| Home |
| Search |
| Today's Posts |
|
|
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
British Army Collusion in Nelson Murder
Nik wrote in
: On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:02:59 +0100, Conor Booze O Brien wrote: False security The case of Rosemary Nelson raises uncomfortable questions about state sponsorship of terrorism Beatrix Campbell Thursday September 18, 2003 The Guardian Rosemary Nelson was a lawyer going about her business in a small provincial town in Northern Ireland. Most of her work was bread and butter conveyancing, domestic violence, family proceedings. But she was also known internationally for her forensic advocacy on behalf of clients targeted by the security services. That's why she is dead. She was murdered by loyalists in 1999. But before the killing she had complained of death threats by RUC officers. Now a new voice has joined the roll call of gunslingers, bigots, police officers, civil servants and politicians who may be implicated in her assassination. A loyalist serving a life sentence, Trevor McKeown, says that during interrogation for a separate sectarian murder he was encouraged by police officers to go for a bigger, target - Rosemary Nelson. The police deny the allegation, which comes at the end of a four-year inquiry that has produced no convictions for her murder - an inquiry which has, in effect, closed down. But McKeown's allegation is certain to be taken into consideration by a judge who is soon to recommend whether on not there should be public inquiries into cases of alleged collusion between the security state and loyalist hit squads. McKeown has named names - two police officers who are already known. They were among the 28 RUC officers who have been the subject of two previous inquiries into the death threats Nelson received prior to her death. The first inquiry was by the RUC itself, and was heavily criticised. The second was by a Metropolitan police officer. That too, was criticised after scrupulous supervision by the independent police complaints commission (IPCC). It was days before the commission's report was due to be published in March 1999 that Rosemary Nelson was murdered. The killing was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, a dissident loyalist coalition that was, by the way, penetrated by the RUC. McKeown's new allegations come at a critical moment. Although the criminal inquiry has gone cold, the investigators believe they know who did it. But an eerie silence shrouds this case. British Irish Rights Watch director Jane Winter describes it as a kind of omerta. The four suspects include two notorious loyalist hit men and two men who had been special branch informers: a preacher and a serving soldier in the British army. The Protestant preacher was jailed for 10 years in 2000 for carrying a rocket launcher in his car; the soldier, Ian Thompson, was also jailed for possessing illegal weapons. During his trial the judge was presented with frightening references to Nelson among his possessions. Before passing sentence Mr Justice McLaughlin, commented that some of the material "would make the blood run cold. There are remarks made about Rosemary Nelson which have no place in any decent society. Do I ignore them?" The soldier got nine years. This case not only reveals the menace shadowing the lives of independent and investigative professionals in Northern Ireland long after the ceasefires and the Good Friday agreement. It confirms human rights lawyers' concerns that loyalist hit squads were an auxiliary to the British security state. It prompts questions, too, about intelligence: were the security service handlers the same officers allegedly transmitting threats to Nelson? Before her murder, worries about Nelson's safety were shared across the world. They were aired by the IPCC by the eminent UN special rapporteur into the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, by the Committee on the Administration of Justice in Belfast, British Irish Rights Watch in London, and an international community of human rights lawyers. The US Congress was so concerned that it invited her to Washington to give testimony directly to congressional hearings. We also know that Downing Street was warned, so too was the Northern Ireland Office director of security, David Watkins. They all knew that she was in grave danger. What else did Downing Street need to know before it did something to save Nelson's life? What they offered her was protection provided by the source she says threatened her life: the RUC. The last time I saw Rosemary Nelson was two weeks before her death. The occasion was a conference on reform of the RUC in Belfast and she was tenacious but tired - she'd received another death threat. She is among a group of emblematic cases which raise suspicions of symbiotic collusion between the British state and loyalist assassins. Downing Street never wanted a truth commission because it would put the state under scrutiny for its own sponsorship of terrorism. It was only under international pressure that Tony Blair finally called in a judge of international standing, Peter Cory, to determine whether these cases should command public inquiries. We need Cory to open Rosemary Nelson's murder to the light of public scrutiny - we need it for her, for her relatives and for the reform of her society. We Brits need it too, to learn something about ourselves that our state is keeping a secret. And people still question the need for an armed response to British occupation... Need isay morE? Bertie |
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| Just a few names... | General | |||
| The On-topic war, Part II, (very long) | General | |||
| The same people | ASA | |||
Hybrid Mode
