December 2007
European Court Collusion Rulings
Last week’s rulings at the European Court of Human Rights in favour of a number of the Glenanne families are now available online. See links and statements at www.patfinucanecentre.org. Some of the press coverage requires clarification-the families who took the cases were each awarded euro 5000. Legal costs of euro 51,000 were awarded to lawyers acting on behalf of the families and not to the Brecknell family itself as was suggested. The cases relate to the emergence in 1999 of a whistleblower, former RUC officer and loyalist paramilitary John Weir, who made a number of serious allegations of collusion in the mid-Ulster area. In 2001 Alan Brecknell, whose father died in one of the attacks and who now runs the PFC office in Newry, met with Weir in Europe along with other PFC staff. This was the beginning of a long process that eventually led to the European Court.
Despite evidence of widespread collusion by members of UDR and RUC with a loyalist murder gang based in Mid-Ulster, the RUC failed to interview Weir and concluded that his allegations were false.
The findings by the European Court of Human Rights that the families’ human rights were breached by the UK Government vindicates the families’ central contention that there was a total lack of independence, transparency and accountability on the part of the RUC, in investigating the activities of this murder gang.
The cases relate to the deaths of Colm McCartney, who was murdered at Altnamackin in August 1975; Trevor Brecknell, who was murdered at Donnelly’s Bar, Silverbridge in December 1975; John, Brian and Anthony Reavey, murdered at Whitecross and Joseph, Barry and Declan O’Dowd murdered near Gilford on the same evening as the Reavey brothers in January 1976 and the wounding of Michael McGrath in a gun attack at the Rock Bar, Keady in June 1976. Following the rulings a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) told Ulster Television that they were now willing to meet families to explain a number of concerns families have about the role of the prosecution service in the Glenanne cases. The PFC has been pressing for such a meeting for several years. See www.patfinucanecentre.org
Press release from British charity ‘war on want’ www.waronwant.org/'Stop mercenaries abuse' call 15217.twl
New evidence has revealed a growing tide of human rights abuses in Iraq by private armies as the UK government spends millions of pounds on unregulated mercenaries.
In a briefing, Getting Away with Murder, the anti-poverty charity War on Want lists a series of abuses committed by guards employed by private security companies. The briefing coincides with the annual conference of the British Association of Private Security Companies in London. War on Want, calling for legislation including a ban on mercenaries’ use in combat, cites hundreds of incidents which have involved guards from British firms ArmorGroup and Aegis Defence Services in shootings. Aegis mercenaries have been attacked 168 times in the last three years and have seen. The chief executive officer of Aegis, Tim Spicer, broke a UN arms embargo on Sierra Leone with his former company Sandline International, and was jailed in Papua New Guinea for earlier activities.
(PFC note-Spicer was CO of the Scots Guards soldiers who murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride in 1992 and has repeatedly misrepresented the circumstances of the murder. Currently the Aegis website contains the following claim.
“It is a strongly held belief (by both Tim Spicer and much of the Army establishment) that the circumstances surrounding this incident were such that the soldiers were wrongly convicted of murder, and that the incident was and continues to be used for political purposes.” www.aegisworld.com/tim-spicer.html#faq
It is outrageous that the website of an international ‘private security’/mercenary company (which enjoys handsome profits thanks to US taxpayers) should continue to claim that to shoot an unarmed 18 year old boy in the back in broad daylight did not constitute murder.
Aegis has won a new contract with the Pentagon worth $475 million over the next two years. If you wish to protest this contact see http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/pmcbride/070918pr.html. Scroll to bottom of press release and access contact list.
Press Release from Mc Gurk’s Bar relatives
The 4th December is the 36th anniversary of the fifteen innocents who lost their lives in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre. The atrocity was the first bloody indication of how Britain, in collusion with her loyalist terrorists, was to wage its dirty war against Irish men, women and children in the northeast of Ireland. The road, thenceforth, led directly to Bloody Sunday and beyond, to a long war that cut a swathe through two generations.
With no hope of British authorities seriously re-examining what was a British military operation carried out by their UVF counter-gang, our campaign for truth will continue at least until a fully independent, internationally recognized and public investigation with powers of subpoena is convened.
To commemorate the deaths of those we lost in McGurk’s and to celebrate their lives and the lives of those who survived, the families invite you to visit our campaign website at www.themcgurksbarmassacre.com.
