'Tour of the North' sparks machete, gun, bomb attacks

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday June 25, 2002 10:36 by O'DONEL

A Catholic pensioner was badly injured in a loyalist machete attack last night as violence escalated in north Belfast in the wake of a controversial loyalist parade known as the 'Tour of the North'.

>>>>>>



According to eyewitnesses the 67-year-old was targeted shortly
before 10pm as he walked his dog in the Duncairn Gardens area,
close to his home.

The victim is the second pensioner to come under attack in the
flashpoint area within the last 72 hours.

Residents said the man was hit over the head with a meat cleaver
when a gang of loyalists pulled up in a car near a house.

It is understood he tried to fight off his attackers, who aimed
the machete in his face before hitting him on the back of
the head and shoulder.

He was rushed to the Mater hospital where his distraught family
stayed at his bedside.

The elderly man has lived with his wife in the area for the last
five years.

His daughter said last night: "My father is lucky to be alive. He
is a very quiet man who gets on with everybody in the community."

TAXI DRIVER CHASED

A Catholic taxi driver was also targeted by a machete-wielding
loyalist on the nearby Crumlin Road.

The man was ferrying three adults and a child in his cab when the
attack occurred.

The taxi driver said he stopped at a nearby garage in a bid to
escape from his attacker driving behind.

"When I turned into the garage, he stopped dead in the middle of
the road and bent down and got a meat cleaver out of his car and
started to run towards my car.

"I drove straight at him and he jumped in between two cars but
then threw the meat cleaver at the car. Thankfully no-one was
injured."

PENSIONERS TARGETED

Eight homes in the Duncairn Gardens area were damaged by
loyalists taking part in Friday night's controversial parade.

A 74-year-old Catholic pensioner, who suffers from a heart
condition, had to receive treatment from ambulance personnel
after her home was targeted. Two other pensioners were also
targeted.

Violence always follows the annual parade, which passes some of
the most notorious flashpoint interface areas in Belfast.

Homes in North Queen Street also came under gun attack from
loyalists who emerged from the neighboring Tiger's Bay district
hours after the parade passed by.

Bolt cutters were also used to cut down metal fencing erected in
front of Catholic homes to shield them from attack. Hand-to-hand
fighting erupted as nationalists then came out to protect their
homes.

Local Sinn Fein Assemblyman Mr Gerry Kelly said: "People here
recognised the attackers as UDA men.

"There were three shots fired and they tried to cut through the
fencing so they could throw petrol bombs."

'HEAVY-HANDED' PSNI

Last night, there were fresh clashes after a device was thrown at
nationalist homes in the area. The arrival of the PSNI/RUC
police firing a number of plastic bullets only added to the
disorder.

Earlier Mr Kelly said the increased police presence would not
only raise tensions in an already tense area but "completely
undermine the efforts of local community and political
representatives who have been working hard to keep interface
tensions down".

Sinn Fein councillor Gerard Brophy accused the UDA of
orchestrating the violence.

"The loyalists have been attacking us all weekend. There were
leading UDA figures here and UDA men from the Shankill. They are
trying to murder Catholics," he said.

Mr Brophy also accused the police of being "heavy handed" as
community representatives tried to calm down the situation.

Summing up the feeling of despair within the nationalist
community, one woman said: "The next time it (a blast or pipe
bomb) could hit a home and kill children. We had thought all this
was over."

MAN CRITICAL AFTER ASSAULT

Meanwhile, a 38-year-old Catholic man, who was also the victim of
a vicious weekend attack in north Belfast, is also in a critical
condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital.

It is understood the man was assaulted in the loyalist Beechnut
place, near the Crumlin road around 2am on Saturday and sustained
injuries to his legs, head and abdomen.

Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan, who is a friend of the
family, said she was in no doubt the attack was sectarian.

"The family are in a bad way, they are in such a state someone is
sitting with him at all times, but they are adamant there was no
way he would have been at that end of the road of his own free
will," she said.

