Irish_News_Roundup-AM-4-19 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit News from the Wire Services Re: Ireland & the Irish PA 04/19/99 06:53 Campaign Launched For Probe Into Lawyer Killing RT 04/19/99 06:30 Irish Among EU's Lowest Paid Despite Boom PA 04/19/99 06:10 Five Arrests After Guns Find In Car PA 04/19/99 06:06 New Talks Bid To Break Arms Impasse PA 04/19/99 05:01 Second Judge `To Resign In Drink-Drive Case Row' AP 04/19/99 01:12 High Human Cost In All Wars ****************************** Campaign Launched For Probe Into Lawyer Killing PA 04/19/99 06:53 Copyright 1999 PA News By Ian Graham, PA News A campaign for an independent international investigation and a judicial inquiry into the murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was launched in Northern Ireland today. The Rosemary Nelson Campaign, supported by the murdered solicitor's family seeks the fullest probe into her death in a loyalist car bombing last month. Its call for an independent investigations follows a similar demand by a UN special investigator who recently produced a report saying there was evidence to back allegations by Mrs Nelson before her death that she had been subjected to death threats by members of the RUC. At a press conference to launch the campaign in Belfast, spokesman Dr Robbie McVeigh said: "Human rights lawyers are in the front line of the defence of human rights around the world. "In this context, the murder of Rosemary Nelson was a direct and profound attack on the human rights of everybody in the north of Ireland." Dr McVeigh said swift movement towards the establishing of a fully independent investigation and inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Mrs Nelson's death, as she drove away from her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, was the only way in which the human rights which were guaranteed by the Good Friday Agreement could be properly protected. He added: "If we are to have human rights in the north of Ireland there is no place for the death threating of defence lawyers, there can be no place for the murder of defence lawyers and there can be no place for the harassment of defence lawyers. "Our simple aim is to get truth and justice for Rosemary Nelson." Leading British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce travelled to the Belfast press conference to add her weight to the demands for independent investigations. She said a bad or misleading or failed investigation would be worse than no investigation at all. The fight for human rights involved a very basic weapon, the weapon was the law and the lawyer was the instrument of that weapon, she said. "For that lawyer to be subjected to threats or far, far worse a risk of assassination is terrifying and destabilising." She said Mrs Nelson had been prepared to "put her head above the parapet". Her ultimate act of courage had been to take public issue with the fact she had received threats on her life. She said the "shocking and terrifying state of affairs" that there had been allegations of security force collusion in her death "has to be central to any investigation". Dr McVeigh added that justice must be done and must be seen to be done. If the RUC or other elements of the security forces were involved in collusion they must be exposed. "If they were not then they had nothing to fear from any independent investigation." Dr McVeigh is travelling to Washington for meetings with members of Congress who, with the European Parliament, has backed calls for an independent investigation. Mrs Nelson's husband, Paul, did not attend the campaign launch, organisers said he was still too shocked by her murder. But he sent a message to the press conference stating: "There is a huge desire, from a wide range of people, to see truth and justice in Rosemary's case. Towards this end I would ask that people support the campaign for a fully independent international investigation and judicial inquiry into Rosemary's murder." Public petitions supporting his call have also been launched in Lurgan and neighbouring Craigavon ****************************** Irish Among EU's Lowest Paid Despite Boom - Report RTw 04/19/99 06:30 Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd DUBLIN, April 19 (Reuters) - Irish workers are among the lowest paid in the European Union relative to productivity, with only the Portuguese worse off and Swedes earning the most, the Irish Independent newspaper reported on Monday. A survey of EU pay rates by Britain's Personnel Policy Research Unit (PPRU) found that Irish workers were paid 50 percent less than their labour productivity would dictate, second lowest above Portugal at 56 percent. The report said Sweden's workers took home the most for their