Friday, 24 November, 2000
Tuesday, 28 November, 2000
Thursday, 30 November, 2000
Friday, 1 December, 2000
Sunday, 3 December, 2000Monday, 4 December, 2000
Tuesday, 5 December, 2000
Murderers remain in British Army
A British Army decision to let two soldiers who murdered a north Belfast teenager stay in the army has been greeted with shock and fury in Ireland.
The British Ministry of Defence announced Guards James Fisher and Mark Wright would not be dismissed despite serving prison sentences for shooting unarmed 18-year-old Peter McBride in the back.
The dead youth's parents, Peter and Jean, said they were devastated and have vowed to fight on to get the pair thrown out.
His father, who demanded an urgent meeting with British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, pledged to mount a legal challenge to the decision, which went against last year's ruling from a Belfast judge.
Nationalist representatives described the move as a symptom of the racist and hostile attitudes to the victims of British military rule in Ireland.
Fisher and Wright shot Peter McBride at a checkpoint in north Belfast's New Lodge area on September 4, 1992. They claimed they thought he was carrying a coffee jar bomb, which he wasn't. They were released from jail in 1998 after serving six years of a life sentence for murder, and last year, the Belfast High Court quashed the initial decision to let them stay in the British Army.
Last night, the dead man's parents pledged to fight the decision tooth and nail.
"We don't want revenge, we want justice. You just can't murder somebody and get a pat on the back," said Peter McBride Senior.
Mrs Jean McBride said: "If they think I'm going to give up they have another thing coming. They think Peter's life was worth nothing, shoot him in the back and forget him. We will fight on till these two murderers are kicked out."
"Tony Blair should be ashamed of himself. The anniversary of Peter's birthday is next week and if they think I brought my son into this world to have him murdered and forgotten then they just don't understand what it is to be a mother."
The Pat Finucane Centre vowed to contest the decision on behalf of the McBride family and it is planning a massive international day of protest on December 1 to highlight the case.
"We are taking immediate legal advice with a view to overturning this disgraceful, insulting, racist decision," said spokesman Paul O'Connor.
"Since Wright and Fisher were convicted in 1995 over 1,400 soldiers have been dismissed following positive drug tests yet two men who were convicted of shooting a teenager in the back are allowed to remain in Her Majesty's Armed Forces.
"Is Britain the land of hope and glory or the land of arrogance and shame? This was clearly a racist decision by the Army Board. Peter McBride was a working class Irish Catholic, a non-person."
Pickets will be established outside British Embassies and Consulates in Sydney, Frankfurt, Montreal, New York and Belfast next Friday.
North Belfast Sinn Fein Assemblyman Gerry Kelly condemned the Army decision.
"These men have been rewarded for killing a nationalist," he said.
"From the outset it was clear the British political and military establishment would rally around these two killers who shot an unarmed father in the back.
"By supporting Fisher and Wright, and then retaining their services in their Army, the British government have once again sent the message to the nationalist people in the Six Counties that their lives mean nothing to them."
McBride protests in Derry
Members of the Pat Finucane Centre shadowed the visit to the city today by Secretary of State Peter Mandelson. On his arrival at the new City Council offices this morning he was met with a large banner reading ‘Peter Mc Bride-Justice Denied’. Thinking the banner, which was blocking his entrance, was made of paper he tried to burst through it but had to resort to ducking under the banner to gain entrance to the Council offices where he was met by a large group of protesters from Sinn Fein protesting the RUC Bill. As we waited for his exit it transpired that the Northern Ireland Office had contacted the City Council to protest at the protest and demand that the RUC enter Council property to clear the area. Council officials informed the RUC that they could not enter Council property but that no attempt would be made to block his exit. Instead we laid the banner on the pavement alongside his car forcing him to literally walk over it as he left. The symbolism of his walking over the name of Peter Mc Bride was not lost on the assembled cameras.
As he then arrived for a press conference at the Everglades Hotel we were again planted at the entrance and he chose to walk around the banner on this occasion. During the press conference he was asked a number of questions on the ongoing Mc Bride controversy. On his arrival at the Verbal Arts Centre soon after he was greeted again by the ubiquitous banner and on his exit from Strand Road RUC Headquarters later this afternoon there was a final reminder to the Secretary of State that the decision to retain the two Guardsmen who murdered Peter Mc Bride will return to haunt his Government.
