to be detained pending extradition hearings.

His arrest in Belfast came hours after a senior Eta military leader was detained overnight in France, in what Spanish authorities called a major blow to the separatist organisation.

A spokesman for the Northern Irish police force said: “At the request of the Spanish authorities, a 53-year-old man has been arrested,” adding that he was taken into custody at Musgrave Street police station in Belfast.

“The arrest, by virtue of a European arrest warrant for terrorist offences allegedly committed in Spain, was conducted by … officers including detectives from the extradition and international mutual assistance unit,” the police statement said.

At a hearing attended by de Juana later in the day, his lawyer said that the arrest warrant was “fundamentally flawed”.

But the barrister representing the Spanish government said the alleged crime which justified the warrant amounted to a terrorist offence.

Stephen Ritchie told Recorder Tom Burgess the arrest warrant stated that on the day of his release on August 2 this year, de Juana gave an identified woman a letter to be read out in his name urging a continuation of the armed struggle.

The offending phrase said to have been made by de Juana was a Basque saying meaning “kick it up the field”, a footballing allusion which the Spanish authorities interpret as urging Eta onwards in its campaign of violence.

This constitutes as offence under Articles 27 and 28 of the Criminal Code in Spain. The equivalent offence within the UK jurisdiction under the Terrorism Act of 2006 is the encouragement of terrorism.

There was legal argument over whether the Spanish offence carried the necessary three-year sentence required for automatic extradition.

For the defence, Sean Devine told the court his client did not consent to extradition and would fight it.

He called the documents provided by the Spanish authorities as a “fundamentally flawed arrest warrant”, and added: “The Spanish Government have clearly made an error in law.”

The Recorder ordered a brief adjournment for lawyers to consult over whether a bail application would be opposed. He said he was minded to grant bail but ordered the Spaniard be held in custody until the police had the opportunity to inspect the address that had been given to the court.

As part of his bail conditions, de Juana must observe a nightly curfew from 8pm to 7am, report daily to a police station, hand over his Spanish identity card and remain in Northern Ireland.

De Juana was freed from a Spanish jail in August after serving 21 years for the killing of 25 people in 11 attacks.

The most deadly attack involving de Juana took place in July, 1986, when 12 members of the Civil Guard police force were killed in a bomb blast in Madrid.

Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 820 people in its 40-year campaign of bombings and shootings to create a Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

The Belfast arrest came after Eta’s suspected military chief, Miguel De Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, was arrested by French police in the Pyrenees mountain range near the border with Spain’s autonomous Basque region.

The court heard that de Juana has been living in Belfast for six weeks. He enrolled to claim social security benefits a week after his arrival and was assigned a National Insurance number.

His partner is living with him and he has enrolled in a college to learn English.

Before arriving in Belfast he had given his address, while applying for a passport through the Spanish embassy in Dublin, as that of James “Mortar” Monaghan, one of the “Colombia Three” who are on the run from lengthy prison sentences in the South American nation for training Farc Marxist rebels in IRA-style weapons fabrication techniques.

The Irish authorities have refused to extradite the Colombia Three, saying there is no extradition agreement between Ireland and Colombia. Last week Irish police raided Monaghan’s house, making four arrests and taking away bomb-making equipment. Monaghan was not one of those arrested.