Sunday, 2 April, 2000
Sunday/Monday, 2/3 April, 2000Mother of murder victim slams British Army double standards
Pat Finucane Centre
The mother of murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride has written to the Secretary of State expressing her "anger, outrage and frustration" at recent media reports that British soldiers who have tested positive for drugs will be dismissed from the British Army while the two Scots Guards who murdered her son remain on duty. In the letter Jean Mc Bride said she found it, "incomprehensible that the British Army regard the use of cannabis and other illegal drugs as an offence deserving of dismissal from the British Army while at the same time allowing convicted murderers to remain in the ranks and presumably look forward to promotion. The murder of my son bears no moral or legal comparison to the use of illegal drugs. It beggars belief that the murder of Peter ranks so low on the list of morally unacceptable actions."
The letter continued, "an Army Board*) is soon to be reconvened to decide the fate of Wright and Fisher. Your Government will have a representative on that Board. I am not making a request. I am demanding that the British Government finally does the decent thing and orders the dismissal of the two men found guilty of the most serious crime possible; the murder of another human being. As a mother I can make you a solemn promise. Our family will not give up our campaign for justice until Wright and Fisher are dismissed.
We will haunt this government until justice is done. We owe this to Peter."
*)The original Army Board decision to retain the two guardsmen because of so-called "exceptional reasons" was overturned in a Belfast court last year following a judicial review brought by Jean McBride. A reconvened Army Board is expected to sit within the next two to three weeks.
See PFC website for further details on the Peter Mc Bride case. www.serve.com/pfc
Sunday/Monday, 2/3 April, 2000
Shoot to kill goes to Europe
Shoot to kill and collusion come under the international spotlight this week as relatives of 12 northern nationalists killed in controversial circumstances present their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg hearing coincides with the second week of the Saville Inquiry into the British Army's controversial killing of 14 unarmed Irish nationalists in Derry in 1972.
Relatives of the twelve claim that the killings violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to life. In 1995, the Strasbourg court ruled that the British government had violated Article 2 when the SAS shot dead three unarmed IRA Volunteers in Gibraltar. After the ruling, the British government came under intense international pressure to pull out of the Council of Europe, which oversees the court and the convention.
The cases before the European court include the shooting of an unarmed IRA Volunteer, Gervaise McKerr, by the RUC in 1982, the of eight IRA Volunteers and one civilian killed during a SAS ambush in Loughgall in 1989, the RUC shooting of an unarmed IRA man, Pearse Jordan in 1992 and Crown force collusion in the loyalist murder of Sinn Fein activist Patrick Shanaghan in 1991.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is supporting these cases through an amicus curiae (friend at court) brief, outlining the human rights dimensions of the cases. The NIHRC was set up under the Good Friday Agreement to promote human rights, and seek their protection through the courts where necessary.
At the hearing, which is due to open on Tuesday, relatives of the dead men will ask the court to declare the cases admissible on the grounds that the killings took place in disputed circumstances which have never been properly investigated.
In the case of Pearse Jordan, who was unarmed when he was shot dead by the RUC after they stopped his car on the Falls Road, there followed no prosecutions and the inquest into the killing was adjourned.
Hugh Jordan, father of the deceased, will tell the court that the decision not to prosecution any of the crown forces personnel involved in the shooting and the lack of an adequate investigation into the circumstances of the killing represents a further violation of the right to life.
Gervaise McKerr was one of three people killed by the RUC in one of the most controversial shoot to kill cases in the Six Counties. His death was one of six investigated by the ill-fated Stalker Inquiry. A five-man RUC unit fired 109 rounds of ammunition into McKerr's car. All three men in the vehicle were unarmed. Stalker's attempts to reinvestigate the killings were thwarted when he was abruptly dismissed from the inquiry.
Relatives of those killed in Loughgall claim that despite the fact that the authorities had prior knowledge of the IRA operation, they made no attempt to arrest members of the active service unit. The SAS established a killing zone with the intention of executing anyone who entered into their field of fire.
The mother of Patrick Shanaghan, who was shot dead by a masked gunman in Castlederg, will tell the court that her son was deprived of the right to life by RUC collusion with loyalist death squads. Patrick was targeted for constant harassment by the RUC prior to the shooting. A few months before his death, he was informed by the RUC that his files were "missing" and were in the hands of loyalists.
Sunday/Monday, 2/3 April, 2000
Warnings emerged in advance of Bloody Sunday, tribunal hears
The Bloody Sunday Tribunal has heard how British soldiers and Derry residents were aware that something bad was going to happen in the days leading up to the anti-internment march on the 30th of January 1972, when 14 unarmed civilians were killed by British soldiers.
As the inquiry entered its second week, counsel for the tribunal told of a widespread sense of foreboding which followed isolated warnings to some civilians to stay away from the march.
Christopher Clarke QC quoted from the evidence of more than twenty people who described a tense and charged atmosphere in Derry before the march. Some of the evidence quoted today came from people who had been on an anti-internment march a week before Bloody Sunday. Soldiers of the Paratroop Regiment who broke up that march told people, "Next week we're going to sort you out, we're going to shoot you."
The tribunal heard the evidence of a man who used to deliver milk to an army barracks in the city. He got to know a black soldier there, and used to eat breakfast in the barrack's kitchen. A week before Bloody Sunday, this soldier warned the man not to go on the march. He asked him to pass on a message to the organisers to call the march off because "the paras were coming in and they meant to do serious damage and maybe even kill people."
