Ghost of RUC rears its ugly head

As the Northern Ireland Assembly was being reinstalled on Wednesday the ghost of the Royal Ulster Constabulary reared its ugly head as the Superintendents' Association NI urged the government to 'pause for breath' in re-examining Northern Ireland's past.

Amazingly, the Association said 'inquiries and investigative teams established to probe murders and wrongdoing had put a disproportionate focus on police actions' and its President Stephen Grange argued the government should call a halt to the process, consult widely and create a public body to manage it in the best interest of all victims. This follows on from the criticism of the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan made by the Retired Police Officers' Association in March following publication of her report into the circumstances surrounding the death of Raymond McCord Junior.

The Association's concern that the focus of enquiries is directed by political pressure is entirely correct. That political pressure is seeking to redress the history of political bias of collusion between British state forces and unionism. Republicans might even tentatively suggest that the introduction of internment without trial, Long Kesh, Armagh jail, the watchtowers, army patrols and shoot-to-kill was the product of the political pressure from good old British colonialism.

That serving members of the PSNI can criticise independent investigations into their, and their former colleagues, actions once again shows the great concessions republicanism has been willing to offer to ensure peace for the people of the north of Ireland. The spirit of reconciliation that many are attempting to establish and maintain should not be hijacked by those who want to maintain secrecy around the historic role of collusion.

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’.