Confronting the killers

Firinne, the victims group campaigning for the truth about collusion between British state agents and agencies and Unionist death squads in the killing of citizens in Ireland is to hold a mass picket at the headquarters of British Intelligence in London on February 4.

Over the last 30 years collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads was a daily reality. This resulted in some of the worst incidents of violence including the Dublin/Monaghan bombings and the reign of terror conducted by the Shankill Butchers.

In the mid-1980s, the British government adopted a policy which gave them greater control of these death squads. The unionist paramilitaries were to be re-organised, resourced and directed by the British intelligence services to ensure that their targeting, to quote a British intelligence report, was emore professionali.

Subsequently, British Intelligence recruited, or placed, large numbers of agents in the loyalist paramilitaries.

The loyalists were armed with modern weapons. In December 1987 over 300 weapons were brought into the north of Ireland, with the full participation and knowledge of British Intelligence.

British Intelligence updated and organised loyalist intelligence documents to ensure that the Unionist death squads would be more efficient.

Hundreds of people were killed, and many more injured and maimed, in a campaign of state-santioned murder.

No member of the Special Branch or British military Intelligence has been indicted for these crimes.

The policy of collusion has never been reversed. It remains intact today.

The British agencies, which executed this policy, remain in place today. The Special Branch of the RUC became the Special Branch of the PSNI while the Force Research Unit of the British Army has simply been renamed the Joint Services Group. MI5 continues to operate as before in overall control of these activities.

The policy of employing the loyalist death squads was not the actions of rogue agents or individuals who overstepped their responsibilities. It was a policy endorsed at the highest political level. The British response to the Barron Inquiry and their refusal to act on the Cory report prove this. The British government has never accepted its responsibility for the deaths which resulted from this policy.

On Wednesday 4 February, 100 relatives of those killed as a result of collusion will travel to London to picket, for the first time, those responsible for the policy of collusion - the government department and agencies that directed the loyalist killer gangs.

Urgent Appeal