Sunday/Monday, 16/17 April, 2000
Tuesday-Thursday, 18-20 April, 2000 Easter Holiday, 21-24 April, 2000 Tuesday/Wednesday, 25/26 April, 2000 Thursday, 27 April, 2000 Thursday/Friday, 27/28 April, 2000 May Day Holiday, 29 April-1 May, 2000 Tuesday, 02 May, 2000 Tuesday/Wednesday, 2/3 May, 2000 Wednesday, 3 May, 2000Sunday/Monday, 16/17 April, 2000
Analysis: The Saville sham and the magic bullet
By Christy Ward (for The Irish People)
Sometimes those not familiar with British machinations in Ireland have a difficult time understanding the frustrations felt by the nationalist community.
Reporters and editors in the United States see it as a conflict that is impossible to decipher and hard to cover. They want to believe that the British government is telling the truth and that the Irish Republican Army are the bad guys. Black hats, white hats; the simpler the better.
Irish Americans in general have been sold a bill of goods: Noraid is evil, the IRA are murderous thugs who run criminal rackets to fatten their own wallets, and the British are the poor slobs caught in the middle as they try to keep the warring tribes from annihilating each other. And Britain is an ally of the United States, a partner in keeping global peace, and a civilized nation that shares that innate sense of American justice. The British are our moral equivalents and would seek to remedy wrongs where they can.
Take the Saville Inquiry in Derry, for example. Tony Blair set it up in January 1998 to look into the unanswered questions about a massacre of unarmed civilians at an "illegal" demonstration in 1972, now known as Bloody Sunday.
Members of the British army, trained for overseas disputes that could topple governments, were sent to Derry by the then-British prime minister Ted Heath to break down the so-called "no-go areas" in the poverty-stricken Bogside.
The army claims it was fired on from the crowd and that nail bombs were used against its troops. New claims in recent days even have Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, firing the first shot that brought on the bloodbath.
Additional new allegations, from "British security forces," claim that two dozen men were seen piling out of two vehicles, armed to the teeth, ready to do battle. Some were even wearing "battle dress" and "berets."
An unnamed informer, code-named "Infliction," has also appeared. In a statement the British have been keeping secret since 1984, "Infliction" claims that McGuinness told him he fired at the British soldiers.
The weapon of choice, in this initial assault that led to 14 dead and 13 wounded in just 30 minutes, was a Thompson submachine gun, from which McGuinness is said to have fired a single shot.
Now Mr. McGuinness must be the coolest of cucumbers, having fired only one round from a weapon that can fire from 600 to 725 rounds a minute. And he must have been exceedingly clever to secret this nearly 40-inch, 11-pound weapon on his person. And he must have thought himself a crack shot, because a Thompson is accurate to only about 50 yards.
Equally clever were those 24 beret-wearing bandits in the two cars along Westland Street. In addition to all those warm, eager gunslinger bodies—which arrived on the scene in a Vauxhall and a Triumph 1300, (remember, they were armed with automatic rifles and assault weapons, according to British secret-service documents, unnamed informers, and notes taken from an unnamed Sunday Times journalist) -- there were a half dozen gelignite bombs in the cars, and a few revolvers, too.
It's no wonder no one can make sense out of the Troubles. Lie is piled upon lie until nothing makes sense anymore. Reality becomes as reliable as a fleeting segment from last night's dream.
Here are some facts:
On January 30, 1972, some 15,000 civilian nationalists attended an illegal rally in the Derry Bogside. They were protesting against internment without trial. The British-backed Stormont government had declared the march illegal.
The Bogside was a virtual "no-go area," which neither the Royal Ulster Constabulary nor the British army could enter. That part of Derry was under nationalist control, and Heath wanted it back.
At 4:10 p.m., the British army opened fire, and 13 men, mostly under 25, were shot dead. No nail bombs were found on the dead. No rifles, handguns, or machine guns were found.
Most of the victims were shot in the head or trunk, some shot in the back. Some had wounds that indicated illegal dumdum bullets.
The march started peacefully and the grievances of the protesters were legitimate. The partitioned statelet was near collapse. Unionism was on the ropes. The British government moved in to prop up this illegitimate regime. No British solder has ever been charged with a single death—and all but one of the 20-odd British-army weapons used to kill that day have disappeared.
Clear away the twists and turns and secret plots, and the fog lifts. It's mighty good the British are capable of investigating themselves—but it could leave one to wonder if this inquiry is nothing more than a scam to profit Mother England.
