From the Set the Truth Free Campaign:

With mere days until the scheduled release of Saville’s report into Bloody Sunday, relatives this week delivered a powerful message to the British government by returning several key aspects of history to officials at Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace.

On St. Patrick’s Day the group travelled to London to reclaim the history of Bloody Sunday and highlight concerns over delays in the publication of the Saville Report. First on the agenda was to return a symbolic copy of the original Widgery Report to Downing Street, giving back the British Army version of what happened on January 30, 1972. Families then demonstrated on the Mall with their Set the Truth Free banner as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cavalcade passed.
Tony Doherty, whose father Paddy was murdered on Bloody Sunday, hand-delivered a copy of Widgery’s original report to 10 Downing Street, accompanied by a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The campaign then made its presence felt outside the Ministry of Defence, where relatives and supporters chalked the outlines of fourteen bodies on the pavement, symbolising the fourteen men and boys murdered on Bloody Sunday. This moving gesture formed the backdrop as family members returned the infamous and wholly inaccurate ‘shot list ‘originally drawn up by the British Army’s former Chief of General Staff, General Mike Jackson to the MoD.
Relatives also delivered a letter listing the real heroes of Bloody Sunday to the Queen at Buckingham Palace, highlighting the fact that parachute regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford was decorated by the Queen, receiving an OBE just months after Bloody Sunday. An impromptu invitation to the official St. Patrick’s Day Reception in Parliament also gave relatives the opportunity to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly and handed over their letter in person.

Families were warned on a number of occasions by the Metropolitan Police that their actions were technically in breach of new legislation that bans any demonstration within one kilometre of Parliament, but family spokesperson Tony Doherty said: “Highlighting Bloody Sunday at Buckingham Palace, the Ministry of Defence and Downing Street was more important on this occasion than any alleged technical breach of this new law. We will demonstrate where and when we want and that’s what we did.”

END
For further information or to arrange interviews with relatives, please contact:
Press Officer - Julieann Campbell on: 078. 8972. 0080 or email: julieann@setthetruthfree.org
 

Click here to help Set the Truth Free and sign the petition in support of the Bloody Sunday families.  The text of the petition is as follows:

To:  British Government
We the undersigned support the following statement released by the Bloody Sunday families and call on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to "Set The Truth Free" and instruct Lord Saville to publish his report independent of any government interference.

Statement from Bloody Sunday Families and Wounded
Lord Saville - Set the Truth Free!
 
It is now more than 12 years since the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was announced by Tony Blair in 1998.  It could be only a matter of weeks until the report from that Inquiry sees the light of day.  Lord Saville has indicated that the report will be ready in the week beginning 22nd March.  Time and timing are now very much of the essence.
 
The public will know that we have had discussions in recent months with the northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward, An Taoiseach Brian Cowan, and officials from both the Irish and British states regarding the timing and modalities of the release of the report.  We have kept Lord Saville appraised of the content and import of these discussions at all stages.
 
At this moment in time we are gravely concerned regarding two critical issues:
 
Firstly, the NIO Secretary of State has indicated that he expects to hold the report for a period of up to 14 days to scrutinise it for breaches of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act 2000 and for breaches of ‘national security’ before he publishes it.  This means that the securocrats within the NIO and other government departments will see the report before we do.
 
Our second grave concern is around timing: with the proximity of the Easter Parliamentary recess and the imminence of an announcement of a general election in the week of or close to 22nd March, should the report be given to government at that time for the above-stated purpose, there is little or no chance of the families receiving it this side of an election.  To make matters worse, the report will be in the hands of officials within the NIO for a period of several months without any political control from above.  This is a frightening prospect for the families as we believe that the report will fall victim to selective leakage and other partisan usage long before the full report sees the light of day.
 

Gerry Adams has unveiled a mural supporting the families involved in the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign.  Article from Sinn Féin:

Sinn Féin west Belfast MP Gerry Adams today unveiled a mural in Beechmount Avenue in support of the campaign by the families of 11 people killed by the British Army in August 1971.

Speaking today Mr. Adams said:

“I want to commend the work of the families and their determination and courage in continuing to pursue this campaign over many difficult years.

The families have been engaged in a whole series of initiatives to raise public consciousness about those events.

The families of the 11 people killed by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in the Ballymurphy area, in the three days following the introduction of internment in August 1971, want an independent international investigation into the deaths of their loved ones and an apology from the British government. The families want the truth.

We have met as a group with the British Secretary of State Shaun Woodward and we are seeking a meeting with the British Prime Minister.

