24.11.2004
By Pat Finucane Centre
The public sessions of the Bloody Sunday Tribunal ended yesterday in Derry following six years of testimony, legal battles, destruction of evidence by the MOD in London and continuous sniping from sections of the British press. The event was marked last night with a candlelight walk from the Guildhall to the Bloody Sunday memorial in Rossville St in Derry. Relatives, friends and supporters gathered for a minutes’ silence following a short dignified ceremony in the Bogside. The three tribunal judges are not expected to announce their findings until sometime next year. To see the closing remarks to the Tribunal, daily transcripts and background see:
www.bloodysundaytrust.org, www.birw.org and www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org
Meanwhile it has been confirmed that the 2005 Annual Bloody Sunday lecture will be delivered on January 28 2005 by Geraldine Finucane. The lecture will be co-sponsored by the Bloody Sunday Trust and the Pat Finucane Centre. The annual march will take place on January 30.
Kathleen Thompson Documentary to be premiered tonight
Lifting a Dark Cloud - The Kathleen Thompson Case
A powerful and moving documentary film which focuses on the killing of Derry mother-of-six Kathleen Thompson will be premiered tonight at the Nerve Centre, Derry, during the Foyle Film Festival.
Ireland 2004, 50 mins, Director: Anne Crilly, Producer : The Pat Finucane Centre
There is limited space in the Nerve Centre tonight but the documentary will also receive a Community Screening at the Gasyard Centre on December 10 2004, International Human Rights Day. This screening will be open to all and begins at 8.30pm sharp.
US Army Defends Spicer Contract
In a letter to US Senators the US Army has defended the decision to award a major Iraqi security contract to former Scots Guard officer Lt Col Tim Spicer despite objections from the family of murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride. According to the US Army the decision to award the contract was reviewed following a number of objections but the original decision was upheld. The US Army reply contains a number of factual inaccuracies regarding the specific complaints against Spicer and the Pat Finucane Centre will be making a substantial new submission detailing the actual case against Spicer.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence in London has refused a request from the PFC to confirm the actual location of Guardsmen Wright and Fisher. Both men, who were convicted of the murder of Peter Mc Bride but were allowed to remain serving soldiers, were posted to the Milan Platoon of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards-an Armoured Infantry Battalion. In recent years they have been based at Oxford Barracks in Muenster, Germany, in Basra, southern Iraq and at their home base in Wellington Barracks, London. In the past the MOD has been reluctant to confirm deployments of the Guardsmen following protests in Germany that armed and convicted murderers are based on German soil. See www.serve.com/pfc for extensive background on the murder of Peter Mc Bride and the role of LT Col Tim Spicer.
Legislation on Inquiries-Pat Finucane
In the Queen’s speech earlier this week it was announced that new legislation would be introduced to provide “a modern and comprehensive framework for statutory inquiries into matters of public concern.” This is official gobbledygook in reference to legislation announced by the British Government to ‘safeguard’ the national security aspects of the inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane. It is now expected that the actual details of the draft legislation will be published this Friday. Only then will it become clear exactly how such legislation will clash with the demands of the Finucane family for an open, independent and transparent inquiry process. If the proposals are unacceptably restrictive the family have already signalled that they will not co-operate.
Dublin Bombings Report published
Justice Barron, the former Irish Supreme Court judge tasked with investigating allegations of British state collusion in a number of loyalist attacks in the Republic in the 1970s this week released his report into the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973 and a number of other loyalist bombings and murders on the southern side of the border. The Dail sub-committee (parliamentary sub-committee) responsible for holding private and public hearings into his reports noted this week that the judge had received 'nil' co-operation from the British authorities in his latest report. The full text is not yet available on the Irish Government website. The PFC will advise subscribers by email when the report does become available online.