Contents

Dramatic new evidence on Bloody Sunday

There has been dramatic new evidence published today (16 March) in the Sunday Business Post, a Dublin-based up market newspaper. The newspaper carries a report of a statement given to them, and which is now in the possession of the Irish Government, made by Soldier A, one of the Paratroopers involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre when 14 unarmed civilians were killed in Derry in January 1972 following a civil rights demonstration. The soldier, who has named all the soldiers involved in the killings and their officers, has said that the statement which he gave to the Widgery Tribunal was false. That he did not write it but that he was given an altered version written for him. He claims that his original statement was destroyed.

In his statement soldier A makes the following claims:

1. that the Paras were briefed by a senior officer the day before they went to Derry "to get some kills:"
2. a cease-fire order was given during the shooting on Rossville Street after some of the first victims had been killed;
3. the Glenfada Park shootings (the second wave of killings) took place after and in direct contravention of this order;
4. the testimony suggests that those shot in Glenfada Park were standing with their hands in the air and that one was shot by a soldier shooting from the hip;
5. soldiers made wide spread use of non-issue dum-dum bullets which are banned under the Geneva convention;
6. the view of the Widgery Tribunal that only 108 bullets were fired was based on efforts by the Paratroopers to conceal the use of the dum-dum bullets;

In a statement issued by the chairperson of the Bloody Sunday Trust, Robin Percival, he said that:

"the evidence now coming forward from members of the Parachute regiment who were in Derry and were involved in the killings is dramatic confirmation of the need for a new inquiry. Along with the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, we are calling again for the establishment of an independent and international inquiry with full judicial and legal powers. Soldier's A evidence not only confirms the statements made by civilians at the time but also confirms what other soldiers have been saying. The claim, for example, that more than authorised bullets were used was confirmed to TV documentary makers five years ago by the man who was the highest ranking non- commissioned officer in the Paras in Derry at that time. This statement by Soldier A now adds enormously to the demand for a total repudiation of Widgery and the establishment of a new inquiry to establish the truth of what happened that day and the events leading up to Bloody Sunday."

The Sunday Business Post has given permission for the full text of the article to be carried on this site. There is also an item in the Irish News summarising the article.
Return to Contents List.

Roísín McAliskey "evil scum" claim

In a letter to a constituent, British Home Office minister David Maclean has labelled Roísín McAliskey "evil scum". The text of the letter has been published in The Guardian, a liberal British newspaper. In it the Minister, David Maclean, who is the minister responsible for dealing with miscarriages of justice described Roísín McAliskey as an "IRA prisoner". In fact Roísín has not been charged with any offence, never mind membership of the IRA. She is being held in custody on the foot of an extradition warrant from Germany whose authorities wish to question her about an IRA attack in Osnabrück last year. In his letter Maclean, who has been defended both by Prime Minister John Major and by Home Secretary Michael Howard, wrote to his constituent who had complained to him about the treatment of Roísín that "no doubt over the next few months we will all become familiar with the name of this IRA prisoner." He then goes onto write about "the evil scum of the IRA" and a woman who was convicted of murdering several children thirty years ago (Myra Hindley) and who is still serving a life sentence in Britain.

The was widespread condemnation of the Minister. Bernadette McAliskey, the mother of Roísín said that "I think if the Minister concerned is not fired from his post immediately then the entire Home Office should be cleared out, bearing in mind that this is the man who would have responsibility for the reopening of wrongful convictions. There is no doubt it's the clear intention of the Home Office to try and crush her entirely....Roísín has already been convicted as far as they are concerned." Green MEP, Patricia McKenna said that the Irish Government should demand the resignation of Maclean. "If Mr Maclean cannot accept the most basic tenet that everyone is innocent until proven otherwise, then he is unfit to be involved in the administration of justice."

Visit PFC's Roísín Page or
Return to Contents List.

Bail refused for Roísín McAliskey

Bail was again refused for Roísín McAliskey at a court in London on Friday (14 March). Her counsel, Michael Mansfield, QC, had argued that Roís& iacute;n should be released following the recent downgrading of her maximum security classification at the prison. However Crown lawyers opposed the application for bail on the grounds that Ms McAliskey might abscond. This was suggestion vigorously dismissed by Roísín's solicitor Gareth Peirce. She said that prison had made Roísín ill, mentally and physically. She was able to confirm that Roísín had been taken to hospital on Thursday night (14 March) with a suspected deep vein thrombosis and had to be given oxygen by ambulance staff after suffering a panic attack. Roísín was returned to Holloway prison the same night.

Visit PFC's Roísín Page or
Return to Contents List.