We won’t take no for an answer. We think it’s important that the British establishment face up to what was done in its name in a little housing estate here almost 40 years ago.

All of these families deserve the full support and encouragement of the community, and of the Irish government, in their efforts to secure an independent international investigation in these deaths; and to have the British government acknowledge the truth surrounding the shooting dead of their loved ones.” CRÍOCH

The following article by Relatives for Justice Chair Clara Reilly appeared in yesterday's Andersonstown News:

Equality must be at the heart of and underpin any agreed political process yet for the vast majority of ordinary people who were bereaved and injured by the conflict this has not been the case. They have had to continually watch virtually every process to date address the ever increasing list of issues raised by political unionism on behalf of ‘their armed forces’ above and beyond the concerns of the silent majority of victims and survivors and their competing needs.

In the wake of this week’s announcement that every RUC family bereaved are to receive twenty thousand pounds we reflect on the preferential treatment to this constituency involved in the conflict - to date there has been;

·      Patten severance payments for the RUC estimated to reach the billion pound mark with an average payment of between 116k – 230k (Source- Irish Times April 22^nd 2009 & Freedom of Information requests);

·      11 million to the George RUC Cross Foundation;

·      RUC Widows pension scheme receiving a special dispensation in being permitted to retain their widows pensions in the event of remarrying;

·      Annual payment of 1.8 million for the NI Police Fund;

·      Payments totaling almost 11.5 million pounds up until September 2008 on hearing loss claims;

·      Five thousand serving and retired members of the RUC/PSNI, including its reserve, claiming for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with average claims from 5k to 300k – Nb. a PTSD diagnosis is not readily available or easy to access for the civilian population;

·      One British soldier after serving five tours of duty in the north received 620k;

·      UDR/RIR 250 million payment package for former members – average payment 42,470 for a private, Lance Corporal 77,314, and a Major 151,211;

·      Part-time RIR a further 6.7 million payment – with payments from 14k to 150k depending on rank – and the list goes on.

Nor does the above list consider the many specialist groups and organisations specifically funded to cater for former members of these forces, or the multiple groups that mushroomed in opposition to the Good Friday Agreement within their communities that are also funded. The phrase duplication of resources springs to mind.

It is also worth bearing in mind that numerous civilians who were threatened by non-state groupings, many whose details were ‘leaked’ to loyalists, have been continually refused financial support in terms of having to secure and/or up-root and move home.

Now that is not to say that anyone affected by the conflict within state groupings are not entitled to support. I am of the clear view that irrelevant of the circumstances everyone affected should receive adequate support to meet their needs.

However, this is not the case concerning state forces and the reality is that support is one-way in terms of addressing their needs. Those needs are  significantly less than the needs of those living with chronic pain, amputees, those paralyzed, blind and partially sighted to list some. A justifiable argument is that the situation is beyond that of being absolutely ridiculous with even ordinary unionists affected by the conflict now questioning the hierarchy within their own community.

In this latest agreement Arlene Foster announced that twenty million pounds would be made available to the RUC Reserve with Sammy Wilson further stating on the BBC that this was ‘a reward for their service’. And with parading at the heart of recent talks the irony that it was the RUC Reserve that were involved in some of the worst human rights violations and who assisted the forcing through of sectarian parades was not lost.

A further 12 million pounds has been set aside for the next financial year from the budget agreed at Hillsborough to address hearing loss claims by members of the RUC/PSNI.

This is quite a lucrative gravy train to be on as many can obtain their severance claims, PTSD claims, and hearing loss claims in addition to pensions – huge payments to people who have not been bereaved nor have life diminishing injuries and yet who played contentious role in the conflict creating thousands of victims.

I am not going to rehearse all of the systemic human rights abuses that these same forces were involved in during the course of their ‘duties’. Our community, and indeed to an extent from a differing perspective loyalist working class areas, know it only too well. Groups like Relatives for Justice and the Pat Finucane Centre are supporting families and individuals from across the community to seek the truth and support people living, and coping, with the traumatic after affects of their experiences.

Our focus is the search for truth, but ordinary people affected by the conflict are also living in extreme poverty as a consequence of their experiences and they continually ask where the equality agenda is when they see the people responsible for their loss and injury being constantly rewarded whilst their needs as the injured and bereaved are not being met.

Reparations are an important part of transition and must happen within a process of recognition and acknowledgement in a way that is equal for all. Ideally this should happen within a truth recovery process. This has clearly not been the case and the equality agenda is not only absent but smacks of everything that is one-sided, political, and wrong.

