Irish Republican Info Svc 219 22 Oct 97 =========== Posted to multiple newsgroups and lists =========== ===== Redistribute *only* with full header and signature! ===== Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit IRISH REPUBLICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (no. 219) Teach Daithi O Conaill 223 Parnell Street Dublin 1, Ireland Phone: +353-1-872-9747; FAX: +353-1-872-9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie Oct 22, 1997 Republican Sinn Fiin homepage: http://indigo.ie/~saoirse SAOIRSE homepage: http://iol.ie/~saoirse Release Josephine Hayden: http://iol.ie/~saoirse/hayden 1798 Ireland: http://iol.ie/~fagann/1798/ Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE  Irish Freedom: http://iol.ie/~saoirse/rsflinks.htm POWER OVER PARADES REMAINS WITH BRITISH DIRECT RULER BRITISH Direct ruler Mo Mowlam announced details of the new Parades Commission in the Six Counties on October 17. The draft British legislation is supposed to transfer responsibility for contentious parades from the British paramilitary police (RUC) to the supposedly independent Parades Commission. Three elements of the provisions are particularly repugnant to Six-County nationalists. Firstly, the decision to extend the remit of the Commission to provide for restrictions on "expressions of cultural identity other than parades and sporting events which take place in the open air". This appears to exclude GAA games but could cover Irish language or music events, Irish National Flags or Irish language signs. Republican Sinn Fein President Ruairi O Bradaigh protested on October 15 against "this attempt in the interests of political expediency to equate provocative and triumphalist Orange marches through nationalist areas with, for instance, a county Fleadh Cheoil, an Irish language Feis or a Gaelic hurling or football match." These cultural events have never been controversial or exclusive, he said, and have always been peaceful cultural events open to being enjoyed by all sections. "The British government is playing with fire if it seeks to treat such displays of a peaceful culture on the same level as manifestations like Drumcree or Harryville. "If the supremacists are to be further pandered to, it is only a matter of time until restrictions are actually placed on religious worship itself. "In that case the situation would be moved back to the era of the Penal Laws with consequences which could inflict serious damage on community relations. Is that where the current process is leading us?" he said. The second provision criticised by nationalists was the power given to the RUC Chief Constable to challenge any decision taken by the commission, and a ruling would then be made by the British Direct Ruler, ie Mo Mowlam. This means the events at Drumcree could happen repeatedly with the British capitulating to Orange threats as they did for the past three years. Thirdly, the draft legislation includes five factors which the commission must take account of when deciding on a contested parade. One of these, "the recognition of the desirability of allowing a parade customarily held along a particular route to be held along that route," has been welcomed by the UUP leader as putting back "statutory recognition of traditional parades". This would allow provocative Orange parades through nationalist areas to continue because there were "traditional". Mowlam announced on October 17 that the legislation should pass through the British parliament within the next six months, in time for the 1998 marching season. On October 16 nationalist residents groups accused the Parades Commission chairman, Alistair Graham, of not being impartial and called for him to resign. Graham had described himself as a unionist in interviews and said that small parades should be allowed to take place when it was impossible to get dialogue, the residents' spokespersons said. NATIONALISTS FORCED TO FLEE HOMES THE loyalist Kristalnacht continues unabated. The mother of Guildford Four member Paul Hill has been forced to flee her West Belfast home after enduring years of intimidation and violence from Orange terror gangs. Elizabeth Hill, whose family have lived in New Barnsley for 25 years, claims that she and her daughter Marian and granddaughter Saoirse have been targeted by loyalists since Paul Hill was released from prison in 1989. In recent weeks the campaign of abuse has taken on a more sinister turn with a smoke-bomb being thrown through the letter box. And on Thursday, October 16 Elizabeth Hill found an eerie representation of the crucifix planted in her garden after she answered a knock on her front door. The Hill family have now asked the colonial Housing Executive to find them hostel accommodation. In the eight years since the freeing of the Guildford Four much eggs and fireworks have been thrown at the house. Marian Hill suffered a nervous breakdown in 1990 and spent time in a psychiatric unit. She said she was called