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JULY 2007
OPERATION BANNER
Last month the Pat Finucane Centre came across an astonishing document released under the Freedom of Information Act entitled “Operation Banner”. It gives the British army’s views on its deployment in Northern Ireland from 1969 until 2006. It is available on PFC’s website (www.serve.com/pfc) and is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the army’s perspective on Northern Ireland, which is insular, to say the least. It has some serious mistakes and some fascinating gaps – for instance there is scarcely a mention of intelligence matters or collusion – and it is guaranteed to annoy virtually everyone who reads it, whatever their own position, but it is nonetheless a historic document. Operation Banner was the overall name given to the army’s presence in Northern Ireland, and it officially came to an end of 31st July 2007, another resounding date for the history books. A garrison of under 5,000 troops will be all that remains. How ironic then, that on 1st August 2007 the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act comes into force, which restores to soldiers, in Northern Ireland only, the power to stop and search civilians and hold them for up to four hours. Does anyone have a sense of dejà vu? Or, as a French despot once said, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
KADER ASMAL TO SPEAK ON BILL OF RIGHTS AT BIRW EVENT ON 26 SEPTEMBER 2007
We are delighted to announce that leading human rights law expert and BIRW sponsor Professor Kader Asmal MP will be delivering a key speech on “Designing a Bill of Rights for a Diverse Society” on 26 September 2007. The event will take place at 6.00 pm at 10 St James's Square, SW1Y 4LE, and will be followed by a reception sponsored by the Atlantic Philanthropies. Further details will be circulated in September. However, please note that the event is by invitation only: please contact birw@birw.org if you would like to be included on the invitation list. We look forward to seeing you there!
HOUSE OF LORDS RULES ON ANONYMITY IN THE ROBERT HAMILL INQUIRY
On 31 July 2007, the House of Lords allowed an appeal by the Robert Hamill Inquiry challenging an application for anonymity by a number of police officers who are key witnesses to the Inquiry. The case considered whether compelling the police officers to give evidence without anonymity would violate Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, or the common law duty of fairness to the witnesses. The House of Lords decided that, as no police officer has been killed in Northern Ireland since 1998, the risk to the witnesses’ lives was not real or immediate, and would not be greatly increased were they to give evidence without anonymity. As a result, it would not be unfair to require a witness to give evidence without the protection of anonymity. Although this decision is to be welcomed, BIRW is concerned that a separate aspect of the judgment will result in further unnecessary delay. This concerns whether the original decision of the Inquiry not to offer the witnesses anonymity was reasonable, and which was not considered in any of the previous hearings. The House of Lords returned this issue to be decided by the High Court, a process which may take many months to resolve.
ANGELA HICKEY’S LEGACY
There is a sense in which the sixteen years’ significant contribution that our former Chair Angela Hickey, who died in September 2006, made to BIRW is its own legacy. However, I am delighted to report that Angela has left BIRW a substantial financial legacy in support of our work. We have decided to ethically invest her gift, using the interest as income so that it partly contributes towards our running costs, but to set aside the capital to help us fund the costs of winding up BIRW when the time comes when our services will no longer be needed. This one-year project will include commissioning a history of BIRW, archiving our materials so that they can be used by others who want to study the conflict and the peace process, and meeting the administrative costs of dissolution, such as redundancy payments. Thus Angela will have contributed to our long-term aim of putting ourselves out of business, which we think she would have approved.
BILLY WRIGHT INQUIRY’S TERMS OF REFERENCE CHALLENGED
In a move which could potentially further delay the Billy Wright Inquiry, the Crown Solicitors, on behalf of six prison officers, have recently applied for permission to seek judicial review of the Secretary of State’s June 2007 decision not to restrict the Inquiry’s terms of reference. The prison officers claim that the terms of reference could lead to a finding of criminal or civil liability, and are therefore outside the remit of the Inquiries Act 2005, which prohibits such a finding. BIRW have applied for leave to intervene in the application, on the basis that a restriction to the terms of reference at this stage of the Inquiry would result in an inadequate investigation of the murder that fails to comply with the relevant international human rights standards, and would also cause unacceptable and potentially destructive delay to an Inquiry. The application will be heard on 3rd August 2007.
colin worton meets the first minister
On 9th July I travelled to Belfast to accompany Colin Worton and his family to a meeting with Dr Paisley MP MLA, the First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Dr Paisley has long championed the case of the UDR Four, alongside whom Colin Worton was tried for the murder of Adrian Carroll. Colin Worton was found by the court to have no case to answer, but the army refused to keep him on as a soldier and he never received a penny in compensation for the loss of his employment or for the two and a half years he spent in custody. Dr Paisely promised to raise Colin Worton’s case with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Colin Worton is himself seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State.
