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Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Selbourne House
54 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW 7th April 2005
by fax and post
Dear Lady Ashton,
Inquiries Bill
A letter was received at this office yesterday addressed to the Human Rights Action Centre, an organisation with which I am not familiar. I enclose a copy.
Your letter to them refers to a joint statement issued by British Irish rights watch and ten other organisations on 22nd March concerning the Inquiries Bill, and suggests that they were a signatory to that statement. They were not a signatory, in fact.
No doubt this is the result of an administrative error, but it does rather encapsulate the non-meeting of our minds in relation to the Bill.
In my considered opinion, your government has destroyed the public inquiry in this country and robbed this democracy of an essential tool for ensuring public accountability.
Furthermore, the failure to hold a public inquiry under the 1921 Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act into the murder of Patrick Finucane, as envisaged by Judge Cory and spelt our unambiguously in his recent letter to the American Congress, is a shameful breach of faith. The Prime Minister gave an unequivocal commitment at Weston Park to hold a public inquiry into the Finucane case, but the United Kingdom told the United Nations Human Rights commission on 1st April 2005 that “a large proportion of the Inquiry would probably have to be held in private” on grounds of national security. I probably know more about the Patrick Finucane case than any person outside the security services, and I know that it is not national security which is being protected here, but criminal collusion on a grand scale which is being covered up. Any inquiry into his death under the Inquiries Act will be a sham and every informed observer will know that and will rightly condemn it. I cannot imagine how any reputable judge or other person could agree to preside over such a charade.
At the debate of the Second Reading debate in the House of Lords, you had the temerity to quote Galileo:
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them".
Unfortunately, thanks to the Inquiries Bill, many people in this country will be prevented from ever knowing the truth, not only about the Finucane case, but every other case where a government minister convinces him or herself that national secuirty is a stake when really they want to hide wrong-doing, ineptitude, or embarassing mistakes.
Shame on you and every member of Parliament who votes for this Bill.
Yours sincerely,
Jane Winter,
Director.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
