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Scots Guards Dismissal Speculation

There is speculation that the two Scots Guards convicted of the murder of Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride and then granted controversial early release may be dismissed from the British Army at a hearing of the Army Board later this week. The speculation arises from an article in the latest issue of the Sunday Times, a newspaper seen as 'close' to the thinking of the British establishment, in particular the security services.

Since the release of Guardsmen Fisher and Fisher in early September the Centre has campaigned with the Mc Bride family for a dishonourable discharge of the two men. In response to the reports, Jean Mc Bride, mother of the victim, expressed her hope that this would finally end the ordeal of the Mc Bride family and allow them to move on.

Should the speculation prove correct this would be the first time since the conflict began that the British Government has dismissed soldiers from British based regiments who have been convicted of serious offences. A number of members of the locally recruited UDR/RIR regiment have been dismissed following convictions for murder and collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. There is considerable evidence of links between members of this particular regiment and loyalist paramilitaries.

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Congressional Hearings

A number of solicitors and representatives of human rights groups are in Washington to give evidence to the International Operations and Human Rights subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee of Congress which this week is looking at human rights violations in the North.

On the Tuesday morning members of congress will also be given a briefing by Datam Cumaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur, on his report released earlier this year highlighting RUC threats to solicitors. The report also called for an independent inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane (See PFC website for a link to the report) A representative of the PFC is in Washington to observe the proceedings.

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Portadown Under Siege

Residents of the nationalist Garvaghy Rd in Portadown spent a further weekend under siege following two orange rallies in the town. Some 2000 supporters of the Orange Order gathered in the town centre on the Saturday and heard Grand Master Robert Saulters call for Breandan Mac Clionnaith, spokeperson for the Garvaghy Residents, to be "taken out'.

The Grand Master would argue that the speech called for Mac Clionnaiths removal from the Residents group but there must be serious concern that the call will be understood by Portadown loyalists to imply that Breandan should be murdered. Four RUC men were injured during scuffles following the rally.

On the Sunday loyalists gathered for the now routine protest at Drumcree church before a rally in the Brownstone area where the crowd of several hundred was addressed by Unionist MP and former Grand Master Martin Smyth. Considerably fewer supporters of the Orange Order attended the weekend protests than had been expected. Crowds also gathered at Drumcree on Thursday and Friday nights and paraded to the security cordon surrounding the besieged nationalist enclave.

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Decommissioning Red Herrings

The continuing controversy surrounding decommissioning has provoked a mini-crisis in the political process with urgent meetings of the party leaders in Belfast and Dublin. At issue is the unionist demand that IRA decommissioning begin before Sinn Fein be allowed to take ministerial positions in the new assembly. This effective unionist precondition is outside the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

Many on this island, including the PFC, believe that the most realistic decommissioning process in this conflict is the one that follows from a natural chemical process calling rusting ie let the weapons rust in the ground. The unionist demand that weapons and explosives be handed over now is contradictory on a number of levels.

1. the demand is aimed almost exclusively at republicans, loyalist violence according to this logic is merely a reaction to the IRA. It appears to have gone largely unnoticed that not a single nationalist political representative or victim of loyalist or state violence has ever called for prior decommissioning before engaging with loyalists or the state.
2. those most vociferous in calling for action now are opposed to the Belfast Agreement in any case. Decommissioning is seen as the most effective way of damaging if not destroying the Agreement by unionist opponents of David Trimble.
3. calls for a gesture to be made, token decommissioning in other words, suggests that actual weapons/explosives are not the issue, a gesture of political surrender by republicans is the real agenda.
4. a further argument is that Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble needs to be helped out of the decommissioning hole in which he finds himself trapped. As David Ervine of the loyalist PUP has suggested to relation to this very issue, " if you find yourself digging a hole that you can't get out of, stop digging." Precisely.
5. finally it should be borne in mind that the actual goal of total decommissioning on this island has some chance of being realised (whether through rust or through the International Body) if the terms of the Belfast Agreement are adhered to but are highly unlikely to be achieved if unionists persist in backing republicans into corners.

FAIR and FAIT

A new organisation has been set up to campaign on behalf of victims of IRA violence and to protest at the current programme of prisoner releases. The group, FAIR-Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, staged a protest at Stormont last week. A spokesperson for the group, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, expressed opposition to prisoner releases and called for more recognition for families of RUC and UDR men killed along the border. In answer to a question regarding the release of loyalists the spokesperson voiced support for the release of loyalist paramilitaries convicted of the murder of republicans…. …they after all were only defending the state went the argument ????

FAIT, the anti-punishment beatings group which also opposes the current prisoner releases, is suffering another round of internal egoitis. The director of the group, Sam Cushnahan, has resigned following complaints that the development officer, Glyn Roberts, is playing party politics in his twin role as spokesperson for the group and Alliance Party candidate.

This is the latest in a series of internal squabbles to hit the Belfast group. In 1996 prominent campaigner Nancy Gracey resigned following allegations regarding finances. That same year a further own goal was scored with the appointment of Lady Olga Maitland as patron of the group. The rabidly right wing conservative MP had been a founder member of Families For Defence, a pro nuclear weapons group in Britain. She had also opposed the release of the Birmingham Six and supported Para Lee Clegg, found guilty of the murder of a Belfast teenager, Karen Reilly.