The councillor added that the family believes the man left his
friends between 11.30pm and 12am but was not seen again until
police called at his home to say he was in hospital.

"People in the area have told me there were cars cruising about
north Belfast late on Friday night," the councillor said.

"It is nothing new, as Catholic homes and people across north
Belfast have been targeted for the last 18 months, but this
incident has been particularly vicious. If these types of attacks
continue someone will end up dead."

LOYALIST PARADE GO-AHEAD

A decision to allow another controversial Orange Order parade to
pass Catholic homes in west Belfast next weekend has been
criticised.

The parade, involving around 750 participants, was given the
go-ahead to march along Springfield Road next Saturday afternoon
despite trouble in previous years.

Sinn Fein councillor Fra McCann said the Parades Commission's
ruling on the Whiterock Parade in west Belfast was a "slap in the
face for local residents".

Mr McCann confirmed the party would be seeking an urgent meeting
with the commission over the move.

"Year after year the loyal orders break the conditions laid down
by the commission. Year after year loyalist paramilitaries march
alongside the Orange Order, yet year after year the commission
continues to force this march along the Springfield Road."

STUDENTS BLASTED

Elsewhere, six students escaped injury in south Belfast early
this morning [Monday] when a blast bomb, studded with nails, was
thrown through the window of their house.

Six people - five of them students - who live in the house in
Tates Avenue, south Belfast, said the attack followed earlier
threats from the loyalist UDA.

Three people were in the living room of the house when a brick
shattered the window of a downstairs bedroom next door shortly
after midnight and a blast bomb was thrown in.

The three escaped physical injury but needed treatment for shock.
Today the residents of the house -- both Catholics and Protestants
-- were planning to move out terrified of further attacks.


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>>>>>> Tetchy Ahern insults anti-Nice Treaty campaign


The Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, has been
strongly criticised for comments on the forthcoming referendum on
the European Union's Nice Treaty, the second running of a poll in
Ireland on the EU's charter for the future.

During a meeting of EU leaders in Seville, Spain over the
weekend, Ahern called those opposed to the Nice Treaty
"scaremongers and whingers".

He then claimed failure to ratify the treaty would mean job
losses in the 26 Counties. Ahern is currently preparing the
wording of the referendum, which is expected to contain a
declaration backing Irish neutrality.

Sinn Fein TD for Dublin South Central and party representative to
the Forum on Europe, Aengus O Snodaigh called on the Taoiseach to
withdraw his "grossly offensive" remarks about Anti-Nice
campaigners and to "engage in a mature debate on the central
issues surrounding the Treaty".

Deputy O Snodaigh said: "The Taoiseach's comments at the Seville
Summit about those who campaigned against the Treaty of Nice were
grossly offensive and are far removed from the rationale debate
that is needed on this issue. In his comments the Taoiseach is
obviously questioning the integrity and sincerity of the Irish
people who rejected a flawed Treaty. He should withdraw them
immediately.

"Mr Ahern is using his insulting comments to try and cloud the
issues of the Nice Treaty debate, which extend far beyond
neutrality. But even on neutrality his government has failed the
Irish people. His declaration on neutrality is not legally
binding."

Ahern made his comments at the end of the EU leaders conference
in Seville in Spain where a declaration of Irish neutrality was
issued which effectively has cleared the way for another
referendum on the Nice Treaty.

Labour Party leader Ruairi Quinn said Mr Ahern's comments were
"inappropriate and insulting". Fine Gael MEP John Cushnahan also
called the comments "arrogant, disrespectful and
counter-productive".

O Snodaigh said Sinn Fein would continue to oppose the Nice
Treaty.

"We will not be bullied nor browbeaten into accepting what is a
bad deal for Ireland, a bad deal for the people of Europe and a
bad deal for applicant states.

"The arrogance of European leaders who have pursued this Treaty
without seeking sanction from their own citizens is obviously
reflected in the arrogant comments of the Taoiseach and his
Foreign Affairs minister.

