RUC raid linked to death list
BY LAURA FRIEL
A recently seized loyalist death list may be linked to an RUC raid on Sinn Féin offices around ten years ago. A second list is being linked to the killing of Lurgan defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson. Both lists have been linked to crown forces collusion.
A list of the names and personal details of 300 republicans was discovered with a haul of pipe bombs in the greater Belfast area. The haul has been linked to the UVF. The list, which is believed to relate to former republican prisoners, was initially thought to have been downloaded from a prisoners' Web site, possibly from America.
It has also been linked to a loyalist Web site, termed ``Know your Provo'', which circulated details of former republican POWs. According to people working with republican prisoners' welfare, the details posted on the Web by loyalists are remarkably similar to information seized by the RUC during a raid on Sinn Féin's offices in West Belfast.
On two different occasions, documentation, computers and computer disks belonging to the POW Department based in Sinn Féin's Sevastopol Street offices were seized by the RUC during raids on the building.
A second list, a package of 150 names, addresses and some photographs were seized in the north of the city. This list, which contained copies of crown force documentation including maps and photographs, is being linked to the Rosemary Nelson killing.
Nelson died after a booby trap device exploded under her car in March 1999. The explosive device used in the bombing and crown force activity in the area prior to the attack immediately alerted nationalists to possible collusion. In a pattern remarkably reminiscent of the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane, Nelson was repeatedly threatened by the RUC and other crown force members prior to her death.
This week it emerged that information regarding the death list had been passed onto Nuala O'Loan of the Police Ombudsman's Office in relation to complaints made against the RUC before November 2000. The details have also been passed to Colin Port and Stevens investigation teams. Colin Port is currently conducting an investigation into Rosemary Nelson's killing. Stevens is investigating Pat Finucane's death.
The second list contained the names and personal details of republicans and nationalists. The details of some mixed marriage couples were also included. It is believed to be nine years old, but had been updated in 1997 and again in 1999. The list also contained new entries that are less than three months old.
Most of the 500 people named on the two lists have not yet been informed by the RUC that their lives are in danger. Sinn Féin representative for the Bawnmore estate in North Belfast, Kevin Vernon, said that Catholics in the area were living in fear.
The RUC have confirmed that Crown force collusion could not be ruled out. Meanwhile, the PUP's Billy Hutchinson said that the only list he was aware of dated back to 1991 and contained jail addresses of republican prisoners. ``People in the media are running a campaign against the PUP ahead of the election. There is no updated list of any kind that I know of,'' he claimed.
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