Imsh OemocRA February/March 2000 Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland ISSN 0021-1125 60p Historic court Lighting the The legacy of victory for flame of James Flntan democracy freedom Lalor Page 3 Page 7 Page 12 TIME FOR JUSTICE MURDER INQUIRY Democrat reporter FILES BELIEVED to contain the names of the six-man loyalist death squad alleged to be responsible for the death of the prominent Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane have been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Northern Ireland. This latest development in the Finucane murder case raises hopes that the truth surrounding the solicitor's death, including the exact level of collaboration between loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces, will eventually be revealed. It is understood that the evidence sent to the DPP, revealed in the Independent newspaper, confirms allegations made by two loyalists informers that RUC intelligence officers ignored a series of tip-offs indicating that Pat Finucane was to be the target of a loyalist death squad. According to one source, self- confessed police informer and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) quartermaster William Stobie, police officers were in a position to prevent Finucane's murder. Stobie claims to have warned his handlers that a prominent republican, which they clearly understood to be Finucane, was about to be assassinated — including making two phone calls on the night of the murder. The demand for Justice for those killed on Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, remains as loud as ever. This year's march In London, on 22 January, heard Stobie, one of two men already relatives of the victims call for the new Saville Inquiry, which opens Its public hearings in March, to be monitored closely to avoid another whitewash. charged with the solicitor's murder, is on bail awaiting trial, although there are active member of the UDA. inquiry are housed in a huge fortified wm doubts that he will ever be sentenced for Nelson, who was given a ten-year jail safe situated within a restricted area set the crime because of his co-operation sentence for a series of offenses, aside for the investigation team on the to press it was confirmed that General John de with the new police investigation under including conspiracy to murder, also top floor of the RUC's Antrim offices in the Britishand Irish governments with his report Sir John Stevens. claimed to have warned his handlers of Carrickfergus. Member of the team of paramilitary weapons, It is understood that taped evidence the threat to the solicitor's life and that either working on the case or at hotel at were not available at the time of going to corroborating Stobie's story is included his warnings were ignored. a secret location. Anyone who leaves the the General was likely to report that in the evidence collected by the team of Crucial documents collected by the investigation offices does so of the Good senior police officers under Stevens and earlier investigation were destroyed in a accompanied by an armed guard. passed on to the DPP. Other 'mysterious' fire on the night of 10 Despite the lengths taken by the incriminating evidence sent to the DPP is January 1990, hours before the Stevens Stevens team the latest revelations believed to include statements of other team was to move against suspects. No human-rights campaigners such as police informers and the testimony of satisfactory answer has ever been given British Irish Rights Watch and Sinn Fein former RUC officers. as to the cause of the fire which many are continuing to call for an independent This is the third investigation headed believe was started deliberately by a inquiry. by Stevens, who is to succeed Sir Paul secret army unit in order to cover their Speaking after the recent reports in Condon as the chief constable of the connections with loyalist death gangs. the Independent Sinn F6in assembly Metropolitan Police on 1 February. Reports of the latest developments in member Gerry Kelly stressed that the Two previous investigations led by the Finucane murder case in the fact that the Stevens team was ready to Stevens into the murder and allegations Independent reveal the extraordinary go press for prosecutions over ten years of widespiead collusion between RUC lengths that the Stevens 3 team is having after the Finucane murder raised officers and loyalist paramilitaries were to employ in order to protect evidence important questions about the dogged with controversy, despite leading and to ensure the personal security of circumstances about the crime and the to the conviction of Brian Nelson who officers involved in the investigation. subsequent RUC investigation. "It is was working as an agent for a secret Key documents, including the clear that the RUC failed to pursue the British army intelligence unit while an charred remains of the previous Stevens killers of Pat Finucane." Page 10 Irish Democrat