" The issues that were of concern in the first Treaty of Nice
campaign are still there. They have not gone away. For our part
we will again urge people to ignore the emotional and political
blackmail and reject this treaty a second time."


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>>>>>> Former POW wins damages from British government


In what was described as a precedent setting case, an Armagh
ex-POW has won damages against the Britain's Northern ireland
Office (NIO) for injuries received as a result of the treatment
of prisoners following the discovery of a tunnel in Long Kesh in
1997.

In the follow up operation, prisoners were forcibly
strip-searched and a number of assaults were reported. The
ex-prisoner, who wishes not to be named, was awarded a
substantial figure. The NIO immediately set about clawing the
compensation back and the ex-prisoner has sought legal advice

The case opens the way for similar actions by ex-prisoners who
were also subjected to similar treatment. Indeed, some cases are
already in the pipeline. Despite the action of the NIO in
reclaiming part of the compensation, the successful outcome to
this case will have far reaching consequences.


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>>>>> Blair helps loyalist net 'fortune'


Loyalist representative Hugh Smyth has played down allegations
that he collected a fortune on a bet with the help of the British
Prime Minister.

Smyth, president of the loyalist PUP party which speaks for the
paramilitary UVF, admitted that the British PM told him the name
of his future son.

It is believed he was then able to place a bet of #2,000 when the
odds were 25-1. After successfully predicting that the Blairs
would call their son Leo, he collected his winnings.

The UVF is currently operating a siege of the nationalist Short
Strand enclave in east Belfast, where scores of petrol bomb,
blast bomb and gun attacks have been directed at Catholic
residents.

Blair has recently been involved in fund-raising for the North's
pro-Agreement parties -- other than Sinn Fein. It is rumoured
that the tip-off may have amounted to a back-hand scheme to fill
the PUP's coffers.

The PUP president has insisted that the story has been
"exaggerated".

"I'm not going into how much I put on, but it was less than
#100," he insisted.


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>>>>>> Equalities and Discrimination conference in Britain



The Troops Out Movement (TOM) held a conference in Birmingham
last weekend on Equalities and Discrimination in the north of
Ireland. The Conference was sponsored by four Trade Union
Councils - Birmingham, Coventry, Nottingham and Oxford, and a
number of trade union branches. In spite of the World Cup, the
conference was successful and attracted people from various parts
of England. It was opened by TOM chairperson Ian Juniper, who
said that the Equalities Agenda is the 'acid test' of the Good
Friday Agreement.

The first speaker was Una Gillespie from the West Belfast
Economic Forum, who explained that the forum was set up ten years
ago to monitor social and economic policy and its impact on the
communities in West Belfast where unemployment is at its worst
ever. One amazing statistic she shared is that in recent years,
there has been a 57% drop in the number of people from West
Belfast actually employed. Overall, Catholics are still two and a
half times more likely to be unemployed than Protestants, a
statistic which remains unchanged in 30 years.

Una explained that the Equality Duty (Section 75 Northern Ireland
Act (1998)) covers nine categories in which public authorities
should ensure equality of opportunity but does not include the
Irish language or prisoners, areas of great importance to the
nationalist people. Certain public bodies have not been defined
and have no legal responsibility to promote equality, for example
the RUC and the BBC. Una pointed out also that equal opportunity
is very different from equality of outcome.

Una talked extensively about the blatant abuse of the Holy Cross
children and their parents, which clearly showed the state's
inability to deal with discrimination. She finished by reminding
the audience that nothing has changed, or is changing in the
lives of the people of West Belfast.

A vibrant question and answer session followed what was an
informative, inspiring and often amusing talk.

TOM Secretary Mary Pearson, who is a member of the National Union
of Teachers and a delegate to Birmingham Trades Council, said
trade unions have always shown support for oppressed people
throughout the world but added that the leadership of
British-based unions seem to have a blind spot in relation to
Ireland. She said they have, in effect, colluded in
discrimination. Mary gave dramatic figures of where Catholics and
Protestants were employed, showing the huge gap between the two
communities. The worse cases of discrimination were in companies
where British trade unions were present. Even the Irish Congress
of Trade Unions does not take a strong enough stand on sectarian
discrimination for fear of alienating loyalists, she said.
Another question and answer session followed, where again the
audience were willing contributors.

