Republican News · Thursday 17 January 2002

Reid must take responsibility

BY MICHAEL PIERSE

The ease with which the major part of a normally suspicious Irish and British media accepted the bona fides of a statement from the UFF/UDA calling for the Red Hand Defenders to disband is symptomatic of a wider malaise in Irish and British political cricles.

It is not optimistic credulity and they're not foolhardy - if anything such attitudes thrive among those who are amongst the most educated and well-informed in Irish society. The debilitating sickness I'm speaking of is plain, old-fashioned disinterestedness.

John Reid, the British government, unionists and even, we are now told, loyalist death squads are 'appalled' at the attacks on and threats against children, teachers, postal workers and the ensuing social unrest. Each of them are at pains to publicly state their disgust, yet each of them are culpable for creating and maintaining the current situation by doing precisely nothing (or, in the case of loyalists, doing too much).

Let's get this clear. The UFF/UDA calling on the Red Hand Defenders (RHD) to disband is an act of gross organisational schizophrenia akin to neo-Nazi denials of the Holocaust. The UFF, UDA and RHD are one and the same. The exchangeable acronyms provide cover for their activities and allow the UDA to attribute their most heinous crimes to the UFF and RHD respectively. John Reid knows this, journalists know this and unionists know this. Alan McQuillan, the Deputy Chief Constable of the RUC/PSNI knows this too, yet he was willing to assure postal workers yesterday that the RHD threat to their lives has subsided.

The RUC and John Reid have a vested interest in the lie. Their efforts in keeping the collusion of the past 30 years quiet leaves loyalists, with whom they have long had an unholy relationship, with a license to unleash chaos.

Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, loyalists have been responsible for over 50 killings, 500 bomb attacks and 540 gun attacks, and these can't all be attributed to some supposedly miniscule, anonymous organisation called the RHD. As regards the killings, the RUC has only secured one conviction, while the detection rate for those involved in bombings and gun attacks is negligible.

Yet John Reid pledges to catch the killers of 20-year-old postal worker Daniel McColgan and advises that "everyone in Northern Ireland has to confront the struggle between peace and hatred". Richard Haass, George Bush's chief advisor on Ireland, warned us yesterday that "unless a majority in both communities is supportive" the peace process cannot move forward.

What incredible arrogance. The 'majority in both communities' is supportive. They want peace, they voted for it, they deserve it. The sad reality is that the UDA lead, or more aptly, control the people of Glenbryn and other loyalist areas through a vile mix of fear, crime and loathing, while those who should be showing progressive leadership in these areas watch on.

Richard Haass telling republicans to join the policing board, because we might see some demilitarisation, is an incoherent and mistaken piece of advice. Demilitarisation has nothing to do with policing. Demilitarisation is in the Agreement and should not be used as a bargaining chip. The continuing revelations of the extent of RUC collusion in the assassination of Pat Finucane point up excatly why republicans will not settle for a repackaged RUC with an unreconstructed Special Branch but will instead hold out for a policing service that will protect all of the community.

The SDLP have blundered badly by joining the policing board. In a choreographical disaster, the very day SDLP leader Mark Durkan proudly unveiled the new RUC/PSNI symbol, Nuala O'Loan releaseed her damning report into that same organisation and former RUC agent and Pat Finucane case witness William Stobie was shot dead.

Republicans are right to refuse to be a silent partner in this sham, but John Reid bears a responsibility for the suffering of the beleaguered people of North Belfast, who face daily attack from loyalists with the cold comfort of 'protection' from a police force they cannot trust.