Striving to expose 'state's collusion' in past injustices
By Mary Minihan, Irish News, Belfast
Murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was the inspiration for a human rights centre in Derry. Mary Minihan reports on the Pat Finucane Centre's campaigning work on behalf of victims of the troubles
IN Derry's Pat Finucane Centre, project coordinator Paul O'Connor is shaking his head in exasperation. He is reading some English press coverage of the decision to allow the Scots Guards who shot Belfast teenager Peter McBride to remain in the British army.
Scattered across his desk are newspaper clippings proclaiming a "moral victory for the brave guards" alongside smiling pictures of James Fisher and Mark Wright.
The centre has vowed to contest the army's decision on behalf of the McBride family, and has organised an International Day of Protest to highlight the campaign tomorrow.
Paul O'Connor thinks there are two serious miscarriages of justice connected to the death of Peter McBride.
"First there was the terrible injustice of the matter itself. The second issue is how the state has dealt with the matter. When you think about it, that's exactly how Bloody Sunday has impacted in this city," he says.
The centre, based in Westend Park in the city, has its roots in Bloody Sunday. Around the 20th anniversary of the event, the Bloody Sunday initiative evolved into two supportive but distinct groups: the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign and the centre which bears the name of the Belfast solicitor shot dead by the UDA in 1989.
Paul explains: "We thought Pat had been shot to try and silence him. We decided the best way to remember him was to name a centre after him and continually flag up issues around his death and other issues of collusion."
The centre has been involved with high-profile cases such as those of Peter McBride, Robert Hamill and Rosemary Nelson. But quieter work is ongoing away from the media spotlight with the relatives of people who have lost their lives over the past 30 years.
An informal monthly drop-in event provides these families with an opportunity to share their experiences and offer each other support.
"Some people are in a very vulnerable state. There are a lot of open wounds. For some it's the first time they've talked about their loss and the fact they've made the decision to approach us means they're dealing with it," Paul says.
He stresses that the centre workers are not counsellors, but campaigners.
"It can be very frustrating and at times traumatic. We've recently had to hand over inquest documentation to a family that contained details that were very difficult for them," he says.
Paul readily admits that few of the cases taken on by the centre have come to a satisfactory conclusion.
"In terms of state violence, the state hasn't given one iota. You could get frustrated by that and you do," he says.
"But an important part of the struggle is to build up documentation, make a case watertight and more difficult to walk away from it."
Serious blows to morale have come thick and fast in recent years for workers at the centre, where the murder of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson last year is still keenly felt.
"It was a desperate body blow for many people, ourselves included. We responded the only way we could, which was to try and produce a report as thoroughly as we could," he says.
That large body of work became the widely read report 'Rosemary Nelson: the Life and Death of a Human Rights Campaigner'.
Paul says workers at the centre are inspired by the families who approach them for help.
"I've seen families coming in here wanting to have a case raised again and they tell us for the first time ever they are having a wee memorial service," he says. "They say they have put a picture of the lost loved one up on the wall and printed a Mass card for the first time."
Workers at the centre say they are unfazed by outside perceptions of the group's political affiliations, while continually stressing their non-party political and anti-sectarian stance.
"Clearly we're seen as a group based within the nationalist/republican community," Paul says.
"We are not claiming that we are neutral on the conflict. We have a particular view of what's right and wrong in this society and we would defy anyone to produce a group that is neutral."
Labelling groups in this way can have dangerous consequences in Northern Ireland, Paul warns.
"That's precisely the way of defining people that led to both Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson getting killed. We should be taken at face value for what we are, say and do. If that makes people uncomfortable, then that's campaigning."
The centre has recently ventured into new ideological territory, adopting a policy of "experimental cooperation" with the office of the Police Ombudsman.
"We've got a watchdog brief. This is very new for us. We are attempting to see if a useful relationship can be built up."
Whatever the outcome of the peace process, the centre aims to continue to operate as an "independent watchdog".
Paul is aware that the Pat Finucane Centre is often accused of "stirring things up" and bringing old hurts to light.
"People often ask, 'Why is all this coming up now?' There has been a dynamic within the peace process that has freed people and liberated them from this terrible silence that has hung over people for so many years," he says.
"We do not tell victims of sexual abuse to forget it, move on with your life, don't be raking up the past. The lesson that is being learned throughout the world is that you don't simply draw a line in the sand and say forget it and move on."
Pinned beside his desk is an extract from a poem by writer Maya Angelou:
"History, despite/It's wrenching pain,/Cannot be unlived,/But if faced with courage,/Need not be lived again."
