January 11, 2010--The Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) has called on the British government to come clean about its involvement in arming loyalist paramilitary groups following last week's announcement that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)/Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) have completed the decommissioning process.

IAUC National President Kate McCabe said, "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."

"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."

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 NI. 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.

The IAUC will continue to lobby for American political support for an operationally independent, international truth commission. Additionally, the IAUC also seeks a Congressional hearing into the Brian Nelson affair and the arming of loyalist paramilitaries by British Military Intelligence.

ENDS

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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.

From Relatives for Justice:

'It was subsequently reported in London's Private Eye that Nelson's role in traveling to South Africa and purchasing the weapons for loyalists had been approved by a member of the British Cabinet at the time.'

'Loyalists were re-armed in late 1987 when MI5's Force Research Unit (FRU) dispatched their agent Brian Nelson with the proceeds of a Northern Bank robbery in Portadown to South Africa to purchase a shipment of weapons that had initially been destined for the PLO. The ship being previously intercepted by the South African apartheid regime at the request of the Israeli government.

'It was subsequently reported in London's Private Eye that Nelson's role in traveling to South Africa and purchasing the weapons for loyalists had been approved by a member of the British Cabinet at the time.

'As a direct consequence of the importation of these weapons loyalists embarked on an unprecedented period of sectarian and political assassinations in which numerous others aspects of official collusion, apart from providing weapons, is well evidenced and documented. Loyalists are responsible for more deaths from this period onwards than any other participant to the conflict.