Tuesday-Thursday, 18-20 April, 2000
Picket for dismissal of killer soldiers
Pat Finucane Centre
Protestors have picketed the British Ministry of Defence to demand that the killers of Peter McBride be dismissed from the army.
Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher shot Mr McBride in the back moments after he had been searched by members of their patrol on September 4, 1992 in the New Lodge Road area of North Belfast.
The family of Mr McBride delivered a letter to the British Prime Minister over a week ago calling on the government to dismiss the two convicted murderers.
Leaflets outlining the McBride case were handed out to passers-by and civil servants on Downing Street. Mr McBride's father, also named Peter, said: "It is deeply hurtful and insulting that we should have to plead for justice for our son and family."
Paul O'Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre said:
"A legal decision has been made and it is now very much our view that the government has a political and moral responsibility towards the family and towards the wider community.".
Easter Holiday, 21-24 April, 2000
Analysis: The next steps
By Des Wilson (for The Irish People)
If decent political parties negotiate with a British administration again, what can they negotiate about?
There seems little use in making an agreement with a British administration or with British Unionists in Ireland, because they do not keep agreements. Of course if a new agreement is made which contains very clear and very severe penalties for not keeping it, then a new agreement would make some sense provided there is an international body able and willing to force the British administration and its Irish supporters to keep their word.
Another approach would be to keep on demanding that the British administration and its supporters in Ireland keep the agreement they have already made.
The second of these approaches has some advantages. One is that the British administration would be forced to do its duty and create equality and reasonably fair administration in Ireland against the wishes of their Irish supporters. Another is—and this is of vital importance—that the damage the British administration has done to international trust and peacekeeping would to some extent be remedied.
From the date of the British administration's refusal to fulfil its international obligations in Ireland, no European state can presume that international agreements have to be kept.
So it is in the interests not only of Ireland but of Britain and Europe that the British administration be forced to keep that Good Friday Agreement. Otherwise, international relations are thrown back to the worst days of gunboat diplomacy, when a British administration could enforce its will against all laws of international decency by simply sending a gunboat to intimidate the people of any country. The international community needs to take note of what has happened in Ireland. Otherwise it can make laws until it is red, white, and blue in the face, and a British administration will not keep them.
So which of the possibilities do we choose—negotiate a new agreement (which the British administration will not keep), or force the British administration to keep the Irish agreement it has already made?
If we negotiate at all, it can be in one of two ways. One way is to put all proposed solutions on the table, those of republicans, nationalists, loyalists, Unionists, and others, with the London proposals for control from London as only one of several possibilities. Another is to negotiate only about when and how the London administration is going to get out and stop preventing the normal development of Ireland's northeast.
If it were possible, the second of these would be the first choice of democrats, but we have to remember of course that in Mr. Blair's regime the Lloyd George threat of "immediate and terrible war" is still there—it hasn't gone away, you know— and any new agreement will have to take the risk of gunboats up the Lough.
Tuesday/Wednesday, 25/26 April, 2000
New York presses RUC on death lists
The members of New York City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday calling on the RUC to divulge pertinent security information to those Sinn Féin councillors whose names have been recently discovered on loyalist death lists.
The RUC routinely refuse to give details to republicans and nationalists facing assassination, including the identity of the group making the threat. The motion makes reference to allegations of collusion between loyalists and the RUC in the killings of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson and calls on Direct Ruler Peter Mandelson to advocate the release of the information and to support putting those targeted on the Key Persons Priotection Scheme.
A press conference will be held today (Thursday), at New York's City Hall, where council members will show concern and solidarity with their fellow elected officials who have been targeted.
Sinn Féin's Michael Ferguson, a member of Lisburn Borough Council and one of those under threat, will attend, along with West Tyrone Assembly member Pat Doherty. Numerous New York elected representatives will attend, including the Speaker of the City Council, Peter Vallone, and Alan Hevesi, New York City Comptroller. Leaders from the Irish-American community will also attend. It is hoped that New York will be the first of many American elected bodies to pass similar motions.