toil, earning wages 36 percent more than their productivity. "Europe's traditionally poorest and weakest economies continue to suffer from their past image even when the reality of their current performance has changed dramatically for the better," the newspaper quoted PPRU Director Robin Chater as saying. The booming Irish economy is the envy of Europe and has enjoyed near double digit growth for the past few years, but the PPRU's report showed that the expansion had not translated into drastically higher pay. "Irish workers are tremendously underpaid because the old image of poverty stays, meaning employees aren't getting the benefits of Ireland's massive growth," Chater said. He said the myth that German and Finnish workers were the most efficient worked conversely, as Germans wages were 24 percent above their productivity while Finns were paid 18 percent more than what their labour was worth. The PPRU's method adjusted a country's gross domestic product per person for productivity levels and cost of living, while factoring in social security and reinvestment commitments, the newspaper said. Chater said Europe's fastest growing economies like Ireland, Spain and Portugal could begin to suffer from the wide pay gaps if countries with the most "inflated salary levels" lured graduates away to higher paid jobs. TABLE - European salary market: percentage variation from adjusted hourly pay, June 1999 (projected) Country Percentage variation Sweden +36 Germany +24 Finland +18 Austria +16 Italy +3 Denmark - Netherlands -6 Britain -8 Belgium -11 France -14 Greece -33 Luxembourg -34 Spain -36 Ireland -50 Portugal -56 (Source: PPRU table from Irish Independent newspaper) ****************************** Five Arrests After Guns Find In Car PA 04/19/99 06:10 Copyright 1999 PA News By Deric Henderson, PA News Five men were arrested and two guns recovered when police today stopped a car in a loyalist area on the outskirts of Belfast. They were detained at Doagh Road, Newtownabbey, Co.Antrim. An RUC spokeswoman also said a number of masks were found as well. At one stage an army explosives expert was called in. The weapons were taken away for ballistic examination. ****************************** New Talks Bid To Break Arms Impasse PA 04/19/99 06:06 Copyright 1999 PA News By Dan McGinn, PA News Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists continued to clash today as Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern prepared to launch their latest bid to resolve the decommissioning issue. As the two Prime Ministers prepared for talks with three of the parties in Downing Street, Ulster Unionist deputy leader John Taylor accused republicans of trying to wreck the Good Friday Agreement. Ulster Unionists insist the IRA must start a process of disposing of its weapons before Sinn Fein can be permitted to take the two ministerial posts it is entitled to in Northern Ireland's new power sharing government. Mr Taylor called on the British and Irish governments to stand their ground on the issue of paramilitary weapons. "We do not want any fudge by Prime Ministers," he told BBC Radio Ulster. "Prime Ministers have to give firm leadership. They have to honour their word. "The word is in the Belfast Agreement. There is a full chapter on decommissioning. The word is in the Hillsborough Declaration where it makes it an obligation to decommission. "Now we have got to proceed on that basis." But Sinn Fein leaders were still sticking to their position, with the party's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness insisting they had never given an undertaking that IRA weapons would be handed over. The Mid Ulster MP, writing in the Irish News, echoed his party leader Gerry Adams' comments that if the governments insisted decommissioning must take place for Sinn Fein to take its posts in Northern Ireland's new government, then the Agreement would die. By demanding decommissioning, he argued, the Ulster Unionists had "effectively closed down" the political system created under the Agreement which could eventually deliver the removal of guns from Irish politics. Sinn Fein was honouring its commitment under the Agreement to work with the international decommissioning body and use whatever influence it has with paramilitaries to achieve decommissioning by May 2000, he insisted. "That's our assurance to Mr Trimble, to the two governments and other parties, and to the two million people on this island who voted in the referendums last year. "But let me be absolutely clear. Sinn Fein cannot deliver IRA weapons. Such a demand is not part of the Good Friday agreement. If it had been we could not have agreed to it because it is something which we cannot deliver. "The only way to remove weapons and prevent