McAliskey will be able to keep her baby

Roísín McAliskey has been told by the British prison service that she will be able to keep her baby when it is born sometime in the next two months. The decision was made on Thursday (13 March) following a two-hour meeting of social workers, child-care experts and prison officials. It was also agreed that Roísín should be given a place in Holloway Prison's mother-and-baby unit. Up until now she has been denied access to this because of high risk security rating.

Expressing relief at the decision, Bernadette McAliskey, Roísín's mother, expressed her anger at the fact that the media had been informed before her daughter. "Roísín has just rung me up to say nobody has told her what is happening, yet it has been on the news. The whole world knows what is happening to her child before she does. She was questioned for over an hour by this panel. 12 people she doesn't know and it really wound her up. And nobody has the decency to tell her she can keep her child. I hope she will now be moved to the pregnancy unit and be allowed into the garden to exercise.."

It is believed that Holloway prison medical staff believe that the child will be born premature because of the difficulties which Roísín has experienced during her pregnancy. The prison service had told Bernadette McAliskey and Roísín's partner Seán McCrotter that they will be allowed to be present when the baby is born but they will only be informed once Roísín has gone into labour. The prison service has also announced that Roísín will be able to join the ante- natal classes.

Visit PFC's Roísín Page or
Return to Contents List.

Bloody Sunday relatives in the USA

Many of the relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday are currently on a visit to the USA. The visit began on Wednesday (12 March) and will last a week. Various meetings have been scheduled with politicians and community leaders in Boston, New York and Washington. The delegation of relatives will also take part in a number of St Patrick's Day parades.

Also visiting the USA at the moment is Martin Finucane, a member of the Pat Finucane Centre.

Young Protestants accept they are treated better

A new survey published this week, the 6th annual volume of the Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey suggests that a growing number of young Protestants believe that many of the institutions of society treat them better than Roman Catholics. The report also suggests that young Protestants are more likely to see themselves as Northern Irish and as neither unionist or nationalist.

Damien Sullivan cleared on involvement in murder

Damien Sullivan has been cleared at the Appeal Court in Belfast of involvement in the killing of former British soldier Nigel Smyth in May 1994. The Lord Chief Justice announced that Sullivan would be freed because of the poor video evidence of Mr Smyth's killing.

Afterwards Damien Sullivan said that "I am grateful to my family and the campaigners who helped me overturn this conviction today(14 March) and I would like to thank them all. I would like to say how unsafe the Diplock system is and it has been proved today how unsafe the Diplock system is."

House of Lords renew "anti-terrorism" laws

The British House of Lords, none of whose members are elected and the majority of whom are hereditary peers, renewed the Prevention of Terrorism Act on Monday night (10 March). They did so without taking a vote. The House of Commons had earlier renewed the Act with the Labour front-bench supporting the continuation of the emergency powers. A handful of Labour MPs opposed the renewal of the Act. The Prevention of Terrorism Act covers the whole of the United Kingdom and gives the Home Secretary powers to exclude people from the various parts of the UK. It also gives the police additional powers with regard to detaining people for questioning. It is different from the Emergency Provisions Act, which established the Diplock Tribunals and gives the Government the power to intern people without trail. The EPA exists only in Northern Ireland. Spokesman for the Pat Finucane Centre commented, shortly before leaving for a week long trip to the USA, that "it is salutary to remember that there has not been one single second of Northern Ireland's existence in which there has not been emergency legislation in operation."

Harryville has cost £1 million

The anti-Catholic demonstrations which take place each weekend outside Harryville Roman Catholic church in Ballymena have cost approximately £1 million so far, according to John Wheeler the British security minister in the North. This figure was made public on Monday (10 March) in a parliamentary reply. Wheeler said that on average it costs £27,000 per week.

Meanwhile yesterday (15 March) outside the Catholic church there was a counter-demonstration against the Loyalists who have been taking part in the demonstration. The counter-demonstration was organised by trade unionists and socialists, the majority of whom were from Britain. Reports suggest there were minor disturbances involving Loyalists throwing bottles and paint at RUC officers. Reports suggest that the RUC made two arrests. Last weeks demonstration marked six months of anti-Catholic demonstrations outside Harryville by Loyalists.

Meanwhile to day (16 March) the BBC has reported that there has been an agreement reached in the predominantly nationalist village of Dromore in County Tyrone to allow an Orange parade into the village on 12 July. In an interview carried on the BBC, the leader of the local Orange Lodge accepted that the meeting in Dromore between members of the Orange Order and local residents involved members of Sinn Féin and he encouraged other Loyal institutions and other Orange Lodges to seek agreement with local residents.