Bloody Sunday relatives support McBride Day of Action
Relatives of those killed and injured on Bloody Sunday have joined with the Bloody Sunday Trust to express their dismay at the recent decision by the Army Board to reinstate the Scots Guards convicted of the 1992 murder of 18 year old Belfast youth Peter McBride.
Michael McKinney, whose brother William was murdered on Bloody Sunday, said: "Twenty eight years since the murder of our loved ones at the hands of the British Army, our pain and hurt is acute, and will remain so until justice is done. "I have spoken to many of the relatives of those killed and those who were wounded on Bloody Sunday and they have all expressed their horror at the travesty of justice that has taken place in this case, where convicted murderers are allowed to remain members of the army.
"We are not particularly shocked by the fact that one of the three Army Board members responsible for taking this decision is General Sir Michael Jackson, who was a member of the Parachute Regiment serving in Derry on Bloody Sunday and whose chief responsibility was publicity. A man involved to such a high degree in the vilification of innocent victims should not be permitted to be involved in making decisions of this nature.
Tony Blair, when he announced of the Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry, stated: ‘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 democracy and respect for the law, and on the professionalism and dedication of our security forces.’ Is the Prime Minister now implying that a murder conviction is a positive reflection of such professionalism and dedication?"
Robin Percival, Chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said: "Bearing in mind the crass insensitivity demonstrated by the Army Board in making this decision, the entire community can be forgiven for thinking that the establishment is once again rubbing salt in his wounds.
"We wish to express our solidarity and sympathy with the McBride family for their international day of protest tomorrow."
Statement from Congressman James T. Walsh
Syracuse, New York
Walsh calls Peter McBride murderers’ military reinstatement an insult to all of Northern Ireland
United States Congress’ Friends of Ireland Chairman Opposes Decision by British Army to Reinstate James Fisher and Mark Wright as Scots Guards
Syracuse, NY, USA – Congressman James T. Walsh (NY-25), Chairman of the United States Congress’ Friends of Ireland, today called the decision by the British Ministry of Defense to reinstate Scots Guards James Fisher and Mark Wright after being convicted and jailed for murdering an Irish teenager “an insult to the family and friends of Peter McBride and to the all the people of Northern Ireland.”
In 1992, Scots Guardsmen Fisher and Wright shot Peter McBride in the back, murdering the unarmed young man after previously stopping, questioning, and searching him. The soldiers served less than six years of life sentences for murder and were released from prison in 1998. At the time, the two soldiers were only the third and fourth soldiers ever convicted of murdering a civilian while on duty in Ireland.
“The decision of the British Army late last week to reinstate two convicted murderers is a travesty,” said Walsh. “Soldiers are protectors, representatives of laws and government. These two on-duty Guardsmen shot and killed an unarmed child as he fled. Though convicted, their release and lack of appropriate punishment was already a slap to the McBride Family and to all of Northern Ireland. The news of their reinstatement in the British Army is a deplorable outrage. In my view, the government officials who authorized their reinstatement are just as culpable as these two murderers.”
Walsh urged British government officials and the Army Board to reverse their decision and dismiss the soldiers. According to Walsh, failure to do so would undermine the already-fragile confidence in the rule of law and contravene the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.
Peter McBride, an eighteen year-old from north Belfast in Northern Ireland, was a two-year alumnus of Central New York’s Project Children program which brings dozens of Protestant and Catholic Irish children to Upstate New York each summer. After his murder, the 1993 Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade was dedicated in his memory.
Daniel Gage Communications Director Office of Congressman James T. Walsh 1340 Federal Building Syracuse, New York 13261 (315) 423-5657 (315) 423-5669 faxPeter McBride - International Day of Action
Pat Finucane Centre
Supporters of the McBride family gathered in London today as part of the International Day of Action organised by the Pat Finucane Centre to highlight the continued employment of the two Scots Guards, convicted of the murder of eighteen-year-old Peter McBride, by the British Army. The Day of Action was originally intended to highlight the Army Boards delay in reaching a decision on the future of the two Scots Guards, but the focus was changed after the board recently released their decision to retain the two in the army.