The full motion reads:
"Whereas, on Thursday evening, 6 April 2000, the entire Sinn Féin party membership on the Belfast City Council and the Lisburn Borough Council as well as other Sinn Féin political figures were advised by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the police force of Northern Ireland, that they were the targets of death threats made by paramilitary loyalists and were being actively stalked: and
"Whereas the serious nature of the threats has led Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to warn all party members 'to be extremely vigilant and careful', stating that he was 'concerned at what appears to be a widespread, concerted threat from loyalist groups directed at Sinn Féin councillors, nationalist lawyers and ordinary citizens', according to the BBC News: and "Whereas, considering the nature of the politically motivated death threats within the context of the extremely volatile political situation in Northern Ireland, the RUC needs to divulge all pertinent information regarding the highly individual threats to all persons targeted in order to protect their safety and their families' safety: and "Whereas, allegedly, the RUC has chosen to reveal only the bare minimum facts regarding the death threats to the targeted 13 members of the Belfast City Council, the four members of the Lisburn Borough Council, the two members of the Craigavon Council, one member of the Upper Bann Assembly and one former member of the Derry City Council: and
"Whereas, additionally, according to sources, all targeted council members and Sinn Féin politicians have been denied access to the Key Persons Protection Scheme with the exception of one Belfast council member who has been under its protection for one year after several attempts were made on his life by loyalist paramilitaries; the scheme is a government programme that provides special security protection for elected officials and other public figures who are in great personal danger: and
"Whereas, unfortunately, this refusal to divulge pertinent information such as which paramilitary loyalist organisation has issued the threats or whether the organisation is a major, highly organised group or a small splinter group, follows a pattern of RUC reluctance to grant basic rights to Sinn Féin party members and nationalist supporters who receive loyalist threats: and
"Whereas, during the period of 1989 to 1993, a total of 13 Sinn Féin members, including three elected council members, were killed by paramilitary loyalists: and
"Whereas, allegations of collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitary groups have already surfaced in regard to the assassinations of nationalist lawyers Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson and it is imperitive that every step be taken to avoid any such tragedy from ever occurring again: and
"Whereas, by denying the targeted parties access to potentially life-saving information, they are being denied their basic rights to know the details of the threats made against them and it is simply unacceptable and irresponsible that the RUC not divulge this critical information: and
"Whereas Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson should immediately issue a statement in support of divulging all pertinent information to the targeted council members and nationalist supporters and he should call for all of these members to be placed under the immediate protection of the Key Persons Protection Scheme: now
"Therefore, be it resolved, that the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Royal Ulster Constabulary to divulge pertinent security information to the 13 Belfast City Council members, four Lisburn Borough Council members and other Sinn Féin political figures that were issued death threats from loyalist paramilitaries."
Scots Guards/Mc Bride
Senior Officers Promised Promotion to Convicted Scots Guards
Pat Finucane Centre
The spurned lover of convicted Scots Guard James Fisher has released a number of controversial letters to a Scottish newspaper revealing that senior British Army officers visited the convicted murderer in jail promising that he would be promoted upon release. The letters go on to reveal why the soldier who searched murder victim Peter Mc Bride was not called as a witness, Fisher's disdain for his co-accused Mark Wright and an incident when members of the Scots Guards snubbed then Secretary of State Mo Mowlam on a visit to the regiment.
The revelations come as an Army Board prepares to decide the future of the two guardsmen convicted of the 1992 murder of North Belfast man Peter Mc Bride. Fisher told his former girlfriend, Kate Rice, that he had been visited by his commanding officer, Lt Col. Tim Spicer, soon after his conviction and promised that everything was being done to get the pair released, ".....my commanding officer has said that I will get back, and when I do, I could even be promoted." The letter went on, "I told you about my visit from my commanding officer and Major General Kizsley.....he is doing his best to keep us in the army."
Campaigners for the Mc Bride family have demanded that Prime Minister Tony Blair intervene in the case. A spokesperson for the Pat Finucane Centre said, "The allegations that senior officers attempted to pervert the course of justice in this case confirms the suspicions that we have had all along. On January 31 1997 Major General Kizsley used his position as a senior officer to recommend that the two should not be discharged from the army. In February 1996 a petition was sent to Secretary of State Dr Mo Mowlam by Kizsley calling for the early release of the two men.
Their commanding officer, Lt Col Spicer, has made clear his view that the two should not even have been charged in the first place. Clearly senior officers who had "unlimited "jail visits were attempting to negate the spirit of the judgement of a court of law. Who really rules Britain?
