Commentary by National Board member Michael Cummings:
 
He may be new but  British Prime Minister  David Cameron will  soon  be dealing with an old  problem…the conflict in Ireland.  The coalition  of the Conservative and Liberal Democrats will be the first change in government since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998.   What will this change mean for the  N. I. peace process, a topic barely mentioned in the campaign?   The Prime Minister is due to release the Saville Report reviewing the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, otherwise known as Bloody Sunday.  The  Report, 16 years in the making and at a cost of 200 million pounds, was  made necessary by Lord Widgery’s  farcical 1972 account  of the killing of 14 unarmed civil rights protestors by the British Army.   Saville will  spin the deaths as isolated, accidental, the result of poor training and communication and a  cover-up of all that was misguided.  It will   not be the last word on  one of the conflict’s most grisly episodes.    A key  provision  of the 1998  peace pact  requires an  independent inquiry into the   1974   Dublin-Monaghan bombings and that is where it gets dicey for Mr. Cameron.    Together these two acts of slaughter transformed the civil rights struggle for jobs, housing and voting equality into a violent conflict to end  British garrison rule.    Will the  Cameron government  give us the truth of these monstrous events or offer  more delay, cover-up and absolution of wrongdoers?  Lord Saville’s report is just the beginning of the  struggle for the  facts and truth of the conflict.  
 
What is at stake for  the British is the credibility,  particularly in America, of   Britain’s widely promoted  ‘honest broker’  image in the conflict and the credibility of  England’s image  as a  effective  promoter of  democracy, justice and the rule of law around the globe.    Will  the Cameron-Clegg coalition continue this legacy of deception or embrace a more candid and accountable chapter in British history.

From Relatives for Justice:

Speaking after this morning’s preliminary inquest hearing into the British army’s SAS killings of Martin McCaughey and Dessie Grew, Peter McCaughey, Brother of Martin, issued the following statement through Relatives for Justice (RFJ);

‘The families have already taken the case concerning the killings to the European Court, the British High Court and the House of Lords in our battle to obtain the truth surrounding the killings and for justice to be seen to be done.

 ‘This has been an almost twenty-year legal battle that has taken its own toll in terms of the families – my father Owen passed away and in no small measure the impact of delay, prevarication and stalling of the inquest contributed to his trauma, ill-health and death. My mother is now continuing with the case.

‘At this morning’s hearing we again faced another tactical delay by the British government in the form of the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET). As the inquest is now set, after almost twenty-years, to commence the PSNI informed the Coroner that the HET have the case on its schedule to examine and that whilst this would not yet commence until at least the latter part of 2010 it is their intention to examine the killings.

‘‘These killings were part of a clearly organized military plan to kill Martin and Dessie rather than to make safe and effective arrests within the rule of law. We further believe that the shoot-to-kill operation that led to the deaths was sanctioned at the highest political levels within both the NIO and London.

‘The objective on the part of the British government is to continue to prevent the truth concerning the killings from coming to light. The role of the PSNI’s HET must be seen within that context in that it is a contrived farce aimed at managing and suppressing the truth and thus the British government’s policy of shooting dead republicans.

‘For our part we want to publicly state that we do not want any PSNI HET examination of these killings.

The British government has certain legal obligations under both domestic and international law. We want a proper Article 2 inquest in which those responsible for planning, sanctioning and carrying out these killings are accountable to the families and the public for their actions. The HET met none of these requirements and their introduction at this stage is clear for all to see.

‘We will be raising the matter with the Irish government and will consider any legal action in terms of ensuring that this inquest proceeds immediately without any interference or distribution by the PSNI.’ ENDS

Editors notes - For further information please contact RFJ – 02890 220100 or our Dungannon office on 028 87751697

Please accredit Relatives for Justice.

Relatives for Justice responds to Gordon Brown on Libya compensation:

'Until then we have urged the Libyan Government to withhold any payments in the wider interests of truth and justice for all those affected by the conflict throughout the island of Ireland. And in establishing who is really culpable as the easy way out is to only point the finger at Libya'