Murder: The cost of delay
Nationalist demands for a full, international and independent inquiry
into the killing of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson have fallen
on deaf ears with RUC boss Ronnie Flanagan insisting that English
police officer David Phillips oversee the investigation.
Relatives for Justice spokesperson Martin Finucane reacting to
Flanagan's choice of the Chief Constable of Kent to oversee the
murder investigation, aided by an FBI officer, has accused the RUC
chief's decision as a pathetic and inept attempt to prevent the truth
coming out.
Finucane, whose brother Pat was shot dead by loyalists ten years ago
amid the very same echoes of collusion between the RUC and the UDA
gang who pulled the trigger said in his statement that ``Ronnie
Flanagan's sinister move is an attempt to block a full international
and independent inquiry to get the truth. It is this and only this
which will satisfy the concerns of everyone''.
Since 1969 there have been numerous investigations into the RUC by
the RUC which have lead to cover ups.
On at least four occasions English police officers have been wheeled,
in to the North, in a blaze of publicity to investigate the RUC.
All these investigations have ended in controversy as, owing to RUC
non co-operation these inquiries have collapsed and the truth buried
with the dead.
John Stalker, called in to investigate six shoot to kill deaths in
Armagh was discredited and his inquiry taken over by Colin Sampson.
The then British Attorney General Patrick Mayhew refused to prosecute
any of the RUC officers named in the Sampson report, in the interest
of ``national security''.
John Stevens report into collusion between loyalists and the crown
forces, a central part of which was the killing of `Pat Finucane, is
now lying in the bowels of the British establishment, unseen by all
but the British.
In 1969 Kenneth Drury, a detective chief superintendent with Scotland
Yard, assisted by George Churchill-Coleman was called in to
investigate the killing of Samuel Devenney in Derry.
His report of 236 pages and 1,000 pages of support material, when
submitted to Sir Arthur Young the RUC Chief Constable of the time,
could reveal nothing whatsoever or identify any of the RUC men who
attacked Mr Devenney in his own home in Derry's William Street.
There was a ``conspiracy of silence'', admitted Young.
Nationalists will not tolerate any more walls of silence, there must
be an independent inquiry.
Justice demands it: Rosemary Nelson's grieving family deserve it.
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