A further damning revelation is contained in the letters according to campaigners for the Mc Bride family. Fisher criticised his lawyers for wanting to put Lance Corporal Swift, leader of the four man patrol, on the witness stand. His evidence would have confirmed that he had searched Peter Mc Bride and there was no evidence of an alleged coffee jar bomb. In reference to a meeting with his Belfast solicitor Fisher admitted, "He understands what the lawyers in England want, but I don't know if they are aware of the reasons for not calling Swift as a witness." Swift was never called to give evidence. This admission refutes the central argument of those who claimed the conviction was a miscarriage of justice. Ludovic Kennedy, who called for the release of the guardsmen, claimed that Swift's evidence might have ".....tipped the judge's mind into believing Fisher's and Wright's account....." Fisher obviously didn't share this view.
Fisher was scornful of his accomplice in the murder, Mark Wright, accusing him of 'losing his cool' and inventing "stupid lies" in his statement to the RUC about bullets ricocheting off a wall and hitting Peter Mc Bride in the back. In reference to an official visit to the Scots Guards by Dr Mowlam Fisher relates how soldiers refused to talk to the Secretary of State, "I would love to have seen her ugly face when he blanked her."
Refugee issue inflamed
It has been announced that the deportation of thousands of "failed" asylum applicants is being stepped up after Dublin's policies on refugees have this week served to ignite racism in Ireland.
Legislation giving police extra powers to seize, jail and deport refugees is due in the coming weeks. "I don't actually relish deporting anybody from this jurisdiction and it's not a very pleasant task," he said, "but it's part of the law and it's part of the process," Dublin's Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said yesterday.
The move comes on the back of a a wave of fear and confusion in small towns and villages after moves to accomodate refugees in rural areas were launched without any apparent forethought.
Isolated villages are being asked to host numbers of refugees equal to some 10% of their population. Inexplicably, large cities with established resources for hosting a multi-national population have been virtually ignored.
Racist prejudice has mixed with the sincere concerns of small communities where outsiders have traditionally been viewed with suspicion. But in the hamlet of Clogheen, County Tipperary, an arson attack on a hotel ear-marked for use by asylum-seekers may mark the start of a wave of anti-refugee violence in rural Ireland.
In Kildare, more than 150 people staged a demonstration against the planned arrival of an estimated 400 asylum-seekers. Meanwhile, hundreds met in the village of Corofin, County Clare to discuss their objections to the accomodation of refugees at the area's only local tourist hostel. Amid some confusion, understandable concern for the loss of tourist traffic mixed with unfounded prejudice about the possiblity of increased crime in the area.
There is now a growing suspicion that the Dublin government may be deliberately seeking to inflame the refugee issue in order to lend credibility to its own right-wing policies.
RACIST ATTACK
The Pan-African organisation called the 'dispersal' programme "uncivilised" and said it violated fundamental human rights. The problems facing the African immigrant community were brought to a head last week when a 16-year-old Nigerian, who is in this country on his own seeking asylum, was dealt a savage blow across the head whilst queuing for chips in his local chipper in Summerhill, Dublin.
The next evening, Nigerians marched in protest to Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station to protest the lack of any investigation into the incident.
The march came together almost spontaneously. Rosanna Flynn of the Residents Against Racism Campaign, who supported the march, said it was a sign of what is to come "as long as the government continues its present racist policies". "The government is creating racial hatred all across the state with talk of 'bogus' and 'illegal' asylum seekers, and its policies of flotels, canvas pavilions, 'direct provision', and 'dispersal', without any provision for services or integration into the community."
"The government persists in treating the accommodation needs of asylum seekers in separation from the accommodation needs of 100,000 households in the 26 Counties, who are all looking for housing, as if the 7,000 asylum seekers were to blame for the housing crisis."
SLIGO 'FLOTEL'
Another report this week indicated that the first of the so-called 'flotels' to hold asylum-seekers could be docked in Sligo harbour. Dublin officials have already contacted Sligo Harbour Board about the possibility.
The deputy mayor of Sligo, Sinn Féin Alderman Sean MacManus said the flotel would which effectively be a "prison ship" and would serve only to stigmatise and demean asylum-seekers.
"Housing refugees in such a manner will create more problems than it will solve. It is clearly an inhumane way to treat people who are refugees.
"There would, quite rightly, be an uproar from animal rights groups if a ship full of cattle were to be moored out in Sligo Bay for up to two years. Yet this is what the government now proposes to do with other human beings, a situation that will create major health and safety problems for those living and working aboard such a prison ship."
Dublin Sinn Féin Councillor Larry O'Toole said the asylum policies of the present government were "based on intolerance" and do nothing but add to the "atmosphere of racism that has grown from the mishandling of the issue". He also accused sections of the media of making inflammatory headlines about a flood of 'bogus' asylum seekers and the country being 'overrun'.