The only scheme that can currently financially assist victims and survivors is the Memorial Fund which is limited and restrictive often only able to annually assist people at best with a couple of hundred pounds after jumping through a series of bureaucratic hoops and tape that acts as  a disincentive for many in need. And which applies its own definition of a ‘victim’ rather than the inclusive statutory definition even though it is in receipt of public finances. Of course many within the ‘security forces’, especially those with a PTSD diagnosis, also avail of this scheme too.

In terms of hearing loss it would be interesting to ascertain precisely the circumstances in which many of these cases are being taken. Presumably the core of the claims arises from training in the use of firearms and plastic bullets including actual deployment. Given that thousands of civilians have been hit and injured, including people killed, by plastic bullets could it be that any payments resulting from the negligent use resulting in compensation payments to civilians that those same officers responsible would not be entitled to make claims? And that this could by chain of command be extended to all those responsible in authorizing their use.

Or those civilians who heard shooting by the RUC or lived within ear-shot, no pun intended, in these same areas and who did not have helmets and earmuffs provided could be entitled to make claims from the Policing Board?

Or that civil actions against individual members of the RUC who are to benefit from these millions and who were involved in making threats, harassment, raiding and wrecking homes, leaking files to loyalists, not to mention running agents involved in murder and then covering up, could be pursued by those on the receiving end of these practices.

Might strike you as ridiculous but isn’t that exactly what is happening within the ranks currently whilst actual victims and survivors needs are not being met?

And yet when Eames/Bradley dared to raise the specter of this financial need through a Recognition Payment, albeit only for the bereaved, representatives of this same ‘security’ constituency, including political unionism, were the most vocal rejecting it - effectively having a veto.

There needs to be a radical rethink that takes into consideration the social and economic circumstances of all those affected by the conflict particularly those living with diminishing physically injuries from across the community.

The Eames/Bradley Recognition Payment needs to be back on the agenda and progressed in real consultation with those bereaved and injured. If millions can be made readily available for state organisations directly involved in the conflict – if the cause of savers and investors in the Presbyterian Mutual can even be championed - then surely we can create a special reparations fund, and a charter for victims’ rights, for those left out and left behind.

The issue of equality must underpin and be at the heart of any agreed process otherwise it is meaningless for victims and survivors of the conflict.

From Relatives for Justice:

In the media maelstrom of last week the UPRG press conference announcing UDA/UFF decommissioning was somewhat overshadowed by affairs unfolding at the swish family Robison household and the pending implications.

Like all big set pieces of the jigsaw over the past decade the UDA/UFF banked on capitalizing on their announcement seeking to use the opportunity to lodge credit for decommissioning. However, their announcement carried little currency in West Belfast, the killing fields of North Belfast, North Armagh, South Derry and East Tyrone where these state sponsored death squads roamed freely - or for that matter, as I ascertained this week, in their own areas where they built criminal empires and plied their drugs trade.

Now that is not to say that the putting beyond use of some weapons is not to be welcomed – of course it is – but that misses the point. The UDA/UFF instead of decommissioning years ago engaged in a very public and cynical exercise seeking to extract money for arms much in the same way they extorted through racketeering down the years.

And whilst many of those most directly affected by their actions found this particularly odious others, whilst vehemently abhorred by this attempted stunt, saw an irony in that they were now seeking money in part from the very government that had provided their deadly arsenal. In reality a few former British ministers, generals, and Special Branch operatives was all that was missing from the UPRG press conference table – then we could have probably paid more attention.

Money for guns was always a logical move given the organisations habitual tendency for crime amongst its leadership which always made it rife for infiltration. A tendency that British Intelligence and RUC Special Branch fostered during their dirty war whilst Catholics were slaughtered and working class loyalist communities turned into wastelands through drugs, prostitution and extortion.

It has long been argued that anyone within the UDA/UFF who were free political thinkers attempting to move the organisation along the political road were either killed or ousted. It is no secret that John White thwarted any political future of the UDP. Gary McMichael and Davy Adams being effectively sidelined and removed by White who was eventually exposed in the Belfast Telegraph by security correspondent Brian Rowan as being a Special Branch agent.

Essentially it was Special Branch and MI5 securocrats who were preventing positive political moves by UDA/UFF, through the UDP, keeping them within their grip during political negotiations. The spooks were keeping their options open and their gunmen within the UDA/UFF in the ascendancy and at the height of negotiations many Catholics were consequently killed as the political stakes were raised.

Key UPRG figures cite privately the hand of MI5 and Special Branch in the assassination of John McMichael and others intent on moving down the political route.

