State collusion: the cover-up continues

The Public Prosecution Service announced yesterday that no policemen or soldiers will be charged in connection with the loyalist murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane, who was killed by gunmen from the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in February 1989.

The PPS statement said 'Some of the difficulties included an absence of particular records' highlighting the problem of British security forces demanding the return of evidence and then destroying it.

Michael Finucane, speaking for the Finucane family said 'My family and I are extremely angry and disappointed at the decision of the DPP not to prosecute anyone arising from the report of the Stevens III Investigation and especially the manner in which it has been delivered. Once again, we are expected to respond at a moment's notice to important events that the authorities have had years to consider.

It is difficult to square the unequivocal nature of the conclusions reached by Lord Stevens four years ago with the submissive, timid, unconvincing reasons advanced by the DPP for not instituting a single prosecution. It is notable that the DPP feels himself unable to use "certain intelligence records as evidence", a clear indication that the interests of national security remain more important than the human lives.'

Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey said 'It has to be remembered that the DPP is simply another level in the policy of collusion and the policy of concealment and cover-up.'

Predictably, the MoD said 'We welcome the decision. Soldiers have been criticised for long enough and should be left to get on with their lives. The MoD has cooperated fully with the Stevens inquiries.' However in April, reports in the Guardian newspaper highlighted that MI5 and the MoD had demanded the return of classified documents from the Stevens Inquiry and on having them returned went on to shred them to prevent their use in any prosecutions.

As Maskey said, the decision shows 'the British Government is incapable of facing up to their own responsibilities in all of this'. It is incumbent upon the new government of Gordon Brown to ensure that the ongoing peace process includes seeking justice for the murders and other violent attacks engineered by the collusion between state forces and loyalist paramilitaries.

Sinn Féin demand Britain cooperate in collusion summit

Speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the UVF's Dublin Monaghan bombings, Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald reiterated the party's call for an Irish-British summit on collusion. Mary Lou said if Sinn Féin were in Government after the general election they would immediately initiate a Dáil debate on collusion and make a demand on the British Government for it to participate in a joint summit on collusion.

Bertie Ahern appointed Justice Henry Barron to conduct a private inquiry in October 2000 into the bombings, with the British government failing to hand over a number of official documents for examination - fuelling suspicions of British state collusion with the bombers.

McDonald said, 'The outgoing Fianna Fáil/PD Government promised a Dáil debate on collusion in the immediate aftermath of the publication of the McEntee report on the Dublin/Monaghan Bombings. That was another promise which failed to materialise. The lid must be lifted on the whole issue of collusion. The families of all those killed down the years, not just in the Dublin Monaghan Bombings but all of the victims of British State collusion deserve the truth about their loved ones. Sinn Féin is committed to the continual pursuit of that truth.'

Collusion: will we ever know the truth?

In January, the Policy Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan released a report which confirmed police colluded with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast between 1991 and 2003. However press reports suggested it is unlikely that any of the police officers involved will be prosecuted as O'Loan has said that evidence has been deliberately destroyed to ensure there could not be prosecutions.

It therefore came as no surprise to read Sandra Laville's article in Saturday's Guardian that MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are demanding the return of secret documents from the Stevens inquiry and that 'In some cases the organisations asking for the paperwork have successfully appealed for the return of the documents only to shred them,' an allegation repeated by the Belfast Telegraph. The same article states that the Stevens Inquiry has amassed over 20 tonnes of paperwork, currently being stored in South London and that three previous inquiries into collusion have resulted in 97 prosecutions. The level of concern from security sources suggests that previous inquiries and prosecutions barely scratched the surface in exposing the extent of collusion between the British security apparatus and loyalist paramilitaries.

The idea of any incriminating documents being returned to the organisations themselves under investigation is difficult to comprehend and would serve to massively undermine the credibility of any investigation. The success of the recent agreement to re-establish power-sharing should not allow past crimes, including the murders of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, to be swept under the carpet since they directly impact on communities living in the north of Ireland today. Similarly, Sinn Fein's historic decision to co-operate with the Police Service of Northern Ireland has not prevented them pursuing justice for the victims of collusion.

In April Sinn Féin published a Dáil motion on collusion, which Bairbre de Bruin MEP said should `form the basis for the debate in Leinster House’. The motion called for an inter-governmental conference with the British Government `specifically dealing with the issue of collusion and truth recovery and calls for the establishment of full, public, independent, judicial inquiries into murders in this state where collusion is reasonably suspected’.