UN Envoy to Probe N.Ireland Abuses id WAA22403; Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:45:43 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: sinnfein@erols.com The Irish Voice 15 October 1997 http://www.irishvoice.com/n2.htm U.N. Envoy to Probe N.I. Abuses First-Ever Inquiry into Harassment of IRA Attorneys Tara Peterman in Washington IN an unexpected move, the United Nations announced on Tuesday it is sending a human rights envoy to Britain and Northern Ireland, to investigate the harassment of attorneys working on behalf of IRA suspects. The announcement came to surprisingly little fanfare on Tuesday, considering the touchy subject -- international queries over what many Northern Ireland unionists see as an internal problem. "This is a pretty historic first," said New York attorney Frank Durkan, a longtime veteran of Irish activist issues. "I'm certainly in favor of it. I'm in favor of anyone looking into some of the skullduggery that has gone on over there. I hope it bears some fruit." It is not known whether the announcement was related to the recent appointment of former Irish president Mary Robinson as U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, although the announcement did emanate from her offices in Geneva. Robinson assumed the U.N. post last month. The special envoy, who arrives in London on Monday, October 20, has been named as Param Cumaraswamy, a native of Malaysia. He will meet ministers, judges and lawyers during his ten-day visit to Britain. He also hopes to make a trip to various detention centers in Northern Ireland, according to U.N. sources. Specific complaints tabled for investigation involve several allegations of police harassment of defense attorneys, including reports of intimidating telephone calls at night. The envoy is expected to inquire in particular about the 1989 killing of Patrick Finucane, a prominent Northern Ireland attorney in several republican cases. The UN investigator will also examine the issue of closed visits to prisons where "high risk" inmates are detained and allegations of intrusive surveillance into lawyers' offices. These complaints involve fears that new legislation introduced in Britain would give police the ability to carry out the tapping of telephones. According to U.N. officials, the British Government has given a "very prompt" response to the request for the visit. Cumaraswamy's findings will be published in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, currently headed by former president Robinson. According to Frank Durkan, this latest move as the "first time ever" that the U.N. had become involved in the Irish question. "To my knowledge, this is the first time," he said. _______________________________________________ Third U.S. Trade Mission Aims to Bolster NI Peace Process Tara Peterman in Washington THE U.S. Commerce Department this week leads its third trade mission to Northern Ireland. During the four-day visit, seventeen U.S. business executives from health, environmental and information technology companies, will meet potential business partners in Belfast and Derry. According to Commerce Department officials, the initiative is part of the effort to bolster the Northern Ireland peace process. "Peace and stability can take hold and prosper only in an environment of potential economic growth and vitalization," said Department Secretary William M. Daley in a recent press statement. He said the recent IRA ceasefire presented new opportunities in Northern Ireland for U.S. businesses. Ellis Mottur, the acting Assistant Commerce Secretary for Trade and Development, responsible for heading up the visit, said the U.S. has waited for each side's "renewed commitment to peace." At a briefing last week, Mottur added that while many trade missions are essentially business opportunities, this trip has "more important purposes." He said: "We believe very strongly that through community development . . . through jobs, these missions can do more than just the economic activities that ensues from them." The seventeen U.S. delegates began their series of meetings with distributors, manufacturers and other potential joint venture partners on Monday. In addition to the English-speaking, skilled workforce, the department will point out that Northern Ireland offers access to the European marketplace, which they estimate as worth $7.3 trillion. Of the 101 U.S. companies currently operating in Northern Ireland, 69 are considered to have a "major presence" -- employing ten or more people. This is an increase from 42 companies of that size in 1994. Notable U.S. firms such as AT&T, IBM, Fruit of the Loom and Gap have facilities in Northern Ireland. And although Commerce officials feel that the benefits of their activities may be felt long term, they cite a number of recent successes, including the announcement by a Minnesota computer disk drive manufacturer to create more than one thousand jobs over the next five years. The company was a participant in one of the Commerce Department's earlier trade missions. ______________________________________ Adams Presses Blair on Collusion Equality Agenda Pushed in Historic Meeting Debbie McGoldric SINN Fein leader Gerry Adams told the Irish Voice that he raised the issue of collusion between British intelligence services and Loyalist killers during his historic first meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Stormont on Monday afternoon. The meeting was the first in 75 years between a Sinn Fein leader and British Prime Minister, but the shaking of hands was not photographed. "I took the opportunity of saying that there's a can of worms here that needs to be opened up, that the collusion between British intelligence agencies meant that British agents, acting on behalf of the government, have placed guns in the hands of Loyalist killers who have killed Catholics," Adams said during an extensive interview with the Voice just hours after his meeting with Blair. Adams also stated that he told Blair that discrimination against Nationalists had to be removed. "I said that I expected him as British Prime Minister to uphold British policy at this time, but when he said he valued the union, he had to appreciate that the union meant second class citizenship, denial of human rights and ongoing conflict for Nationalists," Adams said. "Tony Blair," Adams said, "probably doesn't feel responsible, his generation of leaders, for the situation here. But they are responsible for fixing it. I impressed on him the need to set aside the sectarian policies which have governed this place for 30 years, and to instead embrace a political agenda." But Adams also stressed the positive nature of the historic face-to-face, and was clearly pleased by the success of the meeting. "I think we both acknowledged that this was the beginning of a positive new engagement," he said. Blair was accompanied to Belfast by two of his government's ministers, Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam and Minister for Political Development Paul Murphy. Also included in the Sinn Fein team were Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty and Siobhan O'Hanlon. "It was a very cordial engagement," Adams said. "I shook his hand and we exchanged pleasantries, and I extended to him a hearty cead mile failte (welcome) on coming to our country. But I also told him that I hoped he would be the final Prime Minister with jurisdiction over our country to visit here." According to Adams, the meeting lasted for nearly 25 minutes. "I have to say he listened intently," the Sinn Fein leader said. "I basically told him that I thought this would be a first of a series of engagements, and that it was very important that people like me and him got into each others heads as to how this can be sorted out." While the meeting was a getting-acquainted opportunity, Adams wasn't reluctant to raise the substantive issues with Blair, who raised hackles among the North's Nationalist community earlier this year when he said there wouldn't be a united Ireland during the course of his lifetime. "I said to him that I appreciate he's a British Unionist as opposed to ones that kill Catholics," Adams added. "The Unionists feel they're special, and they have difficulties coming around to a new way of thinking. The London government has to accept that it was they who gave the Unionists the impression they were special." For his part, Blair -- who met 11 political delegations at Stormont -- said he treated the Sinn Fein representatives "in the same way I treat any human being. What I think is important about the situation in Northern Ireland is that we do treat each other as human beings. We can either carry on with the hatred and despair and the killings, treating people as if they were not parts of humanity, or we can try and settle our differences by negotiation, discussion and debate. That's what's important, whether it's with Gerry Adams or with the Loyalists or anyone else." Blair stressed to Sinn Fein that exclusively peaceful means were the only way to solve the North's problems. "Everybody here has got to be committed to the principals of non-violence," the Prime Minister stated. "Anybody who departs from that will not be in this talks process." Reaction to the Blair/Adams meeting was mixed among other participants at the talks. David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, expressed sorrow that Blair "had to go through" with the encounter, while David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party said he hoped it would be "a three-day wonder, and we can get on with the job at hand." After Blair left Stormont, there were troubled scenes at a shopping center in a Loyalist area if East Belfast. Blair's entourage, which stopped off at the Connswater Shopping Center to mix with members of the general public, was pursued by angry protestors who shouted "traitor" at the Prime Minister. They also called him "scum," and urged him to "go on back to England." Some of the protestors were carrying rubber gloves, hoping to put them on while shaking hands with Blair and thus make the point that he had been infected by shaking hands with Adams and McGuinness. There was no shaking of hands, however, and the gloves were thrown at the British Prime Minister instead. ================================================================= 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-10.19.97-22:45:44-11369