Interestingly in August 2000 when Peter Mandelson returned Jonny Adair to jail at the height of the loyalist feud, in which the Lower Shankill was being devastated by White and Adair et al, the Sunday Tribune’s then Northern Editor ran an excellent article entitled ‘Security Forces created the UDA’. This detailed the British government’s responsibility for much of the UDA/UFF development over three decades into a sectarian killing machine and criminal fraternity.

Take for instance Billy Stobie who handed UDA/UFF weapons over to his RUC Special Branch handlers and which were later returned to the UDA/UFF who then used them in a number of killings like the Ormeau Rd bookies attack that claimed five lives and injured many others – and subsequently the killing of Aidan Wallace here in West Belfast at the Devenish bar - this killing completely disproving claims that these weapons were handed back ‘deactivated’ – some of these weapons were never recovered. Presumably – hopefully – they were part of the armaments put beyond use.

This is just one of numerous examples spanning four decades revealing the hand of the state within the heart of this organisation and a microcosm of the way in which guns from the UDR, RIR and ultimately South Africa flooded its ranks.

Families affected by loyalists are not particularly interested in UDA/UFF decommissioning. They want the truth about collusion between these same loyalists, how they were armed, infiltrated, directed and controlled to carry out hundreds of sectarian killings and political assassinations by MI5 and RUC Special Branch with the full sanction of Whitehall and Downing Street.

There was more of a reaction from families to Martin McAlease’s role in seeking to obtain ten million pounds in what appeared to be a pay-off for weapons when it became public more recently. That he actually gave the idea legs and spearheaded the initiative was particularly upsetting for scores of relatives. When Vincent Kearney first broke this story our offices in Tyrone, South Derry and West Belfast were inundated with families expressing their opposition to any such move.

In a BBC Evening Extra interview British secretary Shaun Woodward, when pressed, revealed that he had met Martin McAlease regarding seeking a reported five million from the British for his ten million pound plan. Woodward stated that he referred the Presidents husband to the OFMDFM and the Executive.

In other media interviews Gerry Kelly stated that there would be no funding for guns and that funding for loyalist areas would be solely allocated on need and criterion. We have yet to hear from the Irish Government concerning their intentions. It is highly unlikely that the McAlease venture was of his making alone.

But suspicion about some sort of deal or promise and of how it may possibly work its way out lingers in the air. And in a world of deals and political horse trading people are right to be suspicious.

So as Robinson seeks an inquiry into a few quid – and our interim First Minister recently implemented an official inquiry into flooding in Fermanagh - why can’t more serious matters like arming and controlling loyalist death squads not merit the same kind of inquiry? – Or is it that we can only have inquiries when it doesn’t concern Catholics being killed in which the hand of the state is complicit?

Many of the South African arms remain in circulation – in the control of Ulster Resistance. As one relative put; ‘if the IRA had to have said we will decommission everything except the guns in South Armagh’ imagine the pandemonium. Maybe those with knowledge of or involvement in Ulster Resistance will assist this decommissioning – though I doubt that any cash will exchange hands. We don’t want any inquiries do we?

Let’s hope for two things – that working class loyalists can effectively represent their communities politically and that all families affected by the conflict can have a truth process.

The following article was published in this week's Irish Echo using quotes from our recent press release:

January 13, 2010-The Irish American Unity Conference has called on the British government "to come clean" about what it calls Britain's "involvement in arming loyalist paramilitary groups," this following last week's announcement that the Ulster Defense Association and its offshoot, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, have completed their arms decommissioning process.

"While we welcome news of the UDA/UFF disarmament, the irony of the fact that these groups were armed by MI5 and RUC Special Branch is not lost on us. We cannot hail this as any kind of real achievement without an honest discussion of British complicity in arming loyalist paramilitary groups over the years of the conflict," IAUC National President, Kate McCabe, said,

"We know that the UDA/UFF were armed with weapons smuggled in from apartheid South Africa through paid British agent Brian Nelson under the watchful eye of Whitehall and Downing Street in 1987 and 1988, and that these very same weapons were then used in hundreds of sectarian murders," said McCabe.

"There continues to be an active interest within Irish America and Congress in uncovering evidence of the collusion that took place with the blessing of the British government.

"The IAUC submitted evidence to this effect at last October's congressional hearing into collusion between police and paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. Also at this hearing, Representative Bill Delahunt said he believed a key factor in the developing peace process lies in the unsolved murders of the conflict," said McCabe.