"A country whose own emigrants bore the brunt of racism in England and elsewhere should not make the same mistakes and let racism take root in society."
Thursday/Friday, 27/28 April, 2000
Fears over police reform being diluted
Leaks to the media have indicated that new legislation to implement policing reform in the North of Ireland will ignore at least one key recommendation of the Patten Commission.
The Police Bill, which is to go to before the British parliament soon, apparently calls for the badge of the new force to be decided only after consultation with the existing heavily unionist RUC police force. This could pave the way for a British Crown to be retained on caps and uniforms as a symbol of continuing unionist allegiance.
Sinn Féin has now voiced "deep concern" that Britain's Direct Ruler in Belfast, Peter Mandelson, is engaged in diluting even the moderate reforms of the Patten Commission.
The Policing Commission under Tory MP Chris Patten was originally asked as part of the Good Friday Agreement to create a police force enjoying the allegiance of both communities. Its report in October fell short in key respects, according to nationalists. Sinn Féin said it had failed to address several issues of concern to nationalists, such as the use of plastic bullets, the timescale for change and the role of human rights abusers in the force, to be called the Police Force of Northern Ireland.
"The British government had a chance to move on these outstanding issues," said Sinn Féin policing spokesperson Bairbre de Brun yesterday. "However it appears that Peter Mandelson has chosen to move a different direction.
"Patten was clear that all aspects of his report had to be implemented. Even before the publication of the leaked legislation Peter Mandelson had indicated that he would not implement key areas of the report. This is not acceptable.
"The British government must realise that nationalists and republicans will not accept or support anything less than the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement."
May Day Holiday, 29 April-1 May, 2000
Racist violence in Dublin
Around 60 people were involved in Bank Holiday weekend clashes in Parnell Street where an African-owned shop was attacked.
The incident is believed to have started when a man shouted racist remarks at a black motorist sitting in a car outside the shop.
During the attack a female shop assistant and a customer were assaulted.
Shop-owner, Kola Ojewale, a Nigerian who has lived in Ireland for the past three years, said he was saddened by the incident. And he said the attack had led him to question his future in Ireland.
"I'm beginning to wonder if the best thing to do is to close the shop for the safety of my wife and children," Mr Ojewale said.
Gabriel Okenla, of the Pan African Organisation, said black people in the area had received a number of threats in recent months.
Sinn Féin has called on State agencies - including the Eastern Health Board and the Garda police - to take part in round-table talks with Irish and African shop owners, residents and community groups in Dublin's north inner city to defuse racial tensions.
Councillor Burke said:
"State agencies have the prime responsibility in defusing the tensions created between black and white people by their policies. Community organisations and local political leaders such as myself are already actively playing our part but we cannot make real progress without the active support and involvement of State agencies.
"The north inner city is a powder keg. Everyone must get round the table and try to resolve any problems we have before the situation flares again and someone is maimed or even killed."
Councillor Burke said that whatever differences people have with each other, there was no justification for racial abuse and physical attacks. "We should talk to each other to iron things out."
May Day Holiday, 29 April-1 May, 2000
Feature: A kind of casual lynching
By Laura Friel
In the North of Ireland in the early hours of April 27 1997, a mob kicked Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill to death. The 25 year old father of three was identified as a target by the loyalist gang waiting at the cross roads because he had just left St Patrick's Hall, a Catholic social club in Portadown, and was walking with his three companions towards a Catholic housing estate.
Struck from behind Robert fell immediately to the ground where the mob repeatedly kicked and stamped upon his head. One of the assailants shouted, "Die, you fenian bastard, die." Robert's friend, Gregory Girvan, was also severely beaten but survived. Having never regained consciousness Robert died in hospital 12 days later on May 8. London Guardian journalist Jeremy Hardy later referred to Robert's murder as a "kind of casual lynching".
And it was casual, if only in the sense that any 'taig' would do. In the early hours of a Sunday morning, just when the pubs and clubs were closing and people were making their way home after a Saturday night out, the loyalist gang had gathered at a very particular spot for a very specific purpose.
Even the local RUC, anticipating loyalist trouble, had deployed an armed mobile patrol to monitor the junction at Market Street. A junction renowned as dangerous for Catholics returning home to Obins Street and Garvaghy Road.
