February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The bereaved families of some of the murder victims are considering legal action to force the British government to publish reports on the allegations. The Irish government published two reports on Dec 18.
The reports were handed to the governments in London and Dublin nine weeks ago. Cory is understood to be extremely concerned that the British have still not published his reports.
He had inquired into six cases where collusion was alleged between paramilitaries and either the RUC or British Army (in the North) or gardai and the IRA (in the Republic).
Cory said he had been careful not to include anything that could jeopardize continuing security operations but the British government is still using this as a reason not to publish.
The families of murdered lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, among others, have written to him asking for publication and Cory even considered whether he should publish the reports himself but the Northern Ireland office barred him from doing so.
The SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, said after a party delegation held a lengthy meeting with the chief constable, Hugh Orde, that the Cory Report must be published.
“Any officer against whom there are allegations of serious wrong-doing should be suspended,” he said. “The British government must not evade its undertaking to publish Cory and convene an independent inquiry. The police can build confidence by suspending officers where allegations of serious wrong-doing arise.”
The SDLP also complained to Orde, at the same meeting, about the high-profile raids and arrests last week of two civil servants working for the Northern Ireland Police Fund.
After the arrests, police briefings claimed that there were financial irregularities at the Fund and the possibility that names of individual police officers and their addresses had fallen into the hands of the IRA.
Unionists were angered about the reports, with the DUP claiming it vindicated its stand of refusing to speak to Sinn Fein and the UUP also fulminating against another “Provo spy ring.”
This week, however, even the UUP Policing Board member Lord Ken Maginnis said the arrests had been “frightening, akin to lynch law” and that innocent people had been “named and shamed.”
He said the police leading the raids had been “heavy handed” and “over the top,” even to the extent of rifling through children’s school bags in a “scandalous” way. Another UUP police board member, Fred Cobain, also accused the police of “spinning” the story to reporters.
The SDLP policing spokesman, Alex Attwood, said, “The SDLP has real concerns about the heavy-handed tactics of the police in making these arrests and the scant nature of any apparent evidence of any wrongdoing against them.
“Grave damage has been done by these arrests to the good name and standing of both men. Our message is clear: the police must move quickly to right any wrongs that have arisen and to undo the damage caused by their actions and tactics.”
“The SDLP has also met with the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, over this case. We have encouraged the two men to make a complaint to her so that she can independently investigate the strange goings on in this case.”
Also on policing, the ninth, and final, report was produced on implementing the Patten changes by former New York state police chief Tom Constantine. He is to be replaced by his deputy, Al Hutchinson, on Jan. 12.
Sinn F