names like 'Mad dog', 'psycho', 'spacer' and 'mental' every time she left the house. The Hill family said that both they and the colonial police (RUC) know who their torturers are. Elizabeth Hill catalogued tragedies the family had to endure since the imprisonment of her son: "What with Paul being in jail for 15 years, and I nursed my father with cancer and I had a boy who died while Paul was in jail . . . We just want to be left to live our own lives," Elizabeth Hill said. ABUSE OF LAWYERS BY CROWN FORCES A BELFAST lawyer was subjected to abuse from the British colonial police (RUC) in Armagh's Gough barracks on October 4. Kevin Winters of Madden and Finucane Solicitors said the abuse came from a CID detective during an interrogation in which the RUC officer called him a Provo bastard. According to Kevin Winters the remark was made in the presence of a representative from the Independent Commission for Holding Centres. The incident also occurred on the same day as the announcement of a United Nations investigation into police intimidation of lawyers. The UN team will also investigate RUC collusion in the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane by the UDA/UFF pro-British death squad in February 1989. Lurgan solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, who is co-operating with the investigation said she has documented several complaints about the British colonial police (RUC) behaviour including comments made against her while she was representing Colin Duffy, who was recently released from jail after a frame-up attempt against him failed. "This forms part of an ongoing pattern where detectives in Gough barracks have been referring to me in derogatory terms. In some cases, clients have indicated that I was going to be killed or injured," Rosemary Nelson said. The UN team will also investigate middle of the night death threats against lawyers, the failure to exempt lawyers from bugging provisions in the 'Police Act' and the refusal to allow the presence of lawyers during interrogation. PROTEST RALLY AGAINST SPY POSTS SEVERAL hundred people from both sides of the Border took part in a march in protest against British Crown Forces hilltop spy posts. The South Armagh rally which took place on Sunday, October 19, was organised by the South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee. Speakers at the rally condemned the increased volume of helicopter flights and military activity on the ground. Several of the protesters pointed out that these spy posts could see for hundreds of yards into the 26 Counties. Worries were also expressed about the potential health hazards of these monitoring posts. COLONIAL POLICE LOSE LIST OF NATIONALISTS A LIST naming people who took part in the Roslea Martyrs' commemoration on Sunday, October 12 was stolen from a British colonial police (RUC) police vehicle which was overturned by a loyalist mob during an attack on the weekend parade. Nationalists are now living in fear of attacks from pro-British death squads; it is believed the list may have fallen into the hands of the LVF which has been responsible for the deaths of several nationalists this year. The parade was held to honour the memory of three United Irishmen from the County Fermanagh village who were hanged in 1797. The British colonial police have visited nationalists since the disturbances warning them of possible targeting by the death squads. BUTCHER DUE FOR RELEASE A LEADING member of the notorious Shankill Butchers gang which went on a spree ofcarnage during the 1970s, hackng and slicing their nationalist victims to an excruciating death, is due for release from Long Kesh prison next year. William Moore pleaded guilty in 1979 to eleven murders. He is already being allowed out on day release. It is believed these day releases normally signal permanent release. At the time of his trial the British judge, Justice McDonnell, said Moore should only be allowed his freedom if he was suffering from terminal illness. Many of the Shankill Butchers' victims were found with their throats cut to the spinal cord. Their assassins gained the title of 'Butchers' from their habit of using butcher's implements such as cleavers and hatchets. EARLY RELEASES FOR BRITISH KILLERS OF 18-YEAR-OLD? TWO members of the British army's Scots Guards regiment who were sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of 18-year-old father of two, Peter McBride, in 1992 are being considered for early release by the British Life Sentence Review Board. The review, which commenced on October 14, is due to make a decision within 14 days. Peter McBride was shot dead when he tried to escape being terrorised at a British army checkpoint near his home on the New Lodge Road in Belfast in 1992. Scots Guardsmen, Mark Wright and James Fisher, opened fire ensuring the death of their victim. Private Ian Thain, who was found guilty of the murder of 'Kidso' O'Reilly in similar circumstances in August 1983, served just 