Protesters taking part in a flying picket first descended on Downing Street. It is illegal to protest at Downing Street but the police made to attempt to move the protesters on. Next was the MOD, where security officials at first refused entry to members of the picket, but eventually were forced to allow a letter of protest, addressed to Geoff Hoon, Minister of Defence, to be handed in. The next target was Horseguard's Parade, a traditional tourist destination where leaflets were handed to tourists and passers-by. The picket then moved to the main Army Recruitment Office on the Strand, which was forced to close for the duration of the picket. The flying picket then landed outside Buckingham Palace. Under English law it is illegal to protest anywhere inside the Royal Park, but protesters ignored police requests to disperse and continued to hand out leaflets highlighting the case. The picket then moved on to the Guards Regimental Museum, where security staff, surprised at their arrival, requested that they leave the building. In keeping with the peaceful and dignified nature of the protest they left without argument. A return visit to Downing Street was paid before the protest made a surprise return to the MOD headquarters in Whitehall. This time they succeeded in gaining entry to the lobby, but were soon forcibly removed after police were called. The final target of the day was the traditional tourist-orientated pomp and ceremony of the Changing of the Guard in Horseguard's Parade, where the presence of the protesters distributing leaflets among the crowd caused the police to stop the ceremony.
In Belfast a crowd gathered in protest outside Girdwood Army Barracks in the north of the City. Girdwood Barracks is only a few hundred yards from where Peter was shot, and it was to there that the two Scots Guards were taken in the immediate aftermath of the murder and withheld from the RUC for almost ten hours.
In Birmingham protesters gathered in the town centre at 4.00pm to draw a huge crime scene figure to represent the body of Peter McBride. They are also leafleting passers-by and collecting signatures for a petition calling for the dismissal of the two Scots Guards.
Further protests and events are currently taking place throughout the world, and news of these will be posted as soon as it is available.
Friday-Sunday, 1-3 December, 2000
Successful day of action for Peter McBride
An International Day of Protest took place on Friday around the case of Peter McBride, the Belfast teenager murdered by two members of the Scots Guards Regiment in 1992. Last week, the British Military of Defence announced that an Army Board had again decided that the two convicted murderers should be allowed to remain in the army.
The Blair government has been condemned for treating the smoking of a joint as a more heinous crime than shooting an unarmed teenager in the back.
Dignified and non-violent actions respecting the memory of Peter Mc Bride took place across the world on Friday.
In London a flying picket visited a number of relevant venues while in Birmingham there was a vigil at Victoria Square in the city centre. A number of organisations also handed in letters of protest to the Army Information Office in Stevenson Street.
Events took place as far afield as Frankfurt and Hamburg in Germany, and Montreal and Vancouver in Canada. The uncle and aunt of Peter McBride lead a protest and delegation to the British Consulate in Toronto. Events were also organised for Bologna, Italy and Boston, Vermont, Washington DC and Minnesota in the USA and Sydney, Australia.
The issue is to be raised this week in the Belfast Assembly and the Dail in Dublin while an Early Day Motion has been introduced in the House of Commons. The Chairman of the United States Congress' Friends of Ireland called the decision "an insult to the family and friends of Peter McBride and to the all the people of Northern Ireland."
Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the Bloody Sunday Trust, a number of relatives of the dead and wounded have expressed their anger at the Scots Guards decision and the involvement of former Bloody Sunday Para Mike Jackson in the decision.
Michael McKinney, whose brother William was murdered on Bloody Sunday, said: "Twenty eight years since the murder of our loved ones at the hands of the British Army, our pain and hurt is acute, and will remain so until justice is done.
"I have spoken to many of the relatives of those killed and those who were wounded on Bloody Sunday and they have all expressed their horror at the travesty of justice that has taken place in this case, where convicted murderers are allowed to remain members of the army.
"We are not particularly shocked by the fact that one of the three Army Board members responsible for taking this decision is General Sir Michael Jackson, who was a member of the Parachute Regiment serving in Derry on Bloody Sunday and whose chief responsibility was publicity. A man involved to such a high degree in the vilification of innocent victims should not be permitted to be involved in making decisions of this nature.
Robin Percival, Chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said the entire community "could be forgiven for thinking that the establishment is once again rubbing salt in his wounds".
Murder remains contentious
By Jim Dee, Boston Herald
When President Clinton hits Belfast in two weeks, he'll likely be preoccupied with efforts to resolve the multilayered crisis of police reform, Irish Republican Army disarmament and British Army demilitarization now threatening to sink the Good Friday peace accord.
There's little chance he'll meet the family of Peter McBride - whose murder by British soldiers continues to feed pro-Irish republican perceptions that Britain will never take full responsibility for its role in the conflict.
