State Violence (25 page)

The state perverts justice by attempting to solve its dilemma following these killings by inquests with limited powers and political decisions not to prosecute members of the security forces for murder. If, for example, all the killings carried out by the SAS, and I list 45 fatal shootings in the book, are examined in a continuous account a pattern of defence on the part of the SAS at inquests emerges:– they intended to make arrests; there was a threat to life and limb; the other party ‘fired first'. There are cases where forensic and medical evidence, and the evidence of witnesses, do not seem to have prevailed against the word of security forces.

The inquest system is inadequate. The Amnesty International report
United Kingdom: Human Rights Concerns,
June 1991, outlined its worries on the restrictions on inquests in Northern Ireland, in particular that the coroner's court cannot make the finding of an unlawful killing by a named or an unnamed person as is possible in England and Wales. The unfairness of the inquest system is outlined in a pamphlet
Inquests and Disputed Killings in Northern Ireland
issued by the Committee on the Administration of Justice in January 1992. Are citizens not entitled to fair institutions in matters of law?

What about the prosecution of security forces in matters of murder and unjust killing? Security forces are not subject to the same interrogation procedures as others and impartiality and persistence in cases involving police and army are in doubt. The DPP is not independent and the attorney-general is on record on restricting justice for reasons of public interest and national security. Are not political considerations and danger to morale of security forces prevailing over legal justice?

The Amnesty Report of 1991 noted:

‘There have been 21 prosecutions since 1969 of the security forces for using firearms while on duty in Northern Ireland (not including sectarian killings). Nineteen of these were found not guilty. One was convicted of manslaughter and given a suspended sentence. Just one – a soldier – was convicted of murder and released after serving two years and three months of his sentence and had been reinstated in the army. A total of 339 people have been killed by the security forces during the same period. Most of those killed were from the Catholic population and many were unarmed; many were killed in disputed circumstances.'

In the past decade 10 ‘joyriders' have been killed by the British army in west Belfast. On 31 July 1991 six members of the parachute Regiment were charged with the fatal shooting of two teenagers and the wounding of a third in west Belfast in 1990. The charges followed a BBC Panorama programme on ‘Shoot-to-Kill' which highlighted this shooting. It is highly unlikely that any soldier would have been charged with the murder of Fergal Caraher and the wounding of his brother on 30 December 1990 by marines if the Cullyhanna people had not organised an unofficial international inquiry to shame the British government into action.

One would like to know from those persons who run the High Court why soldiers or RUC men charged with murder or brutality have the good fortune to find such sympathetic judges. The few that are charged are acquitted in circumstances that are weird. It is almost impossible to have a British soldier convicted of murder in the courts of Northern Ireland. This is in direct contrast with the inordinate judicