HIRC Hearings on Policing in Northern Ireland


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  20 Apr 99

Cari Zall
Email: carizzza@hotmail.com

HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE HEARINGS
ON POLICING IN  NORTHERN IRELAND

On Thursday, April 22nd at 10:00am in 2172 Rayburn, the House 
International Relations Committee will hold a hearing on policing in 
Northern Ireland. Expert witnesses testifying include Halya Gowan of 
Amnesty International, a representative of the Lawyers Committee on 
Human Rights, human rights activist Monsignor Raymond Murray, Jane 
Winters of British-Irish Rights Watch, and Maggie Beirne of  the 
Committee on the Administration of Justice.  The witnesses will 
testify about ongoing abuses against citizens at the hands of the 
security forces in Northern Ireland.  

The Committee will also hear from Diane Hamill, sister of Robert 
Hamill, a Catholic man beaten to death in 1997 by a loyalist 
gang while police stood by without intervening.  The Hamill family 
has been campaigning since Robert's death for justice and 
accountability from the RUC for its complicity in his murder. 

Also testifying will be Robbie McVeigh, an attorney who will be 
giving testimony on behalf of assassinated solicitor Rosemary Nelson, 
who was to have testified at this hearing with regard to the ongoing 
threats and intimidation of defense attorneys in Northern Ireland.

Last September Mrs. Nelson testified before the House Human Rights 
Subcommittee about her own experiences with death threats and 
harassment because of her work as a defense solicitor.  Mrs. Nelson 
was killed on March 15 when a bomb attached to her car exploded as 
she was driving.  The international human rights community believes 
that because of threats made against Mrs. Nelson, by Royal Ulster 
Constabulary (RUC), the Northern Irish police force, an independent 
investigation into her murder. A UN Human Rights investigator called 
for an independent UN investigation into the murder in Geneva this 
week, bolstered by Congressional Resolution HRes 128 which calls for 
the same.

End.
 
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