By Patrick Markey
The husband of slain Northern Irish lawyer Rosemary Nelson visited the East Coast this week to accept an honorary award on her behalf and renew calls for an independent investigation into her murder.
In New Jersey on Monday, Paul Nelson received an honorary Doctorate in Human Letters in memory of his wife at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. On Monday night in New York, Nelson met with Irish-American leaders and the city’s legal community at Manhattan’s 21 Club to launch the American arm of the Rosemary Nelson Campaign.
Nelson, who worked on many human rights cases in Northern Ireland, was killed when a bomb exploded under her car on March 15. Both the FBI and several English police forces have been working with the RUC on the investigation into her death. RUC officers had allegedly been involved in making threats against Nelson before her death.
In one of his first interviews since the death of his wife, Nelson questioned the role of the RUC in the investigation, specifically the force’s participation investigating allegations of collusion.
"How do I accept these findings if they are carried out by the same force involved in those allegations," he said.
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While accepting the international investigative experience of Norfolk chief constable Colin Port, Nelson said another international level of supervision was perhaps needed, and cast doubt on RUC’s involvement in the on-the-ground investigation
Port’s involvement, he said, would be acceptable if there were other safeguards in place and the Norfolk chief’s experience in Rwanda and Bosnia could be utilized in a new role.
Nelson said names of acceptable, internationally recognized individuals who could fulfill that supervisory role had already been forwarded.
"As it stands at the moment any findings from the investigation will not be acceptable. With the team he has at the moment he won’t get to the truth. Finding Rosemary’s murders is only one element of the investigation," Nelson said.
May 26-June 1, 1999