1.6.04
News Letter
Security Force 'Link To Loyalists' Probed
By Dan Mcginn
Monday 31st May 2004
A DELEGATION of international human right activists were in Northern Ireland yesterday to probe claims that members of the security forces colluded with a loyalist gang in a series of murders during the 1970s.
The team of investigators arrived in the Province on Saturday and has already begun meeting families of people allegedly killed by the gang.
They were invited to Northern Ireland by the Londonderry-based Pat Finucane Centre and will be carrying out their investigation into allegations of collusion with the loyalist Glenanne gang over the next fortnight.
The Glenanne group has been linked to four car bombs planted by the UVF in the Republic which killed 33 people in Dublin and Monaghan.
The gang has also been accused of carrying out murders in counties Armagh, Tyrone and other border counties.
The investigation team is led by Professor Douglass Cassel, president of the board of directors of the Justice Studies Centre of the Americas and director for the Centre for Human Rights in Chicago.
Other members include Piers Pigou who worked with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Susie Kemp, a barrister who was the legal director of the Centre for Human Rights Legal Rights Action in Guatemala, and Steve Sawyer, a former prosecutor and legal counsel to the Centre for International Human Rights at North Western University in Chicago.
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, who accompanied the delegation to their first round of meetings with families yesterday, said they hoped to meet Chief Constable Hugh Orde.
The delegation has also requested a meeting with Judge Henry Barron who in a report to the Irish government last December said that any co-operation between British security forces and the UVF was low level.
Arrangements have also been made for the group to talk to former RUC officer John Weir who has made collusion allegations against former colleagues.
Mr O'Connor said: "The purpose of this visit is two-fold. We want to give the families of those murdered a chance to tell an international delegation what they believe and the panel to judge from the testimonies what case there is to answer.
"We also want to see if the panel-can uncover through meetings with the police, the DPP, the courts service, the corners what we have not been able to discover."
* Meanwhile, Willie Frazer of victim's group FAIR has demanded to meet with Chief Constable Hugh Order over the collusion claims.
He said that Armagh residents are "very angry" about allegations of UDR and RUC personnel colluding with loyalist paramilitaries.
Security Force 'Link To Loyalists' Probed
By Dan Mcginn
Monday 31st May 2004
A DELEGATION of international human right activists were in Northern Ireland yesterday to probe claims that members of the security forces colluded with a loyalist gang in a series of murders during the 1970s.
The team of investigators arrived in the Province on Saturday and has already begun meeting families of people allegedly killed by the gang.
They were invited to Northern Ireland by the Londonderry-based Pat Finucane Centre and will be carrying out their investigation into allegations of collusion with the loyalist Glenanne gang over the next fortnight.
The Glenanne group has been linked to four car bombs planted by the UVF in the Republic which killed 33 people in Dublin and Monaghan.
The gang has also been accused of carrying out murders in counties Armagh, Tyrone and other border counties.
The investigation team is led by Professor Douglass Cassel, president of the board of directors of the Justice Studies Centre of the Americas and director for the Centre for Human Rights in Chicago.
Other members include Piers Pigou who worked with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Susie Kemp, a barrister who was the legal director of the Centre for Human Rights Legal Rights Action in Guatemala, and Steve Sawyer, a former prosecutor and legal counsel to the Centre for International Human Rights at North Western University in Chicago.
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, who accompanied the delegation to their first round of meetings with families yesterday, said they hoped to meet Chief Constable Hugh Orde.
The delegation has also requested a meeting with Judge Henry Barron who in a report to the Irish government last December said that any co-operation between British security forces and the UVF was low level.
Arrangements have also been made for the group to talk to former RUC officer John Weir who has made collusion allegations against former colleagues.
Mr O'Connor said: "The purpose of this visit is two-fold. We want to give the families of those murdered a chance to tell an international delegation what they believe and the panel to judge from the testimonies what case there is to answer.
"We also want to see if the panel-can uncover through meetings with the police, the DPP, the courts service, the corners what we have not been able to discover."
* Meanwhile, Willie Frazer of victim's group FAIR has demanded to meet with Chief Constable Hugh Order over the collusion claims.
He said that Armagh residents are "very angry" about allegations of UDR and RUC personnel colluding with loyalist paramilitaries.