Orange leader convicted of death threat

The Master of a Orange Lodge in Scotland has been convicted of making a death threat against a key prosecution witness involved in the trial and conviction of leading UVF member Lindsay Robb. The Orange Master pleaded guilty to the charge in a court in Falkirk on Monday (10 March). Robb, also a member of the Progressive Unionist party's negotiating team at Stormont, received an eight- year sentence in Scotland in 1995. Orangeman Alexander McKinlay threatened the witness with death at the hands of Loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright if he did sign an affidavit that his original evidence was false. Wright was recently imprisoned in Belfast for threatening to kill a woman. McKinlay had tried to force the witness to say that he had given false evidence which had helped convict Robb of gun-running for the UVF. He will be sentenced later this month.

CAJ calls for reassessment of the RUC

The CAJ - (Committee on the Administration of Justice) has made a call for the "fundamental reassessment" of the RUC. They made their views known in their response to the report written by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, Colin Smith, a senior police officer from Britain, which was published earlier this year. The CAJ, whilst welcoming much that was in the report, said it had not dealt adequately with a number of important issues that had arisen as a consequence of the summer Loyalist parades. These included:

1. the firing of large numbers of plastic bullets in Derry at people not engaged in public disorder;
2. the "near-curfew on the Ormeau Road on 12 July;
3. the delays in the police investigation of the death of Dermot McShane, killed in Derry by the British Army in July;
4. the fracas in Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital involving RUC officers and members of the public.

The CAJ also said that they were seeking a meeting with senior RUC officers to discuss with them a number of issues which had arisen as a consequence of the Drumcree crisis last year. In particular they wanted to know whether there was truth in the allegations that Catholic RUC officers were not relied upon to do extra shifts or certain kinds of duties. They also want to discuss the issues which have arisen out of the membership of some RUC officers with the so-called Loyal Orders, eg the Orange Order and what action is being taken to deal with sectarianism within the RUC.

Hayes appointed to inquire into Denton role

Dr Maurice Hayes has been appointed by the British Government to do the inquiry into the case of sectarian harassment within the Department of Agriculture and the role of the British Minister Mrs Denton. Hayes, who recently published a report into the complaints procedure against the RUC, has also headed the Northern Ireland ombudsman and the old Community Relations Commission. In commenting on his appointment by Patrick Mayhew, Maurice Hayes said that his investigation would "include whether there were any improper considerations in the deployment of staff and whether the rules and procedures were followed and if not, why not. I'll have to see who actually was involved in the thing. Certainly I'd want to talk to everybody who had been involved and to look at all the papers"

The appointment of Hayes to make the inquiry has been welcomed by various people, including Seamus Mallon, Deputy Leader of the SDLP and Bob Cooper, Chair of the Fair Employment Commission. The appointment of Hayes has not, however, ended the criticism of Denton. Sinn Féin councillor Mairtin O Muilleoir said that the Minister should offer to apologise to the victim of sectarian harassment and explain why she did not admit to her role in the affair immediately and to have allowed civil servants for over two weeks to falsely claim that the Minister had not be involved in the decision to move the victim of harassment

The furore over the role of Denton arises because she is the Minister of Fair Employment as well as the Minister for Agriculture in Northern Ireland. It now transpires that she ordered the removal of a Catholic from her private office who was the victim of sectarian harassment by Denton's private secretary. It has also been subsequently learnt, that in clear breach of fair employment guidelines, the Minister appointed as her diary secretary someone who had not been short listed for the post.

Mrs Denton was not totally without support, however. In a rare intervention in Northern Irish affairs, former MP for West Belfast, 'Lord' Gerry Fitt, who now resides in London and sits regularly in the British House of Lords, claimed that the row involving Denton has been orchestrated by senior civil servants in an attempt to get rid of her. Gerry Fitt says that he might use the privilege of the House of Lords to "name names". In his statement Fitt went on to say that "this official...didn't like taking orders from a junior minister and got together with a few others to work out how to get rid of her. It was motivated by pure malice." Alliance party leader 'Lord' John Alderdice, also speaking in the British House of Lords, said that in his experience " there is not....a bigoted bone in her body. And such suggestions, in my view, make up in vindictiveness what they lack in veritude." However, speaking to the Irish News the uncle of the victim of sectarian harassment Dr Raymond Shearer, said that "Alderdice has put his foot in it. Let's get this straight, no one has accused the minister of political or religious harassment. She's been guilty of a gross breach of fair employment guidelines and I'm surprised that a man of Lord Alderdice's intelligence would confuse the issues. "
Return to Contents List.