And casual could certainly describe the attitude of the RUC. Four RUC officers armed with pistols and machine guns sat in an armoured Land Rover just a few yards away and watched as the attack took place. They made no attempt to intervene. They did not get out. They did not radio for reinforcements. They did not fire a warning shot.
When one of Robert's companions, a female relative Siobhan Girvan, banged on the side door of the Land Rover pleading for help, she was ignored. Her sister, Joanne Girvan, was also screaming for help as she watched her husband, Gregory, being kicked into unconsciousness. The RUC remained unmoved. In an attempt to protect Robert from further blows, Siobhan threw herself over his body. The action was a measure of her desperation.
"I knew Robert was hurt because he was a big fella but he just lay down and never put his hands up to protect himself. He just lay there and they were just kicking and kicking," said Joanne.
In the immediate aftermath the RUC patrol made no attempt to administer first aid to either injured victim. The loyalist mob hung around but the RUC made no arrests. No crime scene was declared. A witness saw one loyalist sitting with the RUC in the Land Rover after the attack, they appeared to be sharing a joke.
And Robert's death soon became a laughing matter amongst loyalists generally in Portadown. In August of the same year, during an Orange Order march past the nationalist Garvaghy Road to Drumcree church, loyalists mimed kicking and stomping, taunting nationalist residents with Robert's murder.
This month marks the anniversary of Robert Hamill's death and three years after the killing and the mockery continues. But now it is accompanied by taunts about the murder of another local Catholic, Lurgan defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson. At the time of her death in March 1999, Rosemary was a key person in the campaign for justice for Robert Hamill.
Rosemary's murder came as she was arranging to meet Imran Khan, the solicitor who represented the family of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager murdered in a racist attack by white youths in London in 1993. Following years of campaigning a public inquiry into Stephen's murder was held in 1998.
The parallels between the two killings are striking. Striking, not only in the nature of Stephen's and Robert's deaths but also in the subsequent response of the authorities. Duwayne Brooks, a friend with Stephen at the time of the attack, described the attitude of the London Metropolitan police.
"None of the uniformed officers were doing anything for Steve. They should have known what to do. They should have done something for Steve. They just stood there doing nothing."
WPC Bethel said, "How did it start? Did they chase you for nothing?"
I said one of them shouted, "what, what nigger?" She asked me if I had
any weapons on me. She was treating me like she was suspicious of me, not
like she wanted to help."
"My son was stabbed and left to bleed to death on the night of
22 April 1993 while police officers looked on," said Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's
mother. Speaking of the Metropolitan police, Doreen said, "they treated
the affair as a gang war and from that moment on acted in a manner that
can only be described as white masters during slavery."
The RUC also attempted to distort the circumstances in which Robert Hamill died. "Two youths have been detained in hospital with head injuries following a clash between rival factions in Portadown.....bottles were thrown during the hostilities and police themselves came under attack by a section of the crowd," lied the first RUC press statement.
Three days later the RUC were claiming, "a police Land Rover crew in Portadown town centre were alerted to a disturbance and immediately intervened to gain order and prevent assaults." The statement went on to claim that the RUC had only withdrawn when they "became themselves the subject of attack".
It was eleven days and on the eve of Robert's death before the RUC set the record straight. "Two couples who had left a social event in St Patrick's Hall were set upon by a large crowd. The two men in the group of four were knocked to the ground and viciously beaten."
The RUC often play a decisive role in the manipulation of the media's response to a particular incident. By regularly distorting the detail of a particular killing RUC spin doctors manipulate the wider perception of the conflict in the North to suit a pro British agenda. A model in which two warring tribes engage in reciprocal "tit for tat" violence contained only by the "neutral" forces of the crown.
Of course the facts don't fit the fiction. Over the last thirty years Catholics have been more than twice as likely to be killed than Protestants. The largest single category of deaths is that of Catholic civilians. Over a hundred Protestant civilians have been killed by loyalists, many in the mistaken belief the victim was a Catholic.
Sectarian attacks against Catholics are a weekly, in times of heightened political tension, a daily occurrence in the Six counties. Tens of thousands of Catholics have survived sectarian attacks. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics have endured sectarian abuse and sectarian discrimination. In exposed nationalist areas such as North Belfast and within Portadown, nationalist communities live under constant loyalist siege.
Although individual Catholics can be sectarian in their attitude, the experience of sectarianism within the Six county state let has been far from reciprocal. Sectarian violence is a weapon used almost exclusively by loyalists against nationalists.