The tribunal also heard how young women with boyfriends in the British army and other people with friends in the army or the police were warned to stay away. The inquiry was told that "the paras" were being sent in to crack heads and there were going to be killings.
Another witness saw soldiers, on the eve of the shootings, writing on a wall "We'll get you paddy bastards tomorrow".
Mr Clarke said that a "sense of anticipation" may have contributed to the events of the day. "On the day itself a number of witnesses noted that soldiers seemed rather grim looking or threatening or, according to one of them, hyped up."
Mr Clark also said some insight could be gained into the minds of the soldiers involved in the killings from the displays of triumphalism demonstrated by them in the city afterwards.
The inquiry today heard of graffiti which were drawn by the paratroopers to glorify the kills of "paddies".
Some graffiti which appeared on plywood shutters in front of a chemist's shop in William Street near the scene of some of the killings was photographed by James Porter, owner of a neighbouring radio shop, at 9.15am on Monday January 31.
It was accompanied by pictures of six coffins and six crosses along with the date, January 30 1972, the time, 1645, and signed "1 Para".
Within minutes of having taken the photograph, a van appeared with men in boiler suits who looked like soldiers, who removed the shutters, his statement added.
Statements by other witnesses who saw graffiti the day after the killings were also read out.
One message read: "Ha, ha, ha. Hee, hee hee. We've got 13 more than you - 1 Para" and another was blunter: "Paras 13 - Paddies 0".
Mr Clarke said: "The more difficult question is whether this graffiti represents a celebration of defeat of what were, or were thought to have been, gunmen, without any army loss, or an indication of an over-hyped soldiery."
Last week, it was revealed that the decision to bring the Parachute Regiment, which had already earned a reputation in Belfast as the most blood-thirsty regiment in the British Army, was taken at cabinet level.
An unnamed colonel was told two days before the civil rights march on January 30 that the decision to use paratroopers had been taken at the highest level. He believed Edward Heath's government had made the ruling.
The officer, identified only with the number 1347, said in his statement that he was surprised the first battalion of the Parachute Regiment, based in Belfast, was earmarked for the Bloody Sunday operation.
But Brigadier MacLellan told him the decision had been taken at the highest level.
The officer said: "I understood his reference to the 'highest level' to mean that the decision had been taken at government level as in my opinion no military commander would place a battalion in a situation where the troops did not know the ground."
Continuing an opening submission set to continue for weeks yet, Mr Clarke also revealed that two of five rifles initially identified as "Bloody Sunday weapons" by the Ministry of Defence, were destroyed even after the inquiry team was assured they would not be touched.
A further 14 of the 29 weapons used that day had been "disposed of for destruction" between January 1998 - when the inquiry was established - and last September, before the inquiry team had identified them.
Only one of the weapons known to have been used on Bloody Sunday remains.
Mr Clarke disclosed that the destruction of evidence resulted in a police investigation into the fate of the missing weapons, and they had seized the only weapons which had not been destroyed or lost.
Sunday/Monday, 2/3 April, 2000
Feature: Bloody Sunday - The plain and simple truth
The biggest inquiry in British legal history opened at Derry's Guildhall on Monday, 27 March. The Saville Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972, which is set to continue for two years and hear evidence from over 1,400 witnesses, has pledged to seek out the truth, "plain and simple." Liam Wray, whose brother James was shot dead that day, has described the new probe as "an opportunity to heal". The families of those killed and injured, said Liam, had put their trust in Lord Saville and it was now up to Saville to prove he was trustworthy. Here, Laura Friel examines the scale of the injustice inflicted on the people of Derry that day and the obstacles that have been placed in the way of those seeking the truth.
Alice Long was only ten years of age when she first joined the Knights of Malta, a voluntary first aid organisation along the lines of St John's Ambulance. When British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators in Derry on 30 January 1972, Alice was one of a number of teenage girls to attend the injured and dying. More accustomed to treating cuts and bruises, the first aiders, sometimes working in pairs but more often alone, valiantly attempted to save the lives of people with devastating gunshot wounds.
As was the routine after attending a public event, in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday the Knights of Malta paramedics wrote detailed reports. Alice, along with 14 other first aiders, described her experiences. She described finding the body of Barney McGuigan lying beside the telephone box near Rossville Flats and his terrible head wounds. She described the bath, full of blood, in a flat in Columbcille Court where Damian Donaghy had been placed before a leg wound could be attended.
But there was one incident, an atrocity witnessed by Alice and her Knights of Malta superior, which in 1972 was considered too terrible to recount. At the time, Alice was persuaded to protect the families of those shot dead by staying silent. It would be over a quarter of a century later before Alice felt able to tell her tale.
Within sight of Rossville Flats, Alice and her colleague Leo Day saw a priest remonstrating with paratroopers beside a British Army vehicle. A woman bystander in great distress stopped Alice and her colleague and told them she had seen three men, dead or badly injured, being dumped by paratroopers in the back of one of their armoured personnel carriers, known as 'Pigs'. The woman pointed out the vehicle. "One of them may still be alive," she insisted.
Alice and her companion approached the vehicle and asked to see the injured inside. Eventually, the rear door of the vehicle was pulled open and the two first aiders saw three men sprawled on top of each other. There was blood running across the floor. When one of the two paramedics attempted to get inside he was stopped by a soldier. At that moment Alice heard a moan from inside the vehicle. She grabbed the rear door but a soldier with a blackened face kicked it out of her hands and it shut.
