February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Anne Cadwallader
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has accused British Northern Secretary John Reid of political dishonesty, of demanding an IRA surrender, of encouraging unionists to act unlawfully, and of putting the Good Friday agreement in danger.
In a frank and, at times, angry response to Reid’s recent comments on decommissioning and the UUP ban on Sinn Fein ministers attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings, McGuinness sayid Reid appears to be blaming republicans.
"A strategy for blame is a wrecker’s strategy," he said. "Is this really where Mr. Reid wants to take the situation?"
McGuinness says that in his short time as Northern secretary, Reid has moved "significantly closer to the unionist position" and to the Conservative government’s policy on decommissioning that brought down the first IRA cease-fire.
He compares Reid’s comments on decommissioning to those of a predecessor, Sir Patrick Mayhew, whose so-called "Washington Principles" were nothing more than "a demand for an IRA surrender."
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Furthermore, he said, Reid has publicly endorsed David Trimble’s unlawful actions against Sinn Féin ministers and was "dishonest" in a recent U.S. newspaper interview in which he said Sinn Féin "still has a gun under the table."
Stobie wants inquiry
The self-confessed ex-UDA man charged with the 1989 murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane has backed the family’s call for a full independent judicial inquiry.
William Stobie was an RUC Special Branch informer at the time he supplied the gun used to murder Finucane — and claims to have told his police "handlers" twice that the UDA was planning a murder.
He now expects to walk free from the murder charge, and the case against him to collapse, after the chief prosecution witness, former journalist Neil Mulholland, dramatically withdrew his evidence.
Mulholland, now a press officer with the Northern Ireland Office, but on sick leave, says he was under severe pressure when he made his original 1999 statement to the RUC, implicating Stobie in the murder.
Stobie now claims the RUC Special Branch plotted to have him killed in 1994 because they feared he might reveal their role in the Finucane murder and the subsequent cover-up.
"I had not been in contact with my Special Branch handlers in nearly four years at that time, but in 1994 I was brought to a house in the Shankill and accused by the UDA of being an informer," Stobie said.
"I was taken into the back entry and shot six times. I only survived because a neighbor came out before they could finish me off. I was in such a bad state that I died twice on the operating theater.
"I firmly believe that I was set up by the Special Branch because they knew the Finucane case would come up again some day and I was the only person who knew that they had done nothing to stop the murder."
Portadown protest
A thousand days after the first time they were prevented from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in 1998, the Orange Order has once again begun its Sunday protest marches to police lines.
About 200 Orangemen assembled at Drumcree Parish Church at lunchtime on April 1, accompanied by the Orange Order grand master, Robert Saulters, before walking a short distance to where RUC vehicles blocked the road.
The Portadown deputy master, David Burrows, called on the RUC to remove the obstacles from the road and allow the Orangemen to complete the parade by their traditional route.
An RUC chief inspector refused the request, informing the Orangemen that police officers would remain in position to enforce the Parades Commission ruling of July 2000, which prevents the Orange march from entering the Garvaghy Road.
Portadown District Master Harold Gracey told the Orangemen that the protest would continue until the Orange parade got down the Garvaghy Road. Saulters said he believed the Drumcree protest would continue for the foreseeable future.
"I think it could go a lot longer because the brethren here are determined to stand here until they do finish that parade," he said. Saulters also said he could not envision talks with residents’ groups.