We would be particularly grateful if you would record any personal recollections or thoughts considering that time or the massacre’s context, for potential inclusion in our site. Indeed, you or members of your family may even have known people who got caught up in the bombing. Therefore, you can help us personalize each and every page in the victims’ memory by contacting us via the website above.
Bloody Sunday Weekend 2008: January 28 until February 3
Truth and Lies
The programme for the 2008 Bloody Sunday weekend is slowly taking shape around the theme of Truth and Lies. On Monday January 28 the Black Ribbon Campaign will be launched and on the actual anniversary, Wednesday January 30, a minutes’ silence will be held in the afternoon at the monument in Rossville Street followed by a poetry event that evening and the annual mass in Creggan Chapel. Thursday 31 January there will be an event on this evening to look at the role of art in commemorating those who die in conflict and this will be followed by a concert with a surprise guest.
The Annual Bloody Sunday Lecture at the Calgach Centre on Friday 1 February will be given by former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan. The lecture will be followed by a relaxed chat with the former Ombudsman and journalist Susan Mc Kay. A fundraiser will take place later that night at Sandino’s Bar.
On the Saturday 2 February in Pilots Row NGOs including the PFC, Justice for the Forgotten and Relatives for Justice will co-host an event to discuss the viability of an international truth commission as a mechanism for truth recovery. It is expected that relatives from throughout Ireland who have lost loved ones will attend the event from 10.30 until 3.00 pm. At 1pm in Pilots Row Community Centre there will be a discussion on what is required from the Bloody Sunday Inquiry which is expected to report some months later, in the summer of 2008. This event will allow family members, campaigners and the public to reflect on what is necessary to address the legacy of Bloody Sunday in anticipation of the report.
The final discussion that day, also in Pilots Row and starting at 4.00pm, concerns the legacy of another massacre carried out by the Parachute Regiment when 11 civilians, including a Catholic priest, were murdered by Paras in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. The shootings took place in the immediate aftermath of internment in August 1971, six months before Bloody Sunday. Family members, supported by Relatives for Justice, will explain the events of that night through personal testimonies, visual aids and music.
Following the religious service at the monument on the Sunday morning, 3 February, marchers will again gather at the Creggan shops at 2.30pm for the annual march. Organisers are calling on all supporters of the campaign to make a special effort to get to Derry for the 2008 march on this, the year of publication of the Saville report! The Museum of Free Derry will be open on the Sunday and throughout the preceding week.
A number of other plays, films, discussions and fundraisers are in preparation and a final programme will be published in January.
Derry Voices for Bethlehem 2007
The PFC and other local activists are organising a carol service in support of the embattled people of Bethlehem in Palestine. Those who will be celebrating this Christmas needs to be reminded of the ongoing Israeli Occupation and the Apartheid system imposed on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The situation has become even more dire as the building of the security wall has progressed cutting Bethlehem and other towns off from their natural hinterland.
If you are in Derry, please show your support and attend the event from 4.30 to 6.00pm on Wednesday 19th December outside the Millennium Forum. We will display images of the occupation of Bethlehem accompanied by the words of popular carols. The Bethlehem Photo Set has been designed by Pax Christi and is available in pdf for any subscribers who wish to email us.
A memorial to the Miami Showband will be unveiled by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, at a ceremony on Monday, 10th December 2007 at 1.30pm at Parnell Square North, Dublin 1. The Miami were one of Ireland's top pop bands of the 1960’s and 70’s, regularly playing to packed venues all over the country.
On 31st July 1975 three members of the band were murdered at a dummy UDR checkpoint near Newry: 29 year old lead singer and keyboard player Fran O’Toole, 23 year old guitarist Tony Geraghty, and 32 year old trumpet player and vocalist Brian McCoy died and other band members were seriously injured. The attack was carried out by UDR members and loyalists associated with the Glenanne gang. (See European Court update) One of the guns used in the massacre was also used in the murders at the O’Dowd household six months later.
*Following the successful 30th anniversary memorial concert in 2005, the Miami Memorial Committee, which includes members of the bereaved families and Justice for the Forgotten, decided to commission a sculpture to celebrate the lives of the three men. With the gratefully-received assistance of Dublin City Council and the Remembrance Commission, the sculpture, by Donegal artist Redmond Herrity, has now been completed.
All are welcome to attend the unveiling by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, at a ceremony next Monday, 10th December 2007 at 1.30pm at Parnell Square North, Dublin 1. The unveiling will be followed by a reception (invitation-only) at the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.*
www.dublinmonaghanbombings.org