She said the IAUC would continue to lobby for American political support for an "operationally independent, international truth commission."

Additionally, the IAUC would also seek a congressional hearing into the Brian Nelson affair and the arming of loyalist paramilitaries by British military intelligence.

The announcement last week by the UDA, the largest loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, that it had put its weapons permanently beyond use, was elsewhere broadly welcomed.

The U.S. Consulate in Belfast described the move as another important and necessary step along the path to a secure and lasting peace. "America believes that only through dialogue and positive political engagement will the people of Northern Ireland achieve the peaceful and prosperous future they desire and deserve, and this move today further confirms that violence has no place in that future," the U.S. statement said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed the move.

"This is a positive step toward securing a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. As I saw first-hand this fall, the people of Northern Ireland have traveled a long way together on the road to peace in the 11 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

"But the journey is not over. That is why this announcement is so important. I want to commend the work of General John de Chastelain and his colleagues in the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, whose oversight and support was essential to the process, and reaffirm the commitment of the United States to supporting Northern Ireland in its progress towards a future of peace and prosperity," Clinton said.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Richard Neal, Chairman of the Friends of Ireland, described the UDA move as another important milestone in the continuing effort to transform society in Northern Ireland.

"It is a bold and consequential development by the loyalist leadership that deserves recognition and acknowledgement on both sides of the Atlantic. On behalf of the Friends of Ireland in the United States House of Representatives, I commend them for their historic action, and offer my support to those within loyalism who seek a peaceful and democratic future." Said Neal.

Last June, I led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Dublin to meet with senior loyalists to discuss a wide range of issues. We had a candid and productive conversation, and it was clear that the leaders we met were committed to completing the process of decommissioning, and to providing economic opportunity for the communities they represent," added Neal.

The decommissioning, he said, reinforced the dedication of those same leaders to a peaceful and prosperous way forward.

"I now look forward to working with them, and all the political parties, to complete the peace process and begin to share the peace dividend," Neal said.

From Relatives for Justice (statement followed by comments from Tommy Carroll, brother of Roddy):

A preliminary inquest hearing this morning heard from lawyers, acting on behalf of PSNI Chief Matt Baggot, request an extension in order to prepare redactions and submit Public Interest Immunity Certificates, more commonly known as gagging orders, in respect of the Stalker/Sampson Reports into shoot-to-kill.
 
Previously senior Coroner John Leckey had given the new PSNI chief a deadline of September 9th to provide the reports but he failed to meet this deadline. His predecessor, Hugh Orde, had similarly failed to meet deadlines.
 
However, this morning at Belfast Coroners Court an extension was granted by Coroner John Leckey until the end of February 2010 in which redacted copies of the report will be provided to court.
 
It was also agreed that a format for making these available would equally occur enabling all those represented to receive the reports and associated materials. Reference was made to potential protocols recently discussed by all parties involved in the inquest into the murder of Roseanne Mallon in which Justice Weir instructed that the timeframe initially set out by the PSNI, under instructions from MI5, in assessing material evidence were too lengthy.
 
The court was also told that apart from the actual Stalker/Sampson report there were 18 additional boxes containing materials and a number of lever-arch files known as appendices containing statements. The latter were said by lawyers acting for the PSNI chief to be 'sensitive materials' and that 'applications for Public Interest Immunity concerning these would be made possibly from three separate sources.' It is believed that this may relate to the PSNI, the MoD and MI5.
 

From the Andersonstown News:

As unionist calls for financial reparations from Libya goes into overdrive, the Director of Relatives for Justice is appealing to the families of nationalist and republican victims to keep their minds focused on uncovering the truth.

Mark Thompson was speaking after a delegation of MPs from the North, including the DUP’s Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson, returned from Libya at the weekend hailing their mission as a success.
However, Mark says that he wouldn’t bank on the Libyan regime forking out for victims of IRA violence.

“The Libyans aren’t indicating that they are going to provide a compensation package,” he said. “If the Libyans are minded to do anything, and that’s a big if, it appears that it may be an overall general package aimed at the community, the business sector and victims and survivors, it would be available to everyone.”

RFJ have been inundated with calls about the Libya issue in recent weeks and they have in turn, been in contact with Libyan officials, says Mark.
“Only half of the truth has been going to Libya, we have been providing them with the whole truth,” he said.

“Ever since the news of this Libyan action entered the public domain after the release of Al Magrahi, families, rightly and understandably, were outraged at the hypocrisy and double standards of unionism and the British government – they quite rightly referenced the South African weapons and the role of the British in assisting the loyalists.