any recourse to armed actions is by proving that politics works, by demonstrating the viability of politics, and by moving steadily towards a lasting peace based on equality, justice and freedom." Mr Blair and Mr Ahern will hold separate meetings in Downing Street starting at noon today with the leaderships of the UUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein. There will also be simultaneous talks with other political parties in Belfast, with Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam hosting politicians at Stormont. Both sets of talks are being used by the governments to assess whether any breakthrough is likely in the near future over the issue of paramilitary weapons. They are likely to face an agonising choice over whether to suspend talks until the autumn, or risk collapsing the Good Friday Agreement by triggering the mechanisms for forming Northern Ireland's new executive or continue talking. Round table talks between the Northern Ireland parties broke up at around 10.45am at Stormont Parliament Buildings. PUP Assembly man Billy Hutchinson said that the parties would be holding parallel meetings to the talks in London and were hoping to "find a way forward" with the delegations travelling to London. The North Belfast Assembly man criticised Ulster Unionist deputy leader John Taylor for his comments in the run up to the Downing Street meeting. "I think John Taylor is being mischievous with his comments about the Hillsborough Declaration. Everybody knows the declaration is dead in the water even if the contents are still on the negotiating table. "There is very little support for it among the parties when it is brought together as a whole. Certainly the PUP does not support the notion that RUC and British Army guns can be equated with IRA weapons." ****************************** Second Judge `To Resign In Drink-Drive Case Row' PA 04/19/99 05:01 Copyright 1999 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News A second senior Irish judge was set to resign today after strong criticism from the country's Chief Justice over the handling of a drunk-driving case. The first judge, Mr Justice Hugh O'Flaherty, 60, quit the Supreme Court on Saturday to head off a potential constitutional crisis for Dublin premier Bertie Ahern's government. Now 47-year-old High Court judge Mr Justice Cyril Kelly was expected to follow the lead of his senior colleague after his actions in the case at the centre of the row were said by Chief Justice Liam Hamilton to have compromised the administration of justice. The delay in the departure of Mr Justice Kelly was understood to relate to negotiations that went on throughout the weekend to finalise pension entitlements. If the judges had not elected to go voluntarily, the Irish parliament could have been forced to opt for controversial impeachment procedures to remove them from office under the terms of Ireland's written constitution. Both men were judged to have acted unwisely in the case of Dublin architect Philip Sheedy, who was released after serving one year of a four-year jail term imposed in 1997 for drunk driving in an accident where a young mother was killed. Mr Justice Kelly cut the sentence and Mr Justice O'Flaherty contacted court officials after being approached by a friend of the jailed man. A judicial review overturned the release decision, and Mr Sheedy voluntarily returned to prison last month. Ironically, lawyers for 31-year-old Mr Sheedy were today due to make a court application for a certificate to formally appeal against his sentence. In a weekend statement announcing his move, Mr Justice O'Flaherty said he did not believe or consider what he had done in relation to the Sheedy case was wrong, but he accepted the conclusion that his move in contacting a court registrar was open to misinterpretation. He declared: "I accept that the appearance of detachment must be the most important thing for a judge and there cannot be a scintilla of suspicion to call in question his impartiality. "The highest duty of a judge is impartiality, as well as the appearance of impartiality, and as my last duty, and so that confidence can be restored in the administration of justice, I have decided to offer my resignation as a judge of the Supreme Court." ****************************** High Human Cost In All Wars APO 04/19/99 01:12 Copyright 1999 The Associated Press By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press Writer Wars by the dozen have convulsed parts of the world this decade, killing people by the million. The conflict in Yugoslavia is but one. Death tolls or estimates in a sampling of conflicts fought in the 1990s, starting with the most costly in civilian and military casualties: AFGHANISTAN: 2 million, 