PSNI SETS UP NEW UNIT FOR DEALING WITH COLD CASES
The PSNI has set up a Retrospective Murder Review Unit to look at unsolved murders between April 1998, where the remit of the Historical Enquiries Team ends, and 2004 and when the PSNI’s new serious crimes department came into operation. One of the first cases they will be looking at is that of Martin O’Hagan, the journalist murdered in September 2001. I have already met the team that is working on that investigation to discuss BIRW’s confidential report on that most controversial of killings.
On 26th July I also met Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay, to whom the RMRU reports, to discuss the PSNI’s interaction with the Wright, Hamill and Finucane inquiries.
GEOFFREY GRAY
BIRW is investigating the murder of UDA member Geoffrey Gray, who was shot at close range in October 2002. He was one of Martin O’Hagan’s informants and his case is also being reviewed by the RCMU.
dealing with the past or sweeping it under the carpet?
BIRW have written to the Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward MP, and to all the members of the group recently set up by the Northern Ireland Office to “deal” with the past, pointing out that there was no consultation on the establishment, membership, or terms of reference for the group, which has been given an extremely difficult task to accomplish in just one year. We fear that they are being set up to fail, which would be a disaster for the victims of the conflict and will do nothing to enhance the peace process.
VICTIM SUPPORT
Our researcher Caroline Parkes has made a submission to the Northern Ireland Office’s Equality Impact Assessment of Victim Support. Our main concern was the fact that the assessment did not appear to have taken into account the full complexity of the nature of the relationship between an individual’s political belief, the criminal justice system and the role of Victim Support. We also highlighted the impact upon the independence of Victim Support considering so much of its funding came from the Northern Ireland Office.
ATTEMPT TO EXTRADITE ROISIN McALISKEY
BIRW have provided advice and assistance to the solicitors acting for the daughter of civil rights activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Roisin McAliskey, who faces extradition to Germany under the Extradition Act 2003 in relation to her alleged involvement in the 1996 Osnabruck bombing. Ms McAliskey was previously arrested and detained in this context in 1996, but never charged. She was released in 1998, on the grounds that her extradition would be “unjust and oppressive”. During this time, she suffered from depression and mental illness as a result of the conditions of her detention. The CPS subsequently investigated the charges and found that there was no realistic prospect of convicting Ms McAliskey for any offence arising out of the Osnabruck bombing and that to prosecute her now would be an abuse of process. BIRW contends that this second extradition attempt is a further abuse of process – particularly because the warrant for her arrest was issued in November 2006 but was not acted upon until May 2007 – and therefore represents a serious violation of her human rights. Her abuse of process case is due to be heard in the Autumn.
yet more counter-terrorism proposals
Caroline Parkes has responded to the Home Affairs Committee’s recent inquiry concerning the Government’s proposals for new counter-terrorism legislation. Among other issues, BIRW outlined our opposition to the extension of the time during which an individual can be held without charge, which we believe could have serious psychological and social implications for both the detainee and their family, pointing out that the proposals undermine the fundamental principles of the British legal system such as the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
PRISONS MEMORY ARCHIVE
On 17th July I visited the disused Maze prison, possibly for the last time, to record my thoughts about the prison for the Prisons Memory Archive being created by the University of Ulster. It was as eerie as ever to walk around the empty, decaying hulk of a place which was once populated by so many prisoners, on both sides of the political divide, whom BIRW tried to assist over the years.
MEETING WITH POLICE OMBUDSMAN
On the same day, I met a representative of the Police Ombudsman’s office with the family of someone who died in 1973. A report from BIRW led to the Ombudsman’s investigation, which must for the moment remain confidential for fear of alerting suspects.
MEETING WITH THE POLICING BOARD’S HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISER
On 31st July Lucy Claridge, Caroline Parkes and I met Keir Starmer QC, who advises the Policing Board on the PSNI’s compliance with human rights. We discussed a number of issues, including the use of “less lethal” force, the bugging of solicitors, policing in Ballymurphy, the use of child informers, and the security vetting of PSNI personnel.
AL RAWI
BIRW, in conjunction with the AIRE Centre, Fair Trials Abroad and Redress, have applied for permission to intervene in the case of Al Rawi & Others v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Secretary of State for Home Department. The case concerns the continued detention of two UK residents by the US authorities at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, who have been refused state assistance to secure their release and return to the UK. Both have indefinite leave to remain in the UK and have family members who are UK citizens and who are still resident here. The matter will be heard by the House of Lords later this year and has potentially very significant ramifications both for those still detained in Guantanamo and, more generally, regarding the obligation on states to take positive steps to prevent torture.
welcome to MARY
We are very pleased to welcome Mary Pimm as a volunteer, who will be working with us two days a week on a variety of projects.
Jane Winter,
Director,
31st July 2007
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
