South Armagh demands independent inquiry
By Laura Friel
South Armagh residents are urgently seeking a meeting with the Dublin
and London governments after being told that their personal details
were amongst British Military Intelligence documentation uncovered at
Stoneyford Orange Hall, County Antrim.
Residents will be pressing for the full disclosure of the
documentation discovered in the hands of loyalists and will call on
the two governments to support their call for an independent public
inquiry into this latest collusion controversy.
Over 100 people, all of whom had been informed by the RUC that their
lives were in danger, attended a meeting in Crossmaglen last week. A
panel of lawyers and a member of the Committee for the Administration
of Justice joined Assembly members Conor Murphy and Alex Maskey to
address the meeting.
``Many people were surprised and shocked to learn that their personal
details had been passed into the hands of loyalists,'' said Joanne
Caragher. The list of people whose lives have been put at risk ranges
from teenagers to an 80-year-old widow.
``When people were told about the files,'' says Joanne, ``the RUC simply
read a pre-prepared short statement.'' The refusal to disclose the
exact details to each individual is further heightening anxiety.
``People have the right to know,'' says Joanne. ``Full disclosure of the
details would allow them to properly assess the threat under which
they are now living.''''
At the meeting, a small working committee was formed to collate all
the information and co ordinate future action. ``All residents under
threat, who have not already done so, were advised to contact their
solicitors,'' said Joanne. Solicitors can pursue full disclosure of
information contained in each individual's file.
The way in which local people had been ``snubbed'' by the RUC on the
grounds of ``confidentiality'', said Joanne, stands in sharp contrast to
the confidential material which had recently been made available to
Daily Telegraph journalist Toby Harnden, writing about South Armagh
republicans. ``The RUC are able to disclose information when it suits
them,'' says Joanne.
In his book ``Bandit Country: the IRA and South Armagh, Harnden quotes
from sources which include RUC Special Branch collators' indexes of
suspects, written reports of RUC investigations into incidents,
comments by RUC officers and Special Branch officers and a transcript
of an RUC confidential phone call.
It also includes information from informers' statements to British
military intelligence at Bessbrook Mill, an informer's statement to a
UDR handler, reports of British Army Intelligence Commanders and even
publishes montage photographs of ``IRA suspects'' and RUC photographs of
an ``IRA unit''.
Commenting on Harnden's book, Fr. Raymond Murray, author of ``The SAS
in Ireland.'' said considering that many of the documents of the 1920
period are still under secret wraps, he was astounded by the present
action of the police and army in providing Toby Harnden with secret
documents. Murray pointed out that the lawyers of many of the victims
of state violence have not had such access to security material.
Meanwhile, RUC Special Branch sources told one Sunday newspaper that
two loyalist politicians have been linked to the Stoneyford
conspiracy. According to the source, one of two is ``high profile'' and
both are members of the Orange Order. Loyalist meetings at Stoneyford
Orange Hall were secretly bugged and filmed by RUC Special Branch, it
has been claimed.
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