BRITISH POLICY OF COLLUSION WITH TERRORISTS CONDEMNED

BRITISH POLICY OF COLLUSION WITH TERRORISTS CONDEMNED - Oread Daily

At a press conference in Belfast today Sinn Féin MEPs Bairbre de Brún and Mary Lou McDonald and relatives of those killed by the British state highlighted the policy of collusion between British Intelligence agents and loyalist death squads. This policy remains one of the most damning indictments of the British presence in Ireland. In the mid-1980s, the British government adopted a policy which gave them greater control of these death squads. The unionist paramilitaries were re-organized, resourced and directed by the British intelligence services to ensure that their targeting, to quote a British intelligence report, was 'more professional'. Bairbre de Brún said: "The loyalists were armed with modern weapons. In December 1987 over 300 weapons were brought into the north of Ireland, with the full participation and knowledge of British Intelligence. British Intelligence updated and organized loyalist intelligence documents to ensure that the Unionist death squads would be more efficient. Hundreds of people were killed, and many more injured and maimed, in a campaign of state-sponsored murder. The policy of collusion has never been reversed. The British agencies which executed this policy remain in place today. "The policy of employing the loyalist death squads was endorsed at the highest political level. The British government has never accepted its responsibility for the deaths which resulted from this policy.”

"Tuesday 7 December, over 50 relatives of those killed as a result of collusion will travel to Brussels to raise the issue of state murder in Ireland at the European parliament. Sinn Féin, as part of the EUL/NGL group, are facilitating this visit and we support the families absolutely in their demand for the truth and for justice." Mary Lou McDonald added: "Over the last 30 years collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads was a daily reality. This resulted in some of the worst incidents of violence including the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. The British government continues to hide the truth about these terrible events. They refused to assist the Barron inquiry. They continue to resist the Pat Finucane Inquiry. The British are afraid of the truth. We are hosting this first ever visit to the European Parliament by the families of the victims of British state terror."

In September anti-collusion protesters blocked the gates of Strabane Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) barracks demanding that the British government comes clean on its policy of collusion with loyalists. Speaking after the protest Sinn Féin Councilor Brian McMahon said: "Following the British government's blocking of the independent judicial inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, it is no coincidence that people like Hugh Orde and Denis Bradley have been wheeled out to tell us that we must draw a line in the sand and stop looking for retrospective inquiries. Collusion with loyalists was controlled and directed from the highest levels within the British government and given practical effect from RUC stations like this one. Many of those Special Branch and RUC members who were up to their necks in collusion have not only moved en-masse from the RUC into the PSNI, but now hold more senior positions within this so-called new policing service."

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission also called recently on the British government to more fully and openly investigate allegations of collusion. Chief Commissioner, Professor Brice Dickson, said: “We believe the British Government should do more to fully investigate allegations of collusion and to ensure that law enforcement agencies do not assist the activities of terrorist organizations.”

The Commission report warns, "There is nothing which more seriously undermines the rule of law than the active involvement by law enforcement bodies in the activities of terrorist and/or criminal organizations.” Blaming "most serious and systematic violations of human rights" on terrorist organizations, there was also a warning that "there appears to be a growing acceptance that so-called 'punishment attacks' are a fact of life". "There is some evidence, moreover, that paramilitary organizations have been partly responsible for the rise in racially motivated attacks in Northern Ireland over the past 12 months. These incidents, too, are to be deeply deplored." The commission also said it was “disappointed" that the government has not yet put in place a system for preventing and investigating deaths which is fully compliant with international standards. Sources: An Phoblacht, Sinn Fein News, 4NI, ePolitix.com

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