On Sept. 4, 1992, McBride, a 19-year-old father of two, was shot in the back by Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher as he ran away from the soldiers' foot patrol in North Belfast.
Moments earlier, the patrol had thoroughly body searched McBride and found he was unarmed. The soldiers also knew his identity, meaning they could have arrested him later if necessary.
Instead Fisher and Wright, despite orders from the patrol's commander not to fire, shot McBride - even though he was no threat to them - in the back.
At their murder trial, Fisher claimed he fired because he thought McBride was trying to lead the patrol into an Irish Republican Army ambush. Wright said he believed McBride had fired first.
Both were convicted of murder and sentenced to life. Issuing his ruling, Lord Chief Justice Kelly said there was ``no reasonable possibility'' the Scots Guards could have considered McBride armed, given that their patrol had just searched him.
Justice Kelly also said that, since McBride was running away, neither was there a ``panic situation which required split-second action, or indeed any action at all.''
Of the 3,636 deaths during the conflict, the British army was responsible for 301, including 138 civilians.
Only two other soldiers have been convicted of murder while serving in the North. Each spent only two years in prison before being freed and allowed to rejoin the army.
And so there was anger, but not total surprise, when Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam released Fisher and Wright on the eve of President Clinton's 1998 visit to Northern Ireland after only six years in jail.
Although stunned by the timing of their release, days before the anniversary of Peter's death, McBride's family took solace in assurances that the soldiers wouldn't be allowed back into the army.
But 10 days ago, after two years of legal wrangling, a specially constituted army board ruled that Wright and Fisher - who were reinstated in the army in November 1998 - can stay in the army.
On the three-member panel was Gen. Mike Jackson, who, as a young officer, was stationed in Derry on Bloody Sunday, 1972, when 13 unarmed nationalist civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers.
Supporters of the McBrides have vowed to fight on. They point out that more than 1,000 British soldiers have been kicked out of the army after testing positive for drug use, while Wright and Fisher - convicted murderers - are allowed to remain. On Friday, protests against the army's ruling were held in a number of cities around the world, including Boston. In Belfast, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, a former IRA prisoner who now sits in the North's assembly, attended a picket outside Girdwood Army Barracks, where the Scots Guards were stationed at the time of the killing.
``From the outset it was clear that the British political and military establishment would rally around these two killers who shot an unarmed father in the back,'' Kelly said.
He noted that, as the peace accord flounders in part over Britain's reluctance to reduce its military presence, the army's decision on Fisher and Wright just reinforced some republicans' belief that Britain will never change. "The British government have once again sent the message to nationalists that Irish lives mean nothing to them.''
Peter McBride -Further International Day of Action planned
Pat Finucane Centre
Events took place around the world on Friday 1/12/00 as part of the International Day of Action organised by the Pat Finucane Centre to highlight the continued employment of the two Scots Guards, convicted of the murder of eighteen-year-old Peter McBride, by the British Army. The Day of Action was originally intended to highlight the Army Board's delay in reaching a decision on the future of the two Scots Guards, but the focus was changed after the board recently released their decision to retain the two in the army.
As well as events in Britain and Ireland outlined in the previous update, supporters of the McBride family also gathered in Sydney, Australia and Frankfurt and Berlin in Germany to protest against the retention of the two Scots Guards.
In Sydney protesters held a lunchtime protest at the British Consulate. Supporters outside the Consulate holding giant placards explained details of the case to passers-by through a loud hailer and hundreds of leaflets were handed out. The British Consul General agreed to forward a letter of protest to the Ministry of Defence in response to their reply to an earlier letter handed in during the Day of Action in September. Security around the Consulate was high, with Australian Federal Police, Australian Protective Services and building security officers present.
