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www.celtic-connection.com
OCTOBER 1999
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Fresh Controversy Over New Bloody Sunday Evidence
DERRY — Lord Saville's tribunal of inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march, fatally shooting 14 people, has taken a radically different approach to that used by Lord Widgery in 1972. The Lord Chief Justice of the time had his report ready in two months. Its text ran to just 39 pages and some of the deaths rated just one paragraph each. He went for speed rather than thoroughness.
Now, the new inquiry headed by Lord Saville of Newdigate, has already been in existence for a year and a half and is expected to last as long again.
In a huge trawl for documentary evidence, the tribunal has already amassed 60,000 pages, 5,000 photographs and 36 hours of videotape.
Six hundred and eighty people have been interviewed. Recording statements from them has usually taken more than five hours for
each man, while many interviews have lasted several days. They have traced more than 1,000 soldiers and are still looking for 260 more.
New evidence submitted to the Saville inquiry also appears to confirm what locals have always maintained, that none of the 14 civilians who were shot dead had handled explosives or firearms as claimed by the original Widgery Tribunal.
Doctor John Martin was a forensic scientist employed by the Northern Ireland Office who examined the bodies of those fatally injured in January 1972. In his original submission to the Widgery Tribunal, Martin found lead particles on many of the bodies, leading Widgery to conclude, "There is a strong suspicion that some others had been firing weapons or handling bombs."
This particular admission has been the crux of the British Ministry of Defence case against the
victims for the past 27 years. It is now understood that three British scientists have independently reviewed the case and described Martin's original findings as "worthless."
One of the scientists who contradicted the Martin conclusions, Doctor John Lloyd, said the primary findings did not consider any alternative reasons for lead contamination of the victims' bodies.
He points out that exposure to other substances could explain the presence of the deposits, such as vehicle exhaust fumes, metal sheeting or paint. He also stated that three of the victims were taken to hospital in army personnel carriers which would have themselves "been heavily and continuously contaminated with firearms residue."
It has also been confirmed that one of the victims, Jim Wray, was shot a second time at close range after he had been wounded.
Changing the Face of the RUC
BELFAST — The Independent Commission on Policing, which was given its mandate under the Good Friday Agreement, has published its long-awaited report, "A New Beginning to Policing in Northern Ireland."
Policing in the North is an intensely emotional issue. To most unionists, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) is a model police service; to many nationalists, it is a sectarian force which is neither trusted nor respected and which upholds institutions which are alien to their aspirations.
Unionists hold close to their hearts the memory of the 302 RUC officers who died in the past 30 years of violence but nationalists ask how they are supposed to believe in a force which is 92 percent Protestant and which they suspect of colluding with loyalists murder squads against them.
The former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten took all these deep-seated views on board and in attempting to strike a balance has come up with 175 recommendations for the restructuring of the RUC.
Among the key proposals are: the renaming of the force to the Northern Ireland Police Service; a change to the oath of allegiance, a new badge and an end to the practice of flying the union flag over police stations; a reduction in personnel from 13,000 to 7,500 and the establishment of 29 police boards which will cover the 25 local district council areas together with four in the greater Belfast area.
Also proposed is enhanced co-operation with the gardai and improved recruitment procedures which would welcome applications from police officers already serving in the gardai or in Britain.
A further recommendation contemplates that the GAA drop its membership ban on the police and British Army.
The use of plastic bullets will be retained until a suitable alternative is found and an international commissioner will oversee changes over the next five years. Ten of the 19 members of the new police board should be members of the Assembly, meaning that Sinn Fein will have two representatives.
While Patten candidly admitted it was "the most gruelling job" he had ever undertaken, First Minister David Trimble described the report as, "the shoddiest piece of work I have seen in all my life" and said the dropping of the oath to the British monarch was, "a gratuitous insult to the people of Northern Ireland."
Conversely the nationalist parties largely welcomed the reports recommendations on the premise that any change must be good.
Former deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon said change was, "inevitable, desirable and overdue," adding that the RUC must, "adapt and adjust to social change." Sinn Fein said they would consider the document, "calmly and rationally" and urged other politicians to take a responsible approach in their assessments,.
The report has already sparked huge debate and Chris Patten and his colleagues, citing the feedback from their meetings in each of the district council areas and the 2,500 written submissions they received, believe it is the right way forward. "If it is not", said Patten, "then I simply do not know what is."
Meanwhile, a poll conducted by The News Letter indicates that Protestant support for the Good Friday Agreement has fallen to 39 percent from just over 50 percent.
The same poll also found that just three percent of Catholics were against the agreement, and 69 percent were in favour of the Patten Report. Up to 65 percent of Protestants are against the report.
Fears of Renewed Violence
BELFAST — The Irish News reports that the high command of a new republican paramilitary group has held another terror summit amid increasing fears that it is on the verge of a bombing campaign.
Garda sources told The Irish News that the leadership of the new group — styling itself Oglaigh na hEireann — held a meeting in Dundalk, County Louth.
The news comes after a fresh warning from RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan that a new coalition of dissident republicans, centering around the Real IRA, was preparing for an attack.
The group has attracted a majority of members of the Continuity IRA, as well as former members of the INLA and, significantly, young recruits with no history of belonging to any paramilitary groups. That will make it more difficult for the security forces on both sides of the border to penetrate it.
The leadership is also thought to have met in Derry in the last month. The Irish News revealed earlier this summer that the new coalition recently held a convention in County Derry where it elected a seven-person army council and a 12-strong executive.
The group has also been recruiting heavily on both sides of the border. Gardai made the first attempt to smash the new group with the arrests of six suspected dissident republicans in the south east.
The five men and one woman were arrested in early-morning swoops by special branch detectives in counties Wicklow and Wexford.
The suspects, including one man originally from Northern Ireland, can be held for up to 72 hours under legislation introduced after the Real IRA bombing of Omagh last year which killed 29 people.
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