After lunch, Brid Ni Chianain, an Irish language and cultural
activist, made the case that ideology is the unconscious way we
react to the world around us and culture is the outward
manifestation of the way we see the world. Putting this statement
in historical context, she explained that there was no political
unity in Ireland when the British first invaded - but there was a
coherent cultural identity, so Britain set out to destroy the
culture. This they did with the Statutes of Kilkenny and they
have repeated this down through the years. The British government
tried to change the mindset of the Irish people. Indeed the
thrust of the government on cultural issues in the Six Counties
is to manage sectarianism better.

Brid told the audience that until recently, Irish language
classes were held after school and teachers were often arrested.
She told how the hunger strikers had helped so much to encourage
people to learn Irish. Many people had joined classes in
solidarity with them and since then, the culture of the Irish
language has blossomed. Keeping the language keeps the culture
alive, she said. Although Irish classes are growing all over
Ireland, she reminded the audience that we still face an uphill
struggle. She said the language is an extension of how we see the
world and has to be encouraged. We have to see Irish as our
elective language.

In spite of much talk of two cultures/traditions in the north,
Brid said that there are only two traditions in Ireland,
anti-imperialism and pro-imperialism. She said that the British
government seems to believe that hidden sectarianism is
acceptable for the Irish people, as long as it not openly
blatant.

She finished her riveting talk, which was interspersed with
illustrative stories, by saying that the hunger strikers turned
the corner and Irish heads are now held higher "and to keep heads
up, imperialism needs to be defeated".

A lengthy question and answer session followed with all three
speakers and the audience didn't seem to want the meeting to end.


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>>>>>> Feature: 50 days of attacks - The Short Strand siege

BY LAURA FRIEL



"This community has been physically, socially and psychologically
persecuted over the last 50 days," says Sinn Fein's Joe
O'Donnell. He is standing beside a row of houses in the
Clandeboye area of Short Strand, the nationalist enclave in east
Belfast that has been the focus of a sustained loyalist attack.

And it's a dismal scene of destruction. Nightly bombardment by
mobs of masked loyalists has reduced this quiet residential area
to near dereliction. And it's not so much the row of boarded
windows and barred doors. Nor even the thousands of broken tiles
along the roofs, the burnt fencing, the damaged back gates, the
scorch marks or the smell of petrol that are the most distressing
elements of this scene.

The tragedy lies with the children's toys, now abandoned amongst
the debris of a thousand bricks, broken bottles and stones that
carpet the area, the once tended window boxes and the still
flowering hanging baskets, all of which bear witness to happier
times.

And it lies in the darkened rooms where families are still trying
to live their lives. It's in the tired faces of residents too
fearful to sleep. The flurry of anxiety when there's a knock at
the door and the nightly exodus of children forced to sleep
elsewhere.

It lies with the homeowners whose confidence in the future has
been destroyed along with their property and the elderly couple
who have lived here all their lives but no longer feel able to
stay; and two-week-old Eoin Rooney, born during the siege and now
living under the shadow of loyalist paramilitary flags and his
mother Orla, still denied medical access and other essential
amenities by the loyalist blockade.

Loyalist threats have forced the local post office to close
indefinitely while local shops, including the only chemist in the
area, have been 'ordered' by loyalist paramilitaries not to serve
Catholics. "We're all too afraid to go to the shops now anyway,"
says Mairead O'Donnell.

Loyalist intimidation has left local doctors unable to see their
Catholic patients at their surgeries. A letter signed by eleven
local GPs condemning loyalist threats against their Catholic
patients attending surgeries in east Belfast was circulated to
the media last week. The community centre, located within the
area, now serves as a temporary GP surgery, baby clinic and
distribution point for medication and welfare.

Last Thursday evening, the Short Strand community held a rally to
highlight their plight. The location of the rally, within the
estate, was deliberately chosen to avoid any suggestion of
provocation.

Earlier in the day, a statement from the Loyalist Commission, an
umbrella group, announced loyalists were to adopt a 'no first
strike' policy. The Loyalist Commission, which involves unionist
politicians, Protestant clergy as well as loyalist
paramilitaries, was established during the recent loyalist feud
as a mechanism to end internecine violence.

Within the northern nationalist community the announcement was
met with understandable scepticism. In the Short Strand it was
accompanied by another loyalist attack. The rally ended in
disarray as news filtered through the crowd that a 500-strong
loyalist mob were attacking nationalist homes in Penny Court.

In Madrid Street, Sharon McMullan had been watching television
with her children when bottles and bricks were thrown over the
newly erected barrier. Sharon's two-year-old daughter had been
sitting on the front doorstep playing with her dolls. "I jumped
up to check if the child was in the hallway," says Sharon.

As Sharon ran towards the front door a blast bomb exploded
injuring the mother of six. Sharon was rushed to hospital by
ambulance where she was treated for shrapnel wounds. "If my
daughter had been there she'd have been killed," says Sharon.

But this isn't just a story about sectarian violence and
intimidation by loyalist paramilitaries. It involves the
complicity of so many more. It involves the PSNI and the British
Army. It involves unionist politicians and their political
agenda. It involves the media and the myths peddled to obscure
the real dynamic of sectarianism in the north.

As the residents of Short Strand have pointed out, the nightly
invasion of Cluan Place by hundreds of masked loyalists armed
with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs could be stopped by a
police service prepared to 'throw a jeep across the entrance'.

The failure of the PSNI/RUC to confront loyalism has left the
ordinary Protestant community of Cluan as vulnerable as their
Catholic neighbours. The residents of Cluan were 'evacuated' by
the UVF, employing a mixture of scaremongering and intimidation.
Once a quiet community of mostly elderly Protestants, Cluan
offered the UVF a convenient location within the Short Strand
from which to launch their sectarian onslaught.

On Thursday, the loyalist incursion into the Short Strand area
during the rally was facilitated by the PSNI and British Army.
British soldiers and members of the PSNI allowed the loyalist mob
to walk through their cordon. Denied police protection, the
residents were forced to engage in hand to hand fighting to expel
the loyalist mob.

In the ensuing turmoil the British Army and PSNI fired seven
plastic bullets, injuring a number of Short Strand residents. One
man was hit in the chest and woman, described as a grandmother in
her late 40s, was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken
ankle. A photograph of her abandoned blood-filled shoe captured
the severity of her injury.


Trimble threatens

Meanwhile, UUP leader and First Minister David Trimble was
threatening to collapse the institutions. "Act on Sinn Fein or I
will quit," announced Trimble. Speaking on BBC television at the
weekend Trimble blamed Sinn Fein and the IRA for the present
political crisis and called on the British government to act.

"The NIO and Downing Street don't seem to have the courage to
tell the truth. I think it is essential that we face the
realities and that we tell the truth and that we do so in order
to sustain confidence amongst ordinary people," said Trimble.

But in truth, the only political crisis facing David Trimble came
from within his own party. On Saturday, Trimble faced a
120-strong Ulster Unionist executive meeting and anti-Agreement
elements within his own party leadership were baying for his
blood.

"I, for one, am not prepared to be complicit in a process which
turns a blind eye to IRA violence," declared Jeffery Donaldson,
turning a blind eye to loyalist violence. Unionists must "act and
deal with the IRA's failure to commit themselves to exclusively
peaceful means" said Donaldson calling for the exclusion of Sinn
Fein.

"If Dr Reid does not face up to the realities of the situation
then the Ulster Unionist Party will be left with no alternative
but to bring this process down," said UUP Deputy Leader Ken
Maginnis.

"The party needs to seek the exclusion of Sinn Fein with support
from the DUP and SDLP," said South Antrim MP David Burnside.

To offset any leadership challenge the First Minister was not
only prepared sacrifice the people of the Short Strand he was
also prepared to beat the Orange drum. Earlier in the week the
UUP leader had published a 50-page submission to the Parades
Commission championing the right of Orangemen to march through
the nationalist Garvaghy Road area.

Stoking the fires of perceived Protestant grievances, Trimble
said that the Commission had made 150 determinations on
applications by the Portadown Orangemen and none had been in
their favour.

In fact there had been only three applications for the
'traditional' Drumcree church parade during this period. The
Parades Commission confirmed that of 3,400 parade applications
received every year only 5% were subject to restrictions.

Trimble based his figures on what Breandan Mac Cionnaith
described as 'the Orange Order's abuse of process', in which
Portadown Orangemen had filed for a march down the Garvaghy Road
every Sunday for the other 51 weeks of the year, knowing that
they would be rerouted.

Trimble's intervention followed comments by DUP Assembly member
Sammy Wilson who claimed that republicans were creating
flashpoint areas on the Newtownards and Albertbridge Road to stop
future Orange marches. "That is what all this trouble is about,"
said Sammy, "I have no doubt about this."

And in the media, Belfast's Newsletter had been quick to jump on
the bandwagon. Euphemistically describing "July as a troublesome
month," Monday's editorial continued, "the crisis talks maybe the
last chance for Sinn Fein to convince all reasonable people of
its democratic credentials or failing that, for Tony Blair to
show that he has set acceptable parameters for the continuation
of a genuinely democratic process."


Government platitudes

Meanwhile, the London and Dublin governments were mouthing
platitudes. British Secretary of State John Reid was urging
parents to keep their children out of 'inexcusable' violent
clashes while Bertie Ahern advised rather than apportioning blame
for recent violence all sides should work to calm the situation.

Ironically, it was PSNI Superintendent Tom Haylett, speaking of
loyalist violence in Larne, who inadvertently identified that
'situation'. Hardcore loyalist paramilitaries were trying to
drive Catholics out, he said.

"This isn't one community against another. These are innocent
Catholic people that pose no threat to anyone. This is pure
sectarianism for the sake of sectarianism," said Haylett.

Standing among the ruins of Clandeboye, Joe O'Donnell describes
the latest loyalist attacks. "The roof on this house was repaired
by the Housing Executive on Friday afternoon only to be wrecked
again by loyalists on Saturday morning," says Joe.

"Boarded windows stop petrol bombs smashing into the house but
once soaked with petrol they ignite easily and these houses are
under the constant threat of being set alight. I am not
exaggerating when I tell you that Clandeboye is in danger of
becoming another Bombay Street."


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>>>>>> Analysis: The perfect form of collusion

By Danny Morrison
http://www.dannymorrison.com


Michael Finucane, whose father, Pat, was assassinated by agents
of the British government, last week joined with his sister
Katherine and brother John, in calling for a public inquiry into
their father's killing, following the recent Panorama expose, 'A
Licence to Murder'.

However, a public inquiry is the last thing the British
government wants, and John Stevens, currently putting the final
touches to his report into official collusion between state
forces and loyalist paramilitaries, knows it also. The strategy,
it would appear, from comments made by Stevens on the BBC
programme (he is careful not to suggest that the British
government, the police or army officially sanctioned these
killings), and echoed by the programme maker John Ware, is to
emphasise that collusion was down to some 'rogue elements' and
that Brian Nelson was 'out of control'. We even had First
Minister David Trimble attempt to set the parameters when he
said: "One thing there was not was collusion by the RUC
organisation with the paramilitaries. There may be individuals
who have behaved badly but it was not structural or systemic."

This, of course, is a red herring. No one is claiming that the
entire hierarchies of the RUC or British army were engaged in
systematic collusion. In fact, had every loyalist murder gang
been receiving instructions or help on a widespread basis then it
would have been simple for investigative journalists to have
found evidence of collective collusion, given how leaky loyalist
paramilitaries tend to be.