Alice opened the door again. The foot of one of the men inside moved, confirming that at least one of the people in the vehicle was still alive. The paratrooper kicked the door shut for a second time. Then raising his rifle so that it was pointing downwards, the soldier poked it through an open vision flap and fired three rapid shots. "They'll not make any more noise," the para had gloated.
Alice's story doesn't end there. She noticed two discarded bullet cases on the ground and picked them up. The front of each casing had peeled back in four sections, suggesting that the bullets had been deliberately tampered with to ensure the infliction of maximum injury when fired. The soldier who had fired into the vehicle cocked his rifle again and threatened to shoot Alice if she didn't hand them over. The casings were handed back.
In their account of Bloody Sunday, 'Those are real bullets, aren't they', journalists Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson follow up Alice's account. After Alice left the scene, the vehicle carrying the three men was driven to a location where a British Army medic attached to the paras allegedly examined them.
He later claimed that the three bodies had been placed side by side in a position which would have allowed them to breath if any of them had been alive. But the army medic's account contradicted another witness, a civilian who was helping identify the dead arriving at Altnagelvin hospital morgue, who saw the bodies of three men arriving. He described them inside the vehicle as "piled in like lumps of meat". One of the three bodies was still warm.
In his radio and television repair shop on William Street, amateur radio enthusiast Jim Porter regularly tuned in and tape recorded British Army radio messages. Just two days before Bloody Sunday, Porter had recorded a conversation involving a British Army officer and a soldier on patrol in an armoured vehicle in William Street.
On the tape the officer, identified only as 1.9 orders, soldier 1.6, who claims to have just seen a youth throwing a nail bomb, to shoot him. The soldier tells the officer that the youth is unarmed, "he has nothing in his hands" and the officer replies "shoot him dead". The soldier opens fire but reports missing his target by "two inches". "Bad shooting," says the officer. It's a telling insight into the British military mindset in the days running up to Bloody Sunday.
Only two other incidents perpetrated by the British state present an historical comparison with Bloody Sunday, argue Pringle and Jacobson: in Ireland the shooting of 12 spectators at Croke Park football ground in Dublin by British troops in 1920 and in England the 'Peterloo Massacre', when demonstrators seeking parliamentary reform were charged by the cavalry in Manchester in 1819.
The authors say that "the 13 unarmed men, seven of them teenagers, were killed as part of a deliberate plan, conceived at the highest level of military command and sanctioned by the British government, to put innocent civilians at risk by authorising the use of lethal force during an illegal civil rights march".
Shortly after the establishment of the Saville inquiry, an archive of material collected in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday by the Sunday Times Insight team, of which Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson were members at the time, was made available to Saville. Pringle and Jacobson were subsequently asked to assist in authenticating the material.
Dermot Walsh is currently the Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice at Limerick University. For him, Bloody Sunday "represents the classic example of a state resorting to the might of its armed forces, and the use of lethal force in particular, to crush public protest against the implementation of oppressive and discriminatory policies by that state".
Bloody Sunday cannot be explained away as an isolated aberration, argues Walsh. "The subordination of the rule of law and justice to the immediate demands of the executive and security policies which allowed Bloody Sunday to happen were well established by January 1972 and continued unabated right up until the current peace process began to take effect."
In 1998, a detailed analysis by Walsh of discrepancies between initial statements made by British paratroopers involved in the shootings and their subsequent evidence presented to the Widgery Inquiry became a key element of the Irish government's submission calling for a new inquiry to the British government.
In almost every case where a soldier fired one or more shots, Walsh found substantial discrepancies within their initial and subsequent accounts. "An even more sinister feature is the extent to which the accounts were changed again in the later statements to the Treasury Solicitor," he reported. "In almost all cases, the changes converted what had originally amounted to an unlawful killing to a more justifiable one.
"The extent of the inconsistency in the soldiers' statements and testimony is such that it would not be safe to rely on the army's version in virtually any instance where there was credible and cogent evidence to the contrary."
Pringle and Jacobson fear that any quest for truth by the Saville Inquiry is inevitably undermined because it "requires the rank and file soldiers and senior officers who apparently lied on oath to Widgery to re examine their stories." This requirement is made all the more unlikely after the British courts ruled that the paratroopers will remain anonymous. "The truth that Lord Saville seeks is simply unattainable," they conclude.
Their pessimistic view appears to be corroborated by a recent book, 'The Paras', by military journalist John Parker, in which he repeats the long since discredited British paratrooper accounts of IRA snipers and nail bombers. "Unfortunately, the subsequent Widgery inquiry did not produce witnesses to back up the soldiers' claims," writes Parker. "There was little doubt that the IRA themselves 'doctored' the scene by whisking away incriminating materials."
In 1972, the reports compiled by members of the Knights of Malta were offered as evidence but rejected out of hand by the Widgery Inquiry. The tapes of British Army radio contacts recorded by Jim Porter were also offered to the inquiry. In a meeting to discuss the tape recordings, Lord Widgery accused the Bogside shopkeeper of being unpatriotic. Porter replied in the words of Dr. Johnson, that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". The tapes were rejected on the grounds they had been made "illegally".
In 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair took the unprecedented step of establishing a second inquiry—an action which in itself was a clear repudiation of Widgery. He did so not because of any serious change of heart by the British military establishment but because the civilians whose testimony has been derided and denied were never deterred in their quest for truth and justice. After 27 years, the people of Derry remain optimistic that their voices will be heard.
UN report critical of British Government
Pat Finucane Centre
UN critical of British Government response to Finucane murder. Response from Finucane family.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges, Param Cumaraswamy will deliver his report to the Commission on Human Rights at the United Nations in Geneva this Thursday. Part of his sixth annual report to the fifty-fifth session of the Commission will deal with two issues, intimidation and harassment of defence lawyers and the murder of Pat Finucane.
