From the Pat Finucance Centre:

Representatives of the Bloody Sunday families will this week leave for London and the US to further highlight the need for urgency and vigilance regarding the long-awaited release of the Saville Report.
 
John Kelly and Jean Hegarty (sister of Kevin McElhinney) will travel to Washington to coincide with planned events at the Whitehouse and will meet senior US politicians to appraise them of recent developments concerning the imminent release of the Inquiry Report.
 
John Kelly in a statement said that “We feel that is very important to take our just demands of truth and justice at this time to both Britain and the US.  Just hours after our loved ones were mown down on the streets of Derry by the Parachute Regiment, the British Embassy in Washington were able to describe and condemn the dead as gunmen and bombers.
 
“We cannot allow an open field for the British Government, either officially or unofficially, to stage and manipulate the release of the report for their own ends.  While we are confident that our long campaign for truth and justice will be completely vindicated, the next few weeks will be crucial in seeing the hated Widgery Report entirely repudiated.
 
Reclaiming history in London
 
Meanwhile several relatives will travel to London on Wednesday, St Patrick’s Day, to ‘reclaim the history of Bloody Sunday’ at 10 Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace as part of the ‘Set The Truth Free’ Campaign.  In order to illustrate this, family members will return an original copy of the Widgery Report to 10 Downing Street on St Patrick’s Day, symbolising the end of  Widgery’s 38-year tenure as the only official British record of Bloody Sunday. At the MoD the families will return the infamous ‘shot list’ drawn up by former Chief of General Staff of the British Army General Mike Jackson. At Buckingham Palace the families will hand in a list of the dead and injured to remind the British Monarch of the ‘real heroes of Bloody Sunday’. Months after the massacre the Queen decorated Para commander Lt Col Derek Wilford who was awarded an OBE. Tony Doherty said “Wilford was no hero-the dead and the injured were the real heros who went out that day to demand civil rights and ended up as targets for the Paras. Wilford should be stripped of his honour.”

 
Families also announced that there will be a rally this coming Saturday in Derry-details to be announced later this week.
 
END
 

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.
 

IAUC board member Michael Cummings has written another fantastic letter on the media's coverage of politics in the north of Ireland, this time to the Christian Science Monitor:

February 1, 2010

Dear Editor:

I wish to commend  the insight of  “Northern Ireland:  power-sharing dispute threatens to freeze peace process” (1/30).  Your coverage of the conflict in Ireland has generally been more accurate and substantive  the other major papers but  10 years after the so called Good Friday Agreement  some still can’t get it right. 

Three points stand out in your summary which merit mention.  First, unlike a recent New York Times article by John Burns,  Jason Walsh did  not use the misleading buzzwords often supplied by British Information Services e. g. “the mostly Protestant DUP and the mostly Roman Catholic Sinn Fein.”  These phrases are meant to continue the myth of a religious struggle within Christianity in Ireland.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The struggle has always been about national and unionist politics and governance.  It amuses those in Sinn Fein to be so referenced as their positions often oppose Catholic church social teaching.  Second,  Professor Bean’s reference to the “choreographed …cyclical crises”  is right on point.  What many have come to realize is that the instigator and choreographer of all the staggering and stumbling politically is  a British government manipulating and pandering to their loyalist allies.  Third, the selection of commentators in the article are not the usual suspects.  In citing the views of Ms Purvis, Caragh O’Donnell, and Mick Fealty you more accurately portrayed the community views then the platitudes of politicians. 

Sincerely,

Michael J. Cummings

Member, National Board

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.

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

###

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.

Washington, DC—The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), Irish Northern Aid (INA) and the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) have joined together in a renewed effort to support an independent truth recovery process to deal with the legacy of the past following Thursday’s Congressional hearing into collusion in the North of Ireland.

The hearing featured testimony from Raymond McCord, John Finucane, former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, and Jane Winter, director of British Irish Rights Watch. Overwhelming Congressional support for further investigations into collusion and the full disclosure of truth on the part of the British government was evident throughout.

Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA), chair of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, told the audience that the information surrounding collusion between British security forces and paramilitaries must be made public if people are to maintain faith in the integrity of the justice system.  Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) agreed, stating that there is bipartisan support for truth recovery in Congress.  “These issues are not going to go away,” Smith said.

“We would like to see Congress become actively involved in the establishment and oversight of an independent truth commission in the North of Ireland,” said IAUC President Kate McCabe.  “Such a process, where victims’ rights are at the forefront, is essential to a lasting peace.  American political support is necessary to ensure the true independence of any truth recovery process in the North.”

AOH National President Seamus Boyle said, “It is very important to remember that with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 ending the conflict in the North the Ancient Order of Hibernians refocused on the human rights and collusion issues which were highlighted in this Congressional hearing. We need to have resolution to these collusion issues which devastated both communities. We can then move on to the much more difficult task of a political dialogue and reconciliation between the communities.”

The AOH, INA and the IAUC are requesting that a Congressional fact-finding delegation be organized to travel to the North to specifically investigate the collusion issue.  In addition, members of Congress are being asked to write to the Northern Ireland Office and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to express support for the “Legacy Commission” as proposed by the Consultative Group on the Past, provided that the British government allow for its operational independence and full access to State archives.

All Irish Americans and concerned citizens are being asked to join the AOH and IAUC in promoting these goals.