Republican News · Thursday 30 January 2003

Stevens report to be delayed again

BY LAURA FRIEL

The Stevens' report into British state collusion in the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane is to be delayed again. This report is the third probe into collusion carried out by John Stevens. The first two reports were substantially suppressed by the British government and have never been fully published.

Over a decade of 'investigations', and not one single conviction for murder, has dulled the hopes of most, not least the Finucane family, who continue to call for an independent public inquiry as the only means of establishing the truth.

The report of the current 'investigation' was due for presentation last summer but was delayed by Stevens, who promised to 'deliver' by the following April. During a recent interview with the British Guardian newspaper, Stevens hinted at further delay.

Last week, it was confirmed in the Belfast media. Stevens, now Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, indicated that he will only be delivering an 'interim' report in April.

This was necessary, it was suggested, because the Commissioner had recently discovered MI5's role in the collusion controversy. Which begs the question, just what has Stevens been 'investigating' for the last 14 years?

If not MI5, just who did the Met Chief imagine was running Special Branch and the FRU? And here's another clue. Guess who runs MI5? Try the British Cabinet through the Joint Intelligence Committee.

"There has been no previous indication of a direct MI5 link to the collusion probe," claimed the Belfast Telegraph. "In fact, MI5 operations in Northern Ireland were once thought to be the immediate beneficiaries of the Stevens' inquiry."

"The discovery of new documents was revealed by Sir John earlier this month," writes Chris Thornton. "He told an audience in New York: "It is fascinating, isn't it? That 12, 13 years on we are still actually finding new stuff.

Fascinating? Well that's one way of putting it. And then in a moment of shared confidence, Stevens admitted, "the ends that people are prepared to go to, to actually thwart this inquiry, are extraordinary". MI5 perhaps?

O'Loan triumphs

Meanwhile, the North's Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, emerged triumphant from her fray with the Police Association after a judicial review backed by the former RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan was abandoned at Belfast High Court last week.

Flanagan had sought court action through the offices of the Police Association after the Ombudsman published a highly critical report in relation the RUC investigation of the Omagh bombing. In the report, O'Loan had specifically criticised the then Chief Constable, accusing him of "poor leadership" and "flawed judgement".

Flanagan, unused to being publicly held to account, responded furiously, claiming the report was riddled with errors and threatened to "commit public suicide" if O'Loan was proved to be right. In light of last week's events, there will be many a punter hoping the former Chief Constable and head of Special Branch proves to be as good as his word.

But while Flanagan views O'Loan as the wicked witch of the North, another former Special Branch officer clearly hopes she will prove to be his fairy godmother.

Last week, the Police Board called on the Ombudsman to investigate allegations by the recently retired Special Branch Commander Bill Lowry. The former head of Belfast Special Branch claims he was forced out by MI5.

The Special Branch Chief Superintendent led the 'operation' against the so-called IRA spy ring in Stormont. A few weeks after the raids, Lowry quit the force, claiming he had been humiliated and betrayed.

In what must be the ultimate in conspiracy theories, Lowry has alleged that he was forced into early retirement to appease Sinn Féin because he had arrested prominent republicans. According to Lowry, the newly appointed PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, was ordered by telephone to get rid of him by MI5.

Delusional nonsense, of course, but it's hard to avoid the thought that MI5's allegedly easy access to Hugh Orde, a former leading member of the Stevens team investigating collusion, could possibly account for his former boss's inexplicably belated discovery of MI5's role in the Finucane killing.

Meanwhile, Hugh Orde, acting apparently on his own initiative, has requested 3,500 canisters of CS gas to be purchased annually for the next three years at a cost of £650,000. This at least could be expected to gain the approval of both Lowry and MI5.

50-50 recruiting scrapped

As indeed would the recent decision to drop the 50-50 religious divide regulation and recruit 1,500 part time PSNI officers exclusively from unionist controlled areas. Described as a 'pilot' scheme, the PSNI is set to recruit in Coleraine, Banbridge, Lisburn and Newtownabby.

"The announcement that recruitment to the part time reserve is to begin in unionist areas makes an already bad policing situation worse," said Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly.

"Patten's intention was that the part-time reserve would be used as a mechanism to recruit nationalists into a force which is currently unionist dominated. This announcement is an attempt to circumvent Patten," said Kelly.

Responding to the SDLP's call for unarmed policing and the closure of 23 British Army and PSNI barracks, Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty welcomed the statement.

"Sinn Féin's call for the British government to address the question of demilitarisation has now been endorsed by the SDLP," said Doherty.

The Sinn Féin MP called on the SDLP to further embrace the Good Friday Agreement's promise of progressive policing arrangements and called for the full implementation of the Patten proposals.

But for the Police Federation, a call for an unarmed police service was dismissed as "fantasy policing" and sparked outrage amongst it rank and file.

DUP member of the Policing Board Ian Paisley Jnr accused the SDLP of taking "a greener position in relation to policing" in a "desperate attempt to retain support in the forthcoming assembly elections".

UUP member Sam Foster accused the SDLP of moving into an "arena of comedy" and of showing "a lack of commitment to a peaceful, democratic Northern Ireland".