|
|
DECEMBER
2001
special branch exposed
Nuala O’Loan, the Police Ombudsman, performed a public service this month by exposing the fact that Special Branch puts intelligence considerations above all else, even the saving of lives. When it became public knowledge that the RUC had received warnings of an attack on Omagh and that dissident republicans were building a bomb, she rightly called herself in to investigate. Her report shows that Special Branch routinely withholds intelligence from colleagues who are investigating serious crimes like Omagh. The Chief Constable’s reaction to her criticisms has been quite disgraceful. He has repeatedly called the report’s accuracy into question without giving a single example of any error, despite having the report in his possession for a number of days before it was published. His statement that if her report was true her would commit suicide in public was unprofessional and, in the context of the carnage wreaked in Omagh and the very public nature of the terrible deaths and injuries suffered by the victims, tasteless in the extreme. His threat to sue the Ombudsman for libel betrays a deep unwillingness to recognise the legitimacy of her role, or the illegitimacy of Special Branch’s activities. Yet, far from thanking the Ombudsman or praising her courage, the establishment, from the Prime Minister down, have turned on her. She deserves better, and so do the victims of Omagh.
William stobie murdered
The Ombudsman’s report merely confirms, albeit spectacularly, information that was already in the public domain. William Stobie had already revealed that Special Branch ignored his warnings of an imminent attack and failed to arrest the gunmen when they returned the weapons used in the murder of Patrick Finucane. Former RUC officer Johnstone Brown and his colleague Trevor McIlwrath have said that Special Branch prevented the prosecution of one of those who murdered Patrick Finucane. UTV’s Insight programme, Policing the Police, broadcast on 1st May 2001, showed that under the Walker guidelines Special Branch, with its insatiable appetite for intelligence, had primacy over normal policing functions within the RUC. On 12th December, William Stobie paid the ultimate price when he was murdered by the UDA. That his murder was predictable makes it none the less sad or bad. William Stobie was coerced into becoming an informer by Special Branch. When he did their bidding his warnings were ignored. When the Stevens team insisted on prosecuting him, his fate was sealed. After the trial collapsed the Police Service warned him that his life was in danger, but he was refused protection. If ever a person was used and abused by the system it was William Stobie. As his murderers intended, his death has put others in fear and sent a clear message to others involved in the Finucane case to keep their mouths shut. Already one man has gone into hiding. The refusal by the state to protect William Stobie sends an equally strong signal, but if they think it will stifle the calls for a public inquiry into the deaths of Patrick Finucane and others, they are wrong.
reform of the criminal justice
system
BIRW has made detailed submissions concerning the implementation of the recommendations made by the Criminal Justice Review team. Although the government claims to have accepted their proposals, our overall impression is that this acceptance is half-hearted, with no real commitment to driving these important reforms through. It is an open secret that the Review team’s original report was watered down after an internal round of consultation before publication. It is also an open secret that during the lengthy gestation period of the implementation plan, the fiercest opposition to the Review team’s proposals came from the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Lord Chief Justice. Questions arising from decisions made by the DPP and judgments made, especially, in the Diplock courts have over the years eroded public confidence in the criminal justice system, particularly but by no means exclusively within the nationalist community. The implementation scheme essentially leaves the DPP and the LCJ with just as much power and influence as they had under the old system. The clear implication is that there was nothing wrong with the old system and therefore it can be perpetuated. This is unlikely to inspire confidence in those who are critical of the criminal justice system, and undermines the fundamental purpose of the review itself.
JUSTICE ON TRIAL
On 4th December UTV’s Insight team broadcast an excellent documentary, Justice on Trial, on the murder of Patrick Finucane, in which I took part. William Stobie also appeared in the programme, just days before he was killed. At the end of the programme, journalist Trevor Birney had this to say: “The promise of a new policing service and the implementation of the criminal justice review was at the centre of the government’s courting exercise to get nationalists to sign up to the Police Board. But if the very system is already seen to lack real transparency it could collapse before it takes its first faltering steps. That the Finucane family has lost all confidence in that process sends a very clear political message: what really has changed?”
ANNUAL REPORT
Our annual report
for 2001 was published on 10th December, International Human Rights
Day, and is available on our website. On
the same day we launched our annual appeal for funds.
If you would like to support our work, please consider sending us a
donation. Grateful thanks to those
who have already responded.
less
lethal force
BIRW has responded
to the second report by the working group set up after the Patten Commission on
the reform of policing recommended that an alternative be found to plastic
bullets. In our response we have
stressed that, whenever the police use force, and whatever weapons they deploy,
far more attention needs to be paid to prior planning, proper training, and
learning from experience. We have
also recommended several measures for reducing impunity for those who abuse
force and for ensuring accountability when force is unavoidable.
ICS
seminars
On 11th December Halya Gowan of Amnesty International gave the last in our series of seminars at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on collusion. My thanks to her for making time in her punishing work schedule to take part. We will be publishing the record of the proceedings of all six seminars in the New Year. On 13th December I ran a lively seminar on funding for students on the Understanding Human Rights master’s course at ICS.
bloody
sunday
On 8th
December I travelled to Derry for a meeting of the Bloody Sunday Trust.
Catherine McKenna, our observer at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, leaves us
this month to take up a job with one of the lawyers working on the tribunal.
She will be replaced in January by Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh.
We wish them both the best of luck.
We are extremely grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for
making extra funding available and assisting us in making the transition as
smooth as possible. The Court of Appeal turned down the BSI’s appeal over the
location of the soldiers’ evidence. It
looks most likely now that those responsible for the killings will give evidence
by video link, although given the earlier rulings on anonymity it is difficult
to envisage anything other than a blank screen.
Most people in Derry are left mystified as to why English judges think
their city, which was recently visited by the Queen, is unsafe for the soldiers,
especially since the victims of Bloody Sunday have made it clear that they want
no violence.
briefing
at the us embassy
On 6th
December I had the pleasure of meeting Meghan O’Sullivan, one of Richard Haass’
aides, to brief her on some of our concerns.
SEASON’S
GREETINGS
Warmest good wishes
to all our friends and supporters around the world, and may peace be with you in
2002.
Jane Winter,
Director,
21st December 2001.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