Sectarian discrimination ensures unionist privilege. A sectarian state maintains British domination. No wonder state forces like the RUC often play a pivotal role in obscuring the truth by creating a perception of sectarianism as a kind of Capulet and Montague "plague on both your house" phenomenon.
After Robert Hamill's death, six men were charged with his murder. At their own request, they were placed in the LVF wing of Long Kesh jail. The LVF acclaimed them as the Portadown Six and produced leaflets in their support. The leaflet confirmed the men's involvement but describes their actions as honourable. "You have been criminalised for defending yourselves against an unprovoked attack."
Within months of their arrest charges against five, Allister Hanvey, Wayne Lunt, Dean Forbes, Stacey Bridgett and Rory Robinson were dropped. The sixth, Marc Hobson went to trial but was acquitted. The Director of Public Prosecutions decided to take no action against the RUC patrol at the scene during the murder.
Like the family of Stephen Lawrence, the Hamill's are now faced with the desperate option of taking out private prosecutions against Robert's killers. Their campaign for justice gained further momentum last month with the news that the Dublin government will be adding their voice to calls urging the British government to establish an independent public inquiry into the death.
The murder of Robert Hamill was "a kind of casual lynching". Casual in the manner of the loyalist mob, so confident in escaping conviction that they carried out the fatal attack in full view of an armed RUC patrol, made no attempt to hide their identities or make good their escape.
Casual in the attitude of the RUC, who empathised more with the mob than their victims, who had no pity for the injured, dying and the distressed and no interest in either preventing the crime or punishing the criminals. And casual in the compliance of the state and it's justice system.
Lynching implies more than the act of hanging someone to a tree, or as in the case of Robert Hamill, kicking a person to death, or indeed as in the case of the Quinns, who were burnt alive. It requires a wider complacency. In the context of the Six counties it requires specific myths.
Unlike sectarianism, racism implies a power relation, of white domination and black oppression. By continually peddling the myth that sectarianism is reciprocal, tit for tat gang warfare, the truth about the oppression of Irish Catholics in the north and the power relationships which ensure that oppression, is obscured.
In 1998 after the sectarian murder of the Quinn children in Ballymoney, BBC television reporter Dennis Murray described the killings as "racist". This well seasoned journalist, who I had watched on TV reporting hundreds of sectarian attacks and killings over many years, broke with the usual delivery and was visibly struck with grief and horror at the Quinns' brutal deaths.
For a moment Murray understood what sectarianism equates within the northern nationalist community, for a moment we were all speaking the same language.
Rosemary Nelson campaign: news@rosemarynelsoncampaign.com
A prestigious grouping including the District Attorneys of nine counties in New York State, the Deans of seven law schools in New York City , and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, have issued a joint statement to announce their support for independent inquiries into the killings of Northern Ireland human rights lawyers Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
The statement said: "As prosecutors and law school and college deans, we join with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York to express our concern that more than eleven years after the murder of Patrick Finucane and over a year after the killing of Rosemary Nelson, the circumstances surrounding the assassinations of these two courageous human rights lawyers have still not been adequately investigated or made public by the British authorities."
The statement continued: "We endorse the call made by the families' lawyers for independent international inquiries into these killings. We further call for the police investigations into the murders to be conducted by teams of investigators completely independent of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and with all guarantees necessary to ensure the objectivity of the investigation and the confidence and co-operation of the public."
Richard J. Harvey, U.S. spokesperson for the Rosemary Nelson Campaign, heralded the statement as "decisive demonstration that the British government is taking a completely wrong-headed approach to investigating the allegations of collusion by members of the security forces in the killings of these human rights lawyers. When law enforcement professionals, a former member of the Patten Commission and academic experts in policing and criminal justice here in the United States join with the families to demand a completely independent approach, then it is time for the Government to stop delaying the inevitable."
"It should announce its intention to hold independent, international judicial inquiries and independent investigations. And it should make that long overdue announcement now, before it undermines international and domestic credibility even further in its handling of these important cases," Harvey concluded.
Today's statement, which was signed by a former member of the Patten Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, Gerald Lynch, comes following the leaking this weekend of the proposed legislation to reform the RUC. The leaked document indicates that the proposed legislation falls short of the Patten Commission's proposals to create a police force which garnered the respect of both communities in Northern Ireland.
