Academic 'shocked' by collusion in loyalist murders'

The probe of 25 loyalist atrocities, carried out by a panel of human rights experts from around the world, found senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were aware and approved of collusion while officials in London had enough information to intervene.

The panel’s report also called on the British government to appoint an independent inquiry to examine how high up the chain of command collusion went.

Professor Cassel told PA at the Belfast presentation of the report: “Personally I was shocked.

“The British government has a reputation around the world as one of the leading democracies and one of the longest histories of the rule of law.

“To find this extent of collusion in murders in the 25 incidents we investigated was shocking.”

The panel was asked by the Derry-based human rights organisation the Pat Finucane Centre to investigate allegations of collusion in 25 loyalist attacks from October 1972 to February 1977 – most of which are linked to a loyalist gang known as the Glenanne group.

Among the incidents they investigated were the May 1974 Dublin Monaghan bombings which claimed 33 lives, the Miami Showband massacre in July 1975 during which three musicians and two members of the Ulster Volunteer Force gang died and the shooting of Catholic policeman Sergeant Joe Campbell in February 1977.

In only one case, the group was unable to reach a verdict on collusion because of conflicting accounts – the murder of 51-year-old driver James Marks and 78-year-old passenger Joseph Toland in a gun attack in Gilford, Co Armagh, on a minibus returning from bingo.

The panel also met members of three organisations representing republican victims of violence – Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, SAVER/NAVER, both in Markethill, Co Armagh, and the WAVE Trauma Centre in Belfast which caters for the victims of loyalist violence also.

Among the stories they heard were the murder of a woman in an acid and petrol bomb attack on a bus in Armagh in 1972, the shooting of a man pulled from a digger in Mullaghbawn as he cleaned drains on his farm, the killing of three UDR men when a lorry carrying a 1,000lb bomb rolled into their barracks at Glenanne in 1991 and a South Armagh farmer’s account of the intimidation of Protestants who were driven from their land.

They also heard allegations by at least one former RUC man that An Garda Siochána was not co-operative in bringing to justice IRA fugitives who fled across the border.

While the panel’s remit was to probe collusion in loyalist killings, Professor Cassel confirmed today: “There are some allegations we received of alleged failure of the Garda or the Irish authorities to properly co-operate with law enforcement in cases of violence against loyalists here in Northern Ireland.

“We will certainly be raising that with the Irish Government.”

The report called for:

Investigations by an independent team into allegations of collusion in murders and attempted murders by loyalists, capable of identifying those involved, examining how high up the chain of command it went and focusing not just on RUC and UDR involvement but also British Army and intelligence agencies;

Investigations into murders carried out by republican groups;

Full co-operation by paramilitary groups on both sides with credible official investigations into collusion;

The publishing of the findings of all investigations, including those by the Historical Enquiries Team which currently plans only to share its findings with victims’ families;

The state to acknowledge publicly its responsibility in sectarian killings where collusion is established, and

Public apologies from senior officials to the families of victims of collusion.

The international panel welcomed reforms introduced by the British government to investigate controversial murders, but they claimed they were still insufficient for getting to the heart of collusion cases.

The North’s police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, they said, did not have the powers to investigate collusion involving members of the UDR.

The £30m (€44.75m) Historical Enquiries Team (HET), set up by Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde, also fell short of international standards for investigations.

Professor Cassel revealed the investigation did not receive police documents which could have assisted the probe despite coming away from a June 2004 meeting with Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde, believing they would receive key documents.

Mr Orde, he said, informed them two months later instead that the documentation was being given to the HET’s predecessor, the Serious Crime Review Team.

He said the drawback of the HET’s investigation was that the HET was police-based and therefore when witnesses or perpetrators died off, areas of investigation were also closed down.

“The Historical Enquiries Team has been set up to examine all of the 3268 deaths which occurred as a result of the security situation in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1998,” he said.

“To date it has engaged with over 200 families and are dealing with in excess of 750 questions which those families have asked it to answer in the course of investigations. Every case will be looked at thoroughly, impartially and professionally and where there are grounds for further investigation and prosecution appropriate action will be taken.

“I have said from the very beginning that the Historical Enquiries Team is only one part of the solution to the difficult and sensitive issues around Northern Ireland's recent history. I believe that a wider debate has to happen and a wider process is needed, however so far this team is the only piece of concrete work that is ongoing in relation to these issues and whilst I do not say it is the answer to every question it offers real answers to many, many, families who are deciding to engage with it.

“This particular panel did not meet with or consult directly with the Historical Enquiries Team, I would invite them to come and see for themselves how the investigations and work with the families are progressing.”

Professor Cassel called on the British government to establish an independent investigation that was sufficiently broad to investigate the depth, strength and extent of collusion across the security forces.

He confirmed the panel would press for meetings with the British government at all levels to ensure the allegations they uncovered were taken seriously.

He also confirmed they had requested a meeting with the Irish government tomorrow after the report is presented in Dublin.

The panel would also request a meeting with the Westminster Joint Committee on Human Rights and would present the Council of Europe with a copy of the report.

Alan Brecknell, whose 32-year-old father Trevor was one of three people killed in a loyalist gun attack on Donnelly's Bar in Silverbridge Co Armagh in December 1975, welcomed the report.

“What is certainly important for our family is the acknowledgement from people of the standing of Douglass, Susie Kemp, Stephen Sawyer and Piers Pigou - people with a human rights background in South Africa, Guatemela, Sierra Leone, El Salvador – that they were able to take time out and come to listen to the families’ stories in a humane, sympathetic way,” he said at the launch.

“This report is a pressure point. It’s someone else saying the British government really has questions to answer and should answer these questions.

“It is also heartening to hear Douglass saying he’s going to the European Council of Ministers with this. That is a big thing for me to hear, to learn that there is not just going to be press launches of this report today and tomorrow.

“It’s good to know that while we will be pushing for the truth from here, they will be pushing for it as well.”

Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, who attended the presentation, said the report lifted the lid on security force involvement in the attacks, producing irrefutable evidence.

“For many years Sinn Féin was a lone voice in exposing British state collusion with unionist paramilitaries,” the Newry and Armagh MP said.

“We were vilified by the political and media establishment who dismissed claims of collusion as ’republican propaganda’.

“We have now been vindicated and will continue to stand with the families of those killed by the British state in their search for the truth.

“The British state is going to have to face up to its role in the systematic murder of more than 1,100 nationalists and republicans both directly and through their surrogates in the various unionist death squads.”