What the British army and the Special Branch had in their
arrangement with Brian Nelson was the perfect form of official
collusion. Nelson was the UDA's top intelligence officer and they
controlled him and streamlined his target files, which he then
went on to distribute to almost any murder gang that asked. If
they wanted someone killed they just had to suggest the name or a
different target if they wanted someone preserved. Either way the
forces of law and order were murdering citizens through the use
of proxies.

An example, of what can go wrong, when state forces engage in too
generalised a form of collusion, and involve too many people, can
be seen from the 'GAL scandal' in Spain which led to the fall of
Felipe Gonzalez's socialist government in 1996. When Gonzalez
came to power in 1982 he sanctioned the creation of special units
called the Grupos Antiterroristas de LiberaciUn (GAL), which
essentially were paramilitary death squads made up of hired
assassins and members of the security forces which hunted down
Basque ETA members, mostly on French territory. They killed at
least 28 ETA members, but also shot several civilians who had no
political connections.

When allegations of state involvement in the death squads
appeared in newspapers relatives of the victims began a campaign
for a judicial inquiry into GAL. The paper 'El Pais' referred to
kidnappings, the use of drug world figures as mercenaries and the
purchase of guns in South Africa - all of which uncannily echo
aspects of the terror scenario between the UFF, British
Intelligence and the Special Branch. The first inquiry in 1988
under Judge Baltasar Garzon was blocked by a higher court.

Then Garzon - not unlike Stevens - took the case again in 1994
after two former chiefs of the Basque Civil Guard (paramilitary
police) blew the whistle. In 1991 the two had been sentenced to
108 years in prison after confessing to acting alone in a series
of attacks against Basque separatists. It transpired later that
the State Security Department had paid the two defendants more
than $1.5 million to keep quiet, and also provided monthly
payments to their wives. When the money dried up the two decided
to name names and tell their story to the newspapers.

The Supreme Court convicted two senior government ministers for
ordering and financing the kidnapping of an alleged ETA activist
(they had kidnapped the wrong man). A former interior minister
and his security chief were jailed for ten years. GAL was
established and organised by government officials (both from the
central and regional governments), Secret Service officials and
high-ranking police and military officers. It was masterminded by
the Defence Intelligence High Command. In other words, the
operation involved too many and was too loose.

Nevertheless, the trail got lost before it led to the cabinet
room. Gonzalez and his colleagues, who denied all knowledge of
Spain's dirty war against Basque separatists, were never
prosecuted.

Michael Finucane is correct when he says that the truth about his
father's murder would rock the foundations of the British state.
We know that in 1989 the then RUC Chief Constable Sir Jack Hermon
and two other senior officers gave a private briefing to the Home
Office Minister Douglas Hogg in Belfast. Hermon had claimed that
some solicitors were sympathetic to, and were helping, the IRA.

A few weeks later Hogg repeated the remarks in the House of
Commons. According to Greg Harkin in last week's 'Sunday People',
"Within hours UDA's west Belfast commander Tommy 'Tucker' Lyttle
was meeting with his Special Branch handlerOe Lyttle would later
claim that his handler had discussed Hogg's comments and said to
him: 'Why don't you whack Finucane?'

"The UDA's intelligence officer Brian Nelson, an agent of the
army undercover unit, the Force Research Unit, was summoned to
Lyttle's home in Sydney Street West and told to prepare a file on
the lawyer. When Nelson reported back to his handlers, rather
than discourage him from taking on the operation FRU members
actively encouraged him to go ahead and gave him every possible
assistance."

In places like Central and South America, when there have been
allegations of collusion between official government forces and
right-wing death squads, European social democracies have been,
rightly, outraged, and the attitude has been to treat such
countries as pariah states. The BBC, though it made the Panorama
programme, never broadcast any trailers, nor were there
follow-ups on the 10 pm news, Newsnight or News 24 (which is
broadcast internationally), which seems extraordinary. It
certainly smacks of a certain ambivalence, indicating an attempt
to cosset the British public from the truth about the blood on
the hands of those it elected to govern.