Rt Hon Tony Blair MP

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 8AA                                                                                                  

 

18^th April 2007

for the personal attention of the Prime Minister – a reply from another Minister will not be acceptable

Dear Prime Minister,

Patrick Finucane

We believe that by now it is abundantly clear that there has been widespread collusion between the security and intelligence services in Northern Ireland and paramilitaries of all persuasions, and that this collusion was the result of policy decisions sanctioned by successive governments and supported by all political parties, whether in power or in opposition.

You personally promised the family of Patrick Finucane that there would be a public inquiry into his murder, which was one of the first of many murders resulting from collusion to put collusion as an issue into the public domain.

The Inquiries Act 2005 is not an apt vehicle for providing the independent, public, judicial inquiry recommended by Judge Cory, whose recommendations you personally promised to implement.  Indeed, to hold an inquiry under that Act would be an act of collusion in itself.

If you leave office without bringing about an honourable conclusion to the Finucane case, history will judge you harshly.  You will not be seen as the Prime Minister who presided over the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland, but instead as the Prime Minister who was too much in thrall to the security and intelligence services to tackle collusion in Northern Ireland.

Collusion is not a thing of the past.  The Billy Wright Inquiry is already wrestling with the wholesale and quite deliberate destruction by the Northern Ireland Prison Service of documents vital to its work.  MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are attempting to retrieve documents from the Stevens Team which would be highly pertinent to any proper inquiry into Patrick Finucane’s murder, and possibly also the murder of Rosemary Nelson.  These are government agencies, openly seeking to thwart inquiries ordained by your government.

I am writing to enquire what your true intentions are in relation to Patrick Finucane’s case.  Will you set up an independent, public, judicial inquiry that will satisfy the Finucane family’s search for truth and justice, or are you going to leave office having broken your promises?

We are posting this letter on our website and will post your reply there also.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Winter,

Director.