30 months before being released. FOUR YEARS FOR VICTIMS OF COLLABORATION PATRICK Colm Canning, a native of Derry city, was jailed for four years at Belfast Crown Court on October 17 following collaboration between the British colonial police (RUC) and the 26-County police leading to his arrest in September last during a visit back to Derry. Canning (33) who was on the run for five years in County Donegal pleaded guilty to having possession with intent of an AKM assault rifle, a revolver and more than 60 rounds of ammunition found during a Crown Forces search of his Durrow Park flat in Derry on February 25, 1991. A Crown lawyer told Judge Derrick Rodgers that when Canning realised that the colonial police had been to his flat he had "made himself scarce and taken up residence in Buncrana". STATE APPEALS EXTRADITION REFUSAL AT A sitting of the Dublin Supreme Court on October 16, an appeal was made against a high court refusal to extradite Crumlin Road prison escapee Angelo Fusco to occupied Ireland. Fusco (39) originally from Slieve Ban in Belfast but now living in County Kerry is wanted by the British colonial administration in the Six Counties to serve a life sentence imposed in 1981 for the killing of SAS Capt Herbert Westmacott and on other charges. Opening the appeal, Edward Comyn SC for the 26 County State claimed the Dublin High Court was wrong in its 1995 decision to refuse to grant the extradition. He said Justice Geoghegan should have taken into account the seriousness of the crimes for which Fusco had been convicted. The High Court judge was wrong by stating that by reason of a lapse of time and other circumstances, it would be "unjust, oppressive and invidious" to allow the extradition. Angelo Fusco and a group of other prisoners escaped from Belfast's Crumlin Road jail just two days before the sentence was imposed. A year later (1982), he was re-arrested in the 26 Counties and jailed for ten years by the Special non-jury court on escape and firearms charges. After a failed escape attempt from Portlaoise prison in June 1986, he was given a consecutive period of imprisonment and was due for release in December 1991. However, days before he was due for release, he was taken before the Dublin District Court on foot of five extradition warrants. His extradition was ordered by the District Court on January 8, 1982 but Fusco appealed the order to the Dublin High Court in 1995 and was granted his appeal. The Dublin Supreme Court, watching how far Provisionals have been absorbed into 'constitutional' politics, decided to reserve its judgement. US LAWYERS DAMNING REPORT ON DRUMCREE 1997 The British Colonial Police (RUC) were roundly condemned in a recent report into the events of Drumcree last summer. The report compiled by the US Human Rights Watchdog, the Alliance for Justice in Northern Ireland found the colonial police engaged in "particularly violent behaviour including firing of plastic bullets at the heads of victims and the release of attack dogs on patients in a hospital emergency room." According to the Alliance National Co-Ordinator, Edmund Lynch, the report "presents a shocking picture of a security force run amok". "The frequency, severity and wide reporting of unprovoked attacks by well-armed members of the RUC upon unarmed, unresisting and peaceful citizens leads to the inescapable conclusion that RUC violence is sanctioned by command personnel. We are not presented with the case of a few rotten apples. Rather the entire orchard has been blighted." The report recommends the dismissal of colonial police chief, Ronnie Flanagan, termination of the Special Branch and suspension of all command personnel across the Six Counties. Unfortunately despite its witnessing of Human Rights abuses by the British colonial administration in occupied Ireland, the Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Northern Ireland is still wedded to the British/NATO-inspired talks process. It recommends immediate efforts be made to recruit experienced police personnel from Scotland, Wales, England, US, Canada and Australia. All of the above countries are in the British/NATO sphere of influence. Meanwhile the colonial police are still actively hounding nationalists who took part in peaceful protests against the Orange fascist march along the Garvaghy Road in July. Portadown nationalists have been told to expect a wave of arrests following the detention on October 15 of a nationalist in relation to July's events. It is understood the man was questioned and released pending a report. Solicitor for the Garvaghy Resideents Coalition, Rosemary Nelson repeated her warning that she will summons international observers at Drumcree III as witnesses in any trial of a nationalist protester. -end- Please circulate the information in IRIS and credit us if reprinting. We welcome your comments and ideas. Send them via e-mail to saoirse@iol.ie ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.22.97-14:27:29-2907