1979-1992. Soviet-backed coup put pro- Moscow regime in power, backed by more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers. Rebel groups drove Soviets out and seized power, turning against each other. Civil war continues between Taliban militia and alliance of opposition forces. SUDAN: 1.5 million, 1983-99. Rebels from the Christian and animist south have been fighting for autonomy from the Arab and Muslim north in a conflict marked by famine. RWANDA: 500,000-800,000, 1994: A 90-day slaughter of Tutsis or moderate Hutus by soldiers, militia and others under the influence of the Hutu government, finally put down by Tutsi-led rebels. BOSNIA: 250,000, 1991-95: Military conflict and civilian massacres following the breakup of Yugoslavia, settled with a U.S.-brokered peace deal. GUATEMALA: 200,000, 1960-96: Civil war ended with peace agreement between leftist rebels and the government. LIBERIA: 150,000, 1989-97: Civil war sparked by rebellion to oust ethnic dictatorship. Democratic government installed, but sporadic armed clashes have followed. BURUNDI: 150,000-250,000: 1993-99: Tutsis and Hutus have been fighting since the 1993 assassination by Tutsis of the first democratically elected president -- a Hutu -- and a coup in 1996 that brought a Tutsi government to power. ALGERIA: 75,000, 1992-98: An insurgency touched off when the army canceled elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win. Algeria is getting its first civilian chief of state since 1965, but the election brought charges of fraud. ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Unknown, 1998-99: A continuing border war, one of Africa's worst conflicts, with each country claiming to have killed tens of thousands of soldiers on the other side, but no reliable estimates. COLOMBIA: 1,200 civilians, 1998: Thousands die yearly in violence perpetrated by drug traffickers, leftist rebels, right- wing paramilitary squads and wayward army soldiers in a decades- long struggle. The country's ombudsman says civilian massacres rose 16 percent last year, to 1,200, and more than 300,000 people were displaced by violence. ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS: 125,000, 1948-1997: The private Center for Defense Information's count since the establishment of Israel as a modern state. CHECHNYA: 18,000-100,000, 1994-96: Fighting between Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels, ending with Chechnya running its own affairs but no country recognizing its independence claim. SRI LANKA: 57,000, 1983-99: Tamil rebels have been fighting the government for an independent homeland in the small island nation. TURKEY: 37,000, 1984-99: Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, using guerrilla bases in northern Iraq. SIERRA LEONE: 14,000, 1992-99: Continuing war between the Revolutionary United Front and the government, with the rebels backed by an ousted military junta and the government by a Nigerian-led intervention force. ARGENTINA: 9,000-30,000, 1976-93: Death squads tortured and killed political opponents, many of whom disappeared, in the "dirty war" sparked by a military coup. PERSIAN GULF WAR: 4,500-45,000, 1991: Widely disputed even now, the estimated civilian death toll from allied bombing has been put as low as 2,500 by U.S. officials and as high as 35,000 by Iraq. Estimates of Iraqi military deaths also vary widely, starting at about 1,500. U.S. officials say 147 Americans died in action during Desert Storm bombing and ground campaign; 289 more died in accidents before and during the war and related Gulf operations since. NORTHERN IRELAND: 3,250, 1968-1998: Street clashes between Catholic protesters and Protestant police, leading in 1970 to the start of bombings and shootings by the IRA and then random killings by Protestant groups. KOSOVO: 2,000, 1998: A death toll that has risen this year to unknown heights since Serbs intensified their ethnic purge of Kosovars and NATO started bombing to stop the repression. Mass graves have been reported in Kosovo. NATO has acknowledged bombing a passenger train and possibly a refugee convoy; Serbs said about 75 died as a result. SPAIN: 800, 1961-99: Basque separatists declared a truce six months ago in their armed campaign for independence, although it has come under strain following a police crackdown. ------ Sources: AP, State Department, Center for Defense Information, CIA, World Almanac. ------- Jay Dooling (jdooling@worldnet.att.net) Irish Aires - 90.1FM KPFT in Houston http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/homepage.htm Dooling & Mabe, CPA http://www.doolingmabe-cpa.com/ ================================================================= 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-04.24.99-11:06:30-27456