Speaking on behalf of the Finucane family before he leaves to attend the hearing Martin Finucane said, 'Once again the British Government's violation of human rights will be questioned on the floor of the United Nations. This now seems to be a regular occurence for the British Government which continuously ignores the concerns raised by the UN and other distinguished bodies. The Special Rapporteur has once again expressed his continuous concern over the investigations into the murder of my brother Pat and also into the murder of another human rights lawyer, Rosemary Nelson.
Among his recommendations the Special Rapporteur repeats his call on the British Government to establish an independent judicial inquiry into Pat's murder. My family welcomes his intervention and fully supports his call for a full independent judicial inquiry. Compelling evidence has emerged over the years, which suggests that both army and police officers were involved in Pat's murder.
The British Government, which already has under its control all the answers to the questions we have raised, should establish an inquiry without any further prevarication.
I would like to remind Mr. Blair of his comments when announcing the Bloody Sunday Inquiry on 29 January 1998 when he referred to the actions of the British Paratroopers.
'Bloody Sunday was different, because, where the state's own authorities are concerned, we must be as sure as we can of the truth, precisely because we pride ourselves on our democracy and respect for the law, and on the professionalism and dedication of our security forces.'
He should apply the same approach in relation to my brother's case because the state's own authorities were very much concerned in the recruitment and handling of the British army agent, Brian Nelson.
The time has now come for Tony Blair to establish a full independent judicial inquiry. The longer the British Government delays, the more it makes itself party to the shameful murders, lies, and cover-ups that have surrounded the whole contentious collusion matter.'
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UN criticise UK on Finucane and Nelson investigations
Rosemary Nelson Campaign
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Richard Harvey, U.S. Spokesperson for the Rosemary Nelson Campaign, welcomed the Year 2000 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, presented to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva today, Thursday April 6th.
"Once again," he noted, "the Special Rapporteur, Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, has sharply criticized the British Government's handling of the investigations into the murders of human rights lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. Mr. Cumaraswamy has repeated his call for an independent judicial inquiry into the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane and he expresses his concern that the participation of officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in the investigation into Mrs. Nelson's killing may taint the outcome of that investigation."
Mr. Cumaraswamy reported that "the tragic and brutal murder of well-known defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson on 15 March 1999 in Belfast stunned and shocked many and left once again a chilling effect on the independence and security of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland."
The Rapporteur expressed reservations about "the extent and thoroughness of the investigation," into Rosemary Nelson's complaints of death threats and other forms of harassment by the RUC. He called for the full report of the investigation to be made public.
About the murder investigation, Mr. Cumaraswamy had this to say:
"What is of concern to many with whom the Special Rapporteur has spoken
is that the investigation will end the same way as did the Patrick Finucane
investigation. This should be avoided. The Special Rapporteur appeals
to the Government of the United Kingdom to take the necessary steps to
avoid any allegation of impunity being leveled against it in connection
with the murders of the two lawyers."
"There is only one way in this can be done," said Harvey, "and that is for the British Government to accept the demand for both an independent, international investigation and an independent judicial inquiry into Rosemary Nelson's murder. That is the position of every major international human rights organization, of the United States Congress, of the Law Societies of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and of England and Wales."
The Special Rapporteur noted that the Patten Report on Policing in Northern Ireland had omitted any reference to police harassment of defense lawyers. He underscored his continuing fears for the security of other human rights lawyers by urging the U.N. Commission on Human Rights: "to give serious consideration to provide a monitoring mechanism to implement the Declaration on the Right and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 53/144. [The Defenders' Declaration]"
Harvey called on Secretary of State Peter Mandelson to reverse his decision to refuse special protection facilities to Belfast lawyer Padraigin Drinan, who has taken over Rosemary Nelson's most controversial cases. "After all the threats Ms. Drinan has received, it defies belief that Mr. Mandelson could accept the RUC's judgment that her risk factor is too low to qualify her for protection," said Harvey. "That is precisely what they said about Rosemary Nelson. How many more human rights defenders have to go about their daily work under the constant fear of imminent death? How many more have to die before the Government faces up to its responsibilities?"
Derry Bomb Attack
Pat Finucane Centre
A bomb exploded earlier this morning near the perimeter security fence at Ebrington Barracks, the British Army HQ here in Derry. The explosion took place just before 6.30 am in the Waterside and was heard over a wide area of the city. No casualties have been reported. It is thought that dissident republicans opposed to the Good Friday agreement may be responsible for the attack though no claim of responsibility has yet been reported.
The bombing comes just hours before a unionist inspired debate in the British House of Commons when unionists and tories will attempt to force a watering down of the Patton proposals on the future of policing. It is no exaggeration to speculate that unionists and securocrats in the British Army/RUC will secretly welcome news of the Derry bombing. They have consistently argued that human rights legislation and radical changes in policing should not be implemented while there is a continuing 'threat' from dissident groups. Indeed the entire implementation of the Patton proposals has been made dependent on so called security assessments from the RUC Chief Constable. In this scenario isolated attacks every few months guarantee the wage packets of thousands of RUC officers and warm the hearts of all the Dr Strangeloves in this society.
Friday/Saturday, 7/8 April, 2000
Britain's Big Lie aired at Bloody Sunday Inquiry
Although it is six years since the IRA announced its ceasefire, there is new evidence that British military intelligence hasn't lost its creative flair.
