Britain’s ‘wide-ranging’ amnesty offer rejected

By Jack Holland

The Irish government rejected a British government offer granting amnesty for fugitives because it feared it was too "wide-ranging," according to a London source. The rejection came even though it had been Dublin and Sinn Fein that had originally floated the idea, the source said.

Sinn Fein is also said to have revised its attitude about the deal, which would have to have included anyone suspected of the loyalist murders of human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane and solicitor Rosemary Nelson. It would also include police officers who are alleged not to have intervened to save Robert Hamill, a Catholic who was beaten to death by Protestants in front of a police patrol in Portadown. Dublin was concerned that suspects linked to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in 1974, in which 33 people died, would be part of the scheme.

An official source in Dublin said that if there was such an amnesty offer, it would have had the effect of countering the pressure the government is under to resolve the Nelson and Finucane cases. He described it as a "blocking tactic." In any case, said the source, the Irish government does not have the power to unilaterally reject or accept such a proposal, but must consul the relatives of Finucane, Nelson and Hamill.

The offer was reportedly made during recent negotiations aimed at trying to resolve the problems of policing, decommissioning and demilitarization, which remain at the heart of the current impasse. At the weekend, British newspapers wrote that the offer involved 19 "terrorists" whose cases were highlighted by Sinn Fein. They reportedly included Rita O’Hare, the head of the party’s Washington office, who is sought in connection with a shooting attack in Belfast in the early 1970s.

However, a usually reliable source claims that in fact the British government presented a list of 21 OTRs for amnesty — far smaller than that proposed by Sinn Fein. Gerry Adams, the party president, was reportedly furious that so few were included and was insisting, according to this source, that O’Hare’s name, among many others, be included.

Those on the list presented by the British included Pol Brennan, Terence Kirby, and Kevin Barry Art, the three former IRA men in California who escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983, and Pearse McCauley, who escaped from prison in Britain almost 10 years ago. No other names could be confirmed. The British list was produced after the attorney general went through a larger selection of OTRs, and singled out only those against whom a charge could be brought before the courts. Since many of the crimes go back several decades, it is thought that many of the cases could no longer be prosecuted with a prospect of success. The attorney general’s review took some six months.

The size of the Sinn Fein list is not known but is thought to be much longer.

Sinn Fein’s negotiations with the British were only concerned with the fate of IRA members or former members. The British argued that it would be impossible to draft the necessary legislation with reference only to IRA suspects and that it would have to include loyalist paramilitaries and any security force members who might emerge as suspects thanks to the inquiries which are continuing into unsolved crimes such as the Finucane case. There have been persistent allegations that a British undercover unit, as well as Special Branch police officers, were culpable in the lawyer’s murder. Many Nationalists also believe that the Dublin-Monaghan bombings involved members of the British security forces.

Any amnesty would almost certainly infuriate Unionists, who have already reacted angrily to the weekend reports.

The offer was said to have been made on the understanding that the IRA would reciprocate with a meaningful gesture on decommissioning.

The talks concerning OTRs were moved up the agenda last summer, when Adams met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street. This meeting went largely unreported at the time.

British sources say that during the talks that led to the Good Friday agreement, the fate of the OTRs was not a "deal-breaking" issue and allege that Sinn Fein is continually putting new demands on the table.