The SDLP deputy leader, Seamus Mallon said the British government can expect resistance to any attempts to water down reform. He said police reform is an essential element of the Good Friday Agreement. Both Sinn Féin and the SDLP say that approach would be a retreat from the Patten Commission's recommendation to replace the emblems.
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Tuesday/Wednesday, 2/3 May, 2000
New ploy to block Finucane inquiry
The third inquiry by British police chief John Stevens into the circumstances surrounding the 1989 killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is turning into a Stevens Watergate, according to the late lawyer's brother.
The decision to bring a second murder charge against loyalist and RUC double agent William Stobie, already accused of killing Finucane, suggests that the RUC and British government are using every opportunity to attempt to prevent a public inquiry into the killing of the lawyer.
The Finucane family has stressed that the latest charges against Stobie underline yet again the need for a wider and more comprehensive inquiry to be established.
Sinn Féin says that the charges are an attempt to confuse and deflect attention from compelling evidence of collusion against crown forces.
In court on Wednesday, Stobie denied killing Adam Lambert in 1987.
Lambert, a 19-year-old student from Highfield in West Belfast, was shot
by loyalists because they thought he was a Catholic.
Stobie was recruited by RUC Special Branch after it emerged that
he had supplied the gun and was the getaway driver in Lambert's killing.
Indeed, the lack of new evidence in the Lambert case was evident when Stobie's
bail application was accepted later on Wednesday.
Campaigners are now asking why the RUC decided only in March
to change the terms of reference of Stevens' inquiry to include Lambert's
killing, when compelling evidence had been available for some time.
The new charges brought against Stobie will further complicate and confuse the Stevens investigation and are sure to delay a public inquiry by months and possibly years.
Until now, the British government has brushed off calls for a public inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane, claiming that such an inquiry would be prejudicial to criminal proceedings, notably in the case of Stobie.
But a number of human rights organisations, Amnesty International and the United Nations have rubbished this claim. The UN Special Rapporteur said in his latest report that he did "not consider that a judicial commission of inquiry would be prejudicial to any criminal proceedings".
He added that "prosecutions or possible prosecutions should not be used as a reason not to set up a public judicial commission of inquiry into the murder to ascertain all the circumstances, including whether there was state collusion."
Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, has also added his name to calls for a public inquiry.
Martin Finucane, brother of the late lawyer, said that the new charges "confirm the family's suspicions that the current investigation is a smokescreen and a totally inadequate forum to obtain the full facts surrounding Pat's murder. It now appears that the investigation is becoming the Stevens Watergate and raises serious questions as to the motives of John Stevens.
"These additional charges have thrown his investigation an unsavoury lifeline and can only be viewed as a delaying tactic to prolong and justify his investigation.
"Serious questions need to be put to the RUC Special Branch and the [public prosecutor's] office regarding their roles in this whole case. Both of these agencies have gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent iinformation about Pat's murder and William Stobie's role in the past coming into the public domain. If they had nothing to hide, why was it done?"
Martin Finucane said his family shares the Lambert family's wish to see justice done but the contradiction and confusion of the latest episode of the Stobie case reinforces their belief that the whole investigation is a smokescreen.
"The responsibility for addressing this outstanding case rests with the British authorities and I firmly believe it requires an effective response from Tony Blair," said Finucane.
"This is information that the RUC have had intimate knowledge of for the past 11 years," said Sinn Féin's Bairbre de Brun. "Stobie was a double agent, like Brian Nelson before him. The real issue here is collusion. That is why the British government does not want a public inquiry."
Nelson/Portadown arrests
Pat Finucane Centre
Two people were arrested in Portadown today, a 28 year old man and a 31 year old woman, in connection with Rosemary Nelson's murder.Apparently, Colin Port is interrogating them in Gough Barracks. No more information is known. Stobie faces additional charges
William Stobie, the self confessed RUC special branch informer who has been charged in connection with the murder of Pat Finucane faced additional charges at a court hearing in Belfast today. Stobie has now been charged with the November 1987 murder of Adam Lambert, shot dead by a loyalist gang while working on a housing estate in Belfast. !9 year old Lambert, a Protestant, was mistaken by the UDA gang for a Catholic. Stobie, now facing two murder charges, was freed later today on bail. There are allegations that Stobie was recruited as an RUC agent during questioning in connection with Lambert's murder. This latest twist to the case again raises serious questions about the role of RUC Special Branch and the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding the murderous activities of recruited agents. The Finucane family have long maintained that an independent inquiry is the only appropriate mechanism for getting at the truth.