A 'secret' British military file has claimed that a single gunshot fired by Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness was responsible for the ensuing cold-blooded massacre of 14 nationalist civil rights protestors by British paratroopers.
The incredible claim, made by an informer codenamed 'The Infliction', is seventeen years old, but was apparently discovered only recently—possibly at around the same time the British guns used on Bloody Sunday disappeared. Even more incredibly, the claim was given credence at the Saville Bloody Sunday Inquiry and appears to form an integral part of the British military's defence strategy.
The document, dated April 1984, claims Mr McGuinness "admitted to Infliction that he had personally fired the shot from Rossville Flats in Bogside that had precipitated the 'Bloody Sunday' episode".
Other documents presented to the Inquiry claimed that this alleged gunshot so unnerved soldiers that they felt compelled to open fire on the civil rights demonstrators.
The tale was trumpeted in the pro-British media as a revealing insight into the events of Bloody Sunday. The same journalists had previously promoted the outrageous lie that the victims were nail-bombers.
In a radio interview from the Sinn Fein annual conference, the former Stormont education minister dismissed the new allegation as "a transparent British dirty trick".
Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio Ulster on Saturday: "I want as much as anybody to get to the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday.
"My friends and neighbours were killed on that terrible day and I think we have to be clear about a number of things.
"I fired no shot or shots on Bloody Sunday. This is clearly a transparent British dirty trick. It is a nonsense. It is a total and absolute lie.
"Now the British military have been attempting over the course of 30 years to blame everybody but themselves for Bloody Sunday. They labelled the people who were killed gunmen and bombers, they blamed the march organisers and they blamed the people of Derry."
The Mid-Ulster MP said on the day of the killings, he had joined the march in the Creggan housing estate, had walked to Williams Street in the city where it was blocked and had returned to Free Derry Corner in the Bogside, where soldiers opened fire.
He stressed: "That is the reality. That was my sole participation in the events of Bloody Sunday and what is more the people of Derry know that."
Mr McGuinness said he was seriously considering giving evidence to the tribunal, but it remained to be seen if it was committed to establishing the truth. The Mid Ulster MP said he shared the reservations of republicans and the families of those killed.
"I have concerns and my friends and neighbours and the families of the relatives have concerns about the conduct and roles of this tribunal, about the fact that we have a lack of equivalence in the presentation of evidence, anonymity for British military witnesses and the fact that the British paratroopers rifles (almost all of them) have been destroyed by the British military.
"So it is only natural that I should have concerns about whether we will get justice in this tribunal."
Another MI5 document presented to the Inquiry, a recount of a conversation allegedly made by an unnamed Sunday Times journalist with former MP Ivan Cooper, gave a lurid account of an alleged IRA operation in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday involving McGuinness and two others. Mr Cooper has strongly repudiated the contents of the document, describing them as "poisonous and disturbing".
Mr McGuinness said as arguably the most arrested republican in the North of Ireland, he had never had this allegation put to him during any interrogation for IRA activities.
"The British say they have been in possession of the information from this informer, if he or she exists, for 17 years," the Mid Ulster MP continued.
"I have probably been the most arrested republican in the North in the course of the last 30 years.
"I have been in and out of Castlereagh (interrogation centre) for weeks on end like a fiddler's elbow.
"I have never once had, in the course of all of that, had that allegation placed before the tribual last week put to me in Castlereagh."
Nationalists had expressed disappointment last week when the counsel to the inquiry, Christopher Clarke QC, appeared to attach weight to the smear of McGuinness.
He said the former Minister of Education was "reputed" to be OC (Officer Commanding) of the IRA in Derry, before cynically goading IRA Volunteers by suggesting that their reluctance to come forward to give evidence indicated that they may have "something to hide".
In his presidential address to the Sinn Fein annual conference in Dublin, party president Gerry Adams said that while they welcomed the inquiry in Derry, it remained to seen whether it would establish the truth.
The West Belfast MP paid tribute to the campaigners for an inquiry into Bloody Sunday for securing a tribunal. He described the allegations against Martin McGuinness as an "Orwellian stroke" by British military intelligence.
He said: "In an Orwellian stroke, the British military tried to distract attention from its responsibility for the deaths of 14 civialians and pointed the finger at none other than Martin McGuinness.
"In all of this, we see how those who have managed the affairs of the north of Ireland will hang on by the fingernails."
Friday/Saturday, 7/8 April, 2000
Defence lawyer under threat
The RUC have been forced to reverse a decision to deny Belfast defence lawyer Padraigin Drinan protection under the Key Persons Protection Scheme. In a remarkable parallel to the case of Lurgan defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson, who was repeatedly denied protection by the NIO, Drinan's application for protection had been turned down because the RUC refused to accept her life was in danger.
In March 1999, Lurgan defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson was killed in a loyalist car bombing after being repeatedly denied protection under the KPP scheme. The NIO's claim that Nelson was not included within the scheme because she had not applied was later exposed as a lie. The question of her safety had repeatedly been raised with NIO officials, with British ministers and with Tony Blair.
Since Nelson's assassination, Padraigin Drinan has found herself in the front line of loyalist intimidation. Yet despite two attempts on her life and serious intimidation at her home when a loyalist parade stopped outside, the RUC refused to accept that her life was in danger. In February, Padraigin's application was turned down by British Secretary of State Peter Mandelson specifically on the advice of the RUC.
International pressure and representations from the Dublin government are believed to have been behind the decision to provide the Belfast solicitor with protection. A similar ruling denying protection to Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Residents Group was recently rescinded after international pressure highlighted the issue.
Meanwhile, evidence that the RUC Special Branch may have had prior knowledge of the plot to kill Rosemary Nelson is beginning to emerge. The information centres on a Belfast man described as a key figure in the Red Hand Defenders, a flag of convenience used by loyalists to circumvent their ceasefires.
The loyalist is believed to be behind the biblical-style codewords used to claim attacks, including the attack which killed Rosemary Nelson. The possibility that the loyalist in question may have been working as an agent for RUC Special Branch at the time of the car bombing raises a number of serious questions.
Monday-Wednesday, 10-12 April, 2000
British war machine in overdrive
"The level of British military activity throughout the Six Counties is reaching an all time high", says Sinn Fein Assembly member for South Armagh, Conor Murphy.
Across the Six Counties, but particularly in border areas, the dramatic increase in British foot patrols, helicopter flights and searches has led Sinn Fein representatives to accuse the crown forces of harassment.
On Tuesday, this harassment led to the physical abuse of nationalists when a joint RUC/British army patrol crossed the border into County Louth and assaulted a local man. The patrol crossed half a mile over the border before being confronted by angry locals.
Mr Murphy has asked for a response from the Dublin government and Secretary of State Peter Mandelson after the incident.
"Why, at this delicate time in the peace process, is Peter Mandelson allowing these provocative military operations by the British army?"
BELFAST
The RUC raided the homes of two republicans in the Markets area of Belfast on Tuesday 11 April. The men were held under house arrest while the raids were on going, they were both arrested when the raids ended. Both men were released the following day. South Belfast Sinn Fein Councillor Sean Hayes said that after arresting the two men, "the RUC gave the impression to the media that items had been taken away for forensic examination, but the whole episode was sectarian harassment at its height.
"It is ironic that the RUC were forced to release these men on the same day they were being awarded by Elizabeth Windsor. The RUC doesn't need rewarding, it needs disbanding."
SOUTH ARMAGH
Over the past number of weeks the degree of British military activity in South Armagh has caused outrage among nationalists and republicans. Local people believe that the British are using the peace process to strengthen their presence in an area where before the 1994 IRA cessation, their movements were severely limited.
Assembly member Conor Murphy's constituency office has been inundated with reports of British Army and RUC harrasment.
Helicopter activity, in particular, has increased dramatically over the last number of weeks. Incidents have been reported of helicopters swooping so low over cars that the military pilots were clearly visible.
The small village of Bessbrook, with the most heavily fortified military base in Western Europe, was described by locals as being "completely saturated" for two days with a vast increase in helicopter flights to and from the base. The Bessbrook base services the five joint British Army/RUC barracks and the 33 lookout posts doted around South Armagh. Refurbishment of these barracks and lookout posts, together with the addition of extra surveillance and infrared cameras is continuous.
Conor Murphy maintains that the number of British Army and RUC members deployed in South Armagh has increased by 75%, since the renewed IRA cessation in 1997.
Murphy described the increase in military activities as "blatantly provocative" and said the British Army are using South Armagh as a military training ground.
"Immediate moves on demilitarisation are required now and people on the ground must see these being translated into action," he said. "These sorts of patrols must cease, and the military apparatus including the spy posts and watch towers must be dismantled. These are not simply demands; they are obligations under the Good Friday Agreement."
CRAIGAVON
Residents in the Craigavon estate of Ardowen last week described how they were living "under siege" while a massive RUC and British Army search operation took place.
Sinn Fein Upper Bann Assembly member Dara O'Hagan said that since 16 March right through to April residents had been contacting human rights organisation the Pat Finucane Centre after the crown forces saturated Meadowbrook, Drumbeg and Ardowen for more than a week.
"It is unusual for the area to be subjected to such a high saturation and it's increasing tension," she said. "People are being subjected to harassment by the RUC and RIR. It seems to be focusing on young people. They are being stopped and searched on foot and in cars."
O'Hagan said that while the British government talked about demilitarisation, it certainly wasn't happening in Craigavon.
Locals have accused members of the crown forces, the RIR in particular, of harassing and intimidating school children on their way to and from school.
One mother was cleaning her windows when a mobile RIR patrol slowed to taunt her two sons, aged four and five, with sectarian taunts. She said she was called a "fucking fenian whore" by one of the soldiers. She said that the soldier then told her she wouldn't be cleaning her windows next time, because she wouldn't have any to clean.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, Sinn Fein Councillor Francie Murray said:
"Through the recent months there has been a campaign of daily harassment directed towards the residents of the Meadowbrook, Drumbeg and Ardowen estates in Craigavon from British forces.
ANTRIM
A British Army helicopter crashed in Moneyglass, near Toomebridge, on Friday 7 April.
Antrim Northwest Councillor Pauline Davey-Kennedy told An Phoblacht: "We have received a number of complaints in recent weeks about the increase in helicopter activity in Antrim, particularly about late night flights and extremely low flight paths.
"The crash landing of a British Army helicopter on Friday night was, given this level of British military activity, inevitable. It is only a question of time before people are killed.
"This month has seen an accident involving a British Army helicopter in Mullaghbawn in South Armagh. The Celtic League also released research showing that the British military establishment was aware that many of its Lynx helicopters still have safety faults."
Addressing the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, Newry/Armagh Assembly member Pat McNamee said that the mountains and hilltops of South Armagh were "a designated area of outstanding natural beauty blighted by 31 watch towers".
"These are ugly constructions which are bristling with cameras and listening devices and they are an oppressive intrusion into the lives of people in the area", he said.