In Frankfurt a delegation from various German/Irish solidarity groups, members of amnesty international and Medico International met at the British General Consulate to submit a protest letter to the Consul, Mr.Callway. A member of this delegation was allowed through the tight security for a meeting with the Consul which lasted 20 minutes. A protest letter was then handed over demanding that Mark Wright and James Fisher be discharged from the British Army and a bilingual documentation of Peter McBride's case was also given to the Consul. In Berlin a protest letter was handed in to the British Embassy. Parallel to these activities a letter was sent to the German Minister of Defence from the German lawyer Elke Nill in the name of German/Irish solidarity groups. The letter raised questions in relation to the current debate in Germany about the exclusion of persons from the Federal Army who have committed serious crimes, and whether these rules should also apply to British soldiers serving in Germany, i.e. should two convicted murderers be allowed to serve as soldiers on German soil? It is believed that Fisher and Wright are currently stationed with the British Army on the Rhine. The letter was also sent to all the party political spokespersons on military affairs represented in the Bundestag asking them to state their position on this matter.*
Irish Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna released a statement on Friday promising to raise the killing of Peter McBride and the continued employment of his murderers by the British Army in the European Parliament. She described the Army Board's decision as "...outrageous...It is very disturbing that two convicted murderers should benefit from a special derogation to rules that are quite clear and strict on such matters. How come these two men convicted of murdering an 18-year-old unarmed civilian are allowed to continue their career in the British Army while in the meantime over 1400 soldiers have been dismissed from the same army for taking drugs? Why is it that British soldiers based in Northern Ireland always appear to be given special treatment?...The Army Board decision could easily be interpreted as condoning murder..."
A motion condemning the decision will be put before the Dail in coming days, and the matter is to be raised in the Northern Ireland Assembly by the SDLP on Tuesday. Congressman Walsh of upstate New York, head of the Friends of Ireland group, has also issued a statement on the Army Board decision. On Friday the Presbyterian Moderator in Ireland, Trevor Morrow, told a BBC interviewer that he could not support the retentiont of the two Guardsmen in the British Army. Seamus Close of the Alliance Party described the retention as 'obscene.'
The next International Day of Action will be held on Thursday 24 May 2001 to mark the United Nation's adoption of the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions. Please start organising now to ensure that the next day of action is as effective as possible.
*The underlined section has been slightly editited by the Irlandinitiative webmaster! The following sentence was also excluded:
'Full details of the events in Germany can be accessed through a dual language website at http://www.irlandinit-hd.de'
'Merry Christmas' from the Scots Guards
On the morning of Friday 1/12/00, the International Day of Action for Peter McBride, a very sinister 'Christmas card' arrived at the offices of the PFC. The official British army issue Christmas card, posted in an official UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) envelope was addressed to the PFC from 'All ranks, 1st Battalion Scots Guards, Nanyuki, Kenya'.
Since Friday, MP Kevin McNamara's office has confirmed with John Spellar MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, that units of the Scots Guards are presently based in Kenya. UNPROFOR was mandated for the Balkans conflict. Kenya' contribution is to allow UNPROFOR troops to train on its territory. Kenya also has an agreement with the UK to allow training. We have filed a complaint with the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Geneva. We are also raising the issue with the Irish Government. If the card had not been delayed in the post it would have arrived on the anniversary of Peter Mc Bride's birthday on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the PFC responded:
"We can only be grateful that whoever sent this didn't have an address for the McBride family. It's been a desperate time for them. An Army Board, including a senior government Minister, concludes that the murder of their son was a less serious offence than smoking dope and then the tabloid press, spearheaded by the Daily Mail, runs headlines referring to 'courageous soldiers, jailed for doing their duty". Put in this context its hardly surprising that a gloating and offensive card is sent signed on behalf of the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards. It's pitiful."
Reacting to the news of the card Jean McBride said that she felt like she had been "thrown to the ground and kicked once again by those who had already done so much to hurt her family." She continued "It's ironic that on the same day I received the most beautiful bunch of flowers from an elderly gentleman in Japan who had read of the decision on the web and was appalled."
In response to allegations that 'all ranks' of the Scots Guards had sent a Christmas 'greetings' card' to supporters of the McBride family at the Pat Finucane Centre, Labour MP Kevin McNamara said:
"Sending a Christmas card in this manner would constitute a sick and callous act aimed at intimidation of relatives of a murder victim by the perpetrators. Whoever has done this is guilty of deeply irreligious and offensive behaviour. If those responsible were Scots Guards, it further demonstrates the folly of allowing Guardsmen Fisher & Wright to resume their military careers with impunity. "
"Minister of Defence Geoff Hoon MP should order an immediate investigation to establish the truth and demonstrate his determination to root out all those involved or responsible of whatever rank. If this card did indeed emanate from a unit of the Scots Guards and no action is taken, this incident will reinforce the argument that sections of the British Army are out of control. This behaviour cannot be tolerated. Public confidence demands that 'rogue units' are dealt with swiftly and without prevarication."
Images of the card can be accessed at www.serve.com/pfc