February/March 2000 Irish Democrat February/March 2000 Page 3 News News iBish Oemociuc Loyalist rivalry takes bloody turn WORLD COMMENT Founded 1939 Volume 55, Number 1 by Politicus LOYALIST FEUD two loyalist paramilitary groups has west Belfast where he carried out Supreme court rules In Another day, another crisis existed ever since the LVF broke away in building work. Questions have also been Democrat reporter 19% following differences within the asked as to how a known UVF leader Break-up Britain UVF over the situation at Drumcree. could have gained security clearance to IT IS a significant historical moment WITH THE imminent publication of De Chastelain's report on FEARS THAT a bloody feud involving In December 1999 Jameson, a former carry out work in the building. when the 'English question' begins to decommissioning attention switches to the wholly artificial and members of the ultra-right-wing Loyalist RUC reservist and member of the Meanwhile, human rights groups favour of democracy assert itself. In just seven years time, in Volunteers Force (LVF) and former Orange Order, was involved in a fight continue to record scores of attacks by unnecessary crisis generated by the arbitrary deadline for the the Haughey government in the 1987 He went on to stress that the historic the year 2007, it will be the 300th comrades in Ulster Volunteer Force with LVF members in Portadown loyalists against Catholics and REFERENDUMS VERDICT decommissioning of IRA weapons set by David Trimble and his Single European Act referendum, and verdict would not stop political party or anniversary of England's Act of Union (UVF) surfaced in January following the marking the second anniversary of the nationalists throughout the North. Democrat reporter continued until 1995. other uncontested broadcasts. with Scotland, which brought the British Ulster Unionist Party. killing in mid-January of a Richard death of the group's leader Billy Wright. Concerns are also being raised over The basis of Anthony Coughlan's "What it does do is require RTE to state into being as a political entity. How Jameson in Portadown. In response to Jameson's killing the following suggestions of a growing Trimble's threat to collapse the new executive and the bodies The Irish Democrat's Dublin case is that referendums are different act fairly and constitutionally in long more will it last? Despite denials by family members, UVF is reported to have put five leading alliance between the LVF and sections of associated with the workings of the Good Friday deal, thus correspondent, Anthony Coughlan, and from general elections. In an election allocating them on these occasions," he Some people think Britain will not Jameson is understood to have been the LVF members on a so-called 'death list'. the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). triggering another tortuous review, will neither enhance the overall democracy camapaigners in the republic people choose representatives, but in a said. "If political parties are divided on a continue as a state and that in time leader of UVF in mid-Ulster, a fact Concerns have also been raised about • Detailed information about loyalist of Ireland, were last month celebrating referendum the people legislate directly. referendum issue, uncontested party separate Scottish, English and Welsh process nor result in the surrender, deactivating or swiftly confirmed by the RUC following Jameson's possible access to files on attacks can be found on the Pat Finucane victory in their campaign for equal "In contested referendums political broadcastss are clearly permissible, so States will join the international his assassination. Tension between the nationalists at a social services office in Centre website: www.serve.com/pfc/ decommissioning of a single IRA bullet — a fact as well known to broadcasting rights during referendums. party members and supporters arc long as they are broadly equal between community. That is possible, though not Trimble as it is to British and Irish ministers and to every dog on The Irish Supreme Court threw out divided between Yes and No, just like both sides. inevitable. the street. an appeal by state broadcasters RTE everyone else," he argued. "Uncontested broadcasts involving In 1536 the English monarchy 1974 bombs Inquiry gets go-ahead against a previous High Court ruling that "In these circumstances, for the Irish non-party groups could be allocated to absorbed Wales. In 1603 James VI of It is accepted that the decommissioning issue is particularly the imbalance in free broadcasting time political party leaderships and machines designated umbrella groups in Scotland became James I of England and in the 1995 divorce referendum was important to unionists, however attempts to separate it from the BOMBING INQUIRY 1 J* to seek public subsidy for themselves, referendums, if such existed, as is the two countries were linked in a entire Good Friday package are both futile and extremely unconstitutional.