"The noise and intrusions of intense helicopter activity is oppressive to the local population and causes serious financial hardship for farmers in the area. Over 40,000 animals have been killed as a result of low flying helicopters in the area since 1994, including cattle, sheep and poultry.
"There are also major concerns about the threat to people's health from the intense use of the infrared and other equipment which festoon these posts. There is also serious concern about the incidence of cancers and other related conditions in the South Armagh area over the last number of years."
McNamee said that there is a responsibility on the British government to publish a programme for demilitarisation under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and that programme should be implemented without further delay.
Thursday/Friday, 13/14 April, 2000
Huge leap in Sinn Féin support
Sinn Féin doubled its vote in a crucial council by-election victory in a target Westminster constituency seat on Thursday.
Assembly member Barry McElduff took almost half the first preference votes to claim the west Tyrone spot on Omagh district council after votes were counted yesterday.
He said the "writing was on the wall" for Ulster Unionist MP Willie Thompson, an extreme hardliner, whose seat will be targeted by Sinn Féin in the next general election.
Mr Thompson won West Tyrone in 1997 with a majority of just 1,161 votes.
In a high turnout, Mr McElduff yesterday claimed 3,757 first preference votes, ahead of UUP candidate Bert Wilson in second place on 1,672. SDLP candidate Gregory McMullan came third.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP described the result as a "stunning" success for Barry McElduff and Sinn Féin.
Mr Adams said:
"Today's stunning by-election victory in West Tyrone is another sign of the growing political strength of Sinn Féin across the island. In recent weeks we have fought and won two by-elections, each time showing massive rises in Sinn Féin support. This time we have more than doubled the Sinn Féin vote.
"I wish to congratulate Barry and the Sinn Féin team in West Tyrone and thank the electors for once again backing the party in massive numbers. This is a further endorsement of the Sinn Féin position and strategy."
Thursday/Friday, 13/14 April, 2000
Cautious approach to new talks
An attempt is to be made by the two governments and the parties to repair the Good Friday Agreement before Easter.
The Irish and British governments are said to have prepared a series
of documents for talks next week in an attempt to agree a sequence of events
that may allow Britain to reinstate the devolved political institutions
it collapsed in
February.
But Republicans were being cautious against raising hopes that a breakthrough can be achieved in view of Britain's failure to honour the Agreement in the two years since it was signed.
While the governments could issue a joint statement next week in an attempt to start the process of reinstatement of the institutions, the talks could continue into May.
But as the Protestant "marching season" approaches, the chances for significant movement on outstanding issues such as demilitarisation, policing and criminal justice reform could diminish amid bitter controversy over sectarian loyalist parades in nationalist areas.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble meanwhile called on Republicans to state how they will "deliver a peaceful society".
Describing the IRA as Sinn Féin's "private army", Mr Trimble told an employers' meeting in County Antrim: "It is for those parties with a relationship with private armies to say what they are going to do to bring about the change that is required.
"I want to hear what proposals they have to deliver a peaceful society in Northern Ireland instead of what they want as preconditions for movement on the decommissioning issue.
"That is the right approach. It is the only approach in this situation."
Mr Trimble has previously suggested that Republicans declare that "the war is over".
While dismissing this, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said his commitment to peaceful and democratic means was "irreversible", and his party remained wedded to pursuing exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
SIDETRACK
He did not think anyone could say with any certainty that the war was over, he said, adding that this was why he did not say it.
"And if we were moved, or tricked into saying it, or made the mistake in saying that the war was over, what would happen is someone would go out to try to prove that it wasn't. So I think we're into a whole sidetrack issue," he said in a newspaper interview on Friday.
But the IRA could not end its ceasefire were the power-sharing executive at Stormont working successfully, he added.
The new devolved administration in the North and the all-Ireland institutions, collapsed by British Direct Ruler Peter Mandelson in February, offered the best prospect of achieving a lasting peace.
"Picture that eight or nine weeks when we had unionists, nationalists and republicans working in tandem, and where there was broad acceptance that they all did a good job," Mr Adams said.
"How on earth could the IRA—even if it wanted to, and in my view it wouldn't want to—how on earth could it go back to war in a situation when the people had an ownership in the institutions of the state, and were able to have a man from the Bog (The Bogside in Derry) and someone from Andytown (Andersonstown in west Belfast), with all the others, in places of government?"
The Sinn Féin leader challenged Ulster Unionist claims that there was an understanding at the Mitchell Review of the Good Friday Agreement in November that decommissioning would follow the formation of the power-sharing executive.
He said the arrangement was that an Executive would be set up in tandem with the IRA appointing a liaison with the international disarmament commission, a move which took place within days of the end of the Review.
Mr Adams said Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble had declared that his position would be under threat if decommissioning did not occur within a certain timeframe.
However, he revealed that no timeframe was agreed because there was no belief that the timetable sought by Mr Trimble was realisable.
The West Belfast MP said any future deal on reactivating the institutions and tackling the arms issue would have to be "black and white", with Mr Trimble and him shaking hands on it.
Tomahawk and Patriot missiles made in Derry?
"Raytheon Revisited"
By George Johnston, Fingerpost December/January 1999/2000 Issue
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" Martin Luther King, Jr.
THE STORY, SO FAR
At the end of August a Derry Journal headline read "Row Rages Over Arms Firm's Derry Jobs". Raytheon Systems Limited, the American manufacturer of Tomahawk and Patriot missiles, had announced its intention to set up shop in Derry, creating 150 jobs over a three year period. The "Row" occurred between those who argued that new high-tech jobs, even in the arms industry, were always welcome in "job-starved Derry" and those who questioned the morality of offering such a welcome, especially in the home city of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. It was a brief "Row" - but it hasn't gone away, you know!
Towards the end of October a five-day trade mission, organised by the Derry Investment Initiative and led by Mayor, Pat Ramsey, set out to Tucson, Arizona in an attempt to seduce more technology-based companies towards inward investment in the North-West. During their stay members of the trade mission received a "keynote address" from Raytheon on why Derry had been chosen for its first global software development centre. Since Raytheon's main missile manufacturing plant is in Tucson, it seems likely that the trade mission learned much about the company's awesome products. Not much has been said of that visit since the trade mission's return. More needs to be said, if the "Row" that began in August is to be settled.
PICKIN' N' CHOOSIN'
"We can't pick and choose who invests in the city" - warns Derry economist - another headline from the Derry Journal. The same economist criticised the Pat Finucane Centre, which had said that the proposed Raytheon plant would contribute to the global arms race, for peddling "a warped form of morality". There's serious confusion here. "We" can pick and choose. In the recent past we (assuming the economist uses that word to describe the common citizenry) have chosen to tell Du Pont and that tricky man, Padraig Flynn, where they could stick their proposed toxic waste incinerator, despite the fact that that enterprise promised up to 50 high-tech jobs. We did choose to declare the Maiden City a Nuclear-Free Zone, whatever the consequences for the local economy.
The confusion arises over a misunderstanding of "moral" questions. Whether or not we can pick and choose is not a moral question: whether or not we should pick and choose is. Raytheon Systems Limited is pleased with its arms business:
"We are extremely proud of the Tomahawk's record. Since Desert Storm in 1991, when it was first used in combat, more than 1000 Tomahawks have been fired with a high degree of accuracy".
In fact, the Cruise Missile was used with great effect during Desert Storm to destroy the economic and social infrastructure of Iraq. That pattern of warfare was repeated during this year's war over Kosovo with the virtual destruction of the Serbian economy and it is certain that future Raytheon company hand-outs will make great play of its missile's success in the Balkan conflict. Nowhere will the small degree of inaccuracy - such as the devastation of that civilian bomb-shelter in Baghdad or the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade - get a mention. "The future Tactical Tomahawk Weapon System will include battle damage indication, in-flight re-targeting, loitering capability and mission planning from the launch platform. With these added capabilities, Tactical Tomahawk will carry on the superior tradition of its predecessors into the 21st Century".
SOFTWARE OR HARD SELL?
Since the initial public spat over the location of Raytheon there has been a shift in emphasis. While opponents continue to stress the global armaments aspects of the company's activities, those in favour now refer to its proposal to establish a "software centre" in Derry. Once again, there's some serious confusion. Raytheon itself is clear that the proposed Derry plant will be intimately connected to its missile manufacturing. Its Chairman and Chief Executive, Daniel Burnham, has said that "group employment in Northern Ireland could reach 1,500 jobs if the company won a separate Ministry of Defence contract to build a new missile system". Raytheon Systems Limited, in all of its company publicity and advertising material, acknowledges the simple fact of modern, high technology warfare: the software is the bomb.
It's the software that gives the Tomahawk its "battle damage indication, in-flight retargeting, loitering capability and mission planning from the launch platform". It's the software that works the "global positioning satellite guidance capability, Terrain Contour Matching and Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation". What would a Tomahawk Cruise Missile be without its sophisticated software? A useless tube with an engine at one end and an explosive charge at the other, about as relevant to modern warfare as a shillelagh.
Something similar could be said about Raytheon's latest missile, the AGM-154A Joint Standoff Weapon. It is currently used in the "no-fly" zone of Iraq. It is "an unpowered glide weapon designed to provide tactical strike aircraft and bombers with the ability to attack hostile targets from safe standoff distances, which provides for much improved aircraft survivability". A new version will enable the user "to strike high value targets with a 500-pound blast fragmentation warhead. This programme has recently been restructured to integrate an autonomous imaging infrared terminal sensor for precision strike". What use would this "unpowered glide weapon" be without its fancy software? About as much use as a paper aeroplane: the software is the bomb!
MORE TO COME?
The Raytheon announcement was greeted by First Minister (designate), David Trimble: "I commend Raytheon's determination and hope that many other companies will investigate the potential of Northern Ireland for hi-tech investment". John Hume was "very encouraged by this initiative from Raytheon...the company has recognised that the dividend from peace is still flourishing". The Pat Finucane Centre didn't think "the Irish peace dividend should be built on fuelling the arms trade which is causing misery world wide". Those were the opening statements in the debate over the attitude that should be taken towards the Raytheon proposal. It is important that the debate continues and that other voices are heard. In these days of peace and "arms de-commissioning", what is the opinion of the local Sinn Fein and Ulster Unionist parties on a company which depends so much on "arms commissioning"? Will Derry City Council debate the matter? Will local trade unions offer their opinion, since Raytheon is, by all accounts, vehemently opposed to union membership?
The debate is important because its outcome will determine not only the attitude towards Raytheon's current proposal but to any future proposal, from whatever source, that raises such profound moral questions. Yes! Publications, through Fingerpost Magazine, has offered to sponsor such a public debate on the core issue raised by the potential presence of Raytheon in Derry: are we morally justified in allowing the type of industrial development that renders our children dependent on employment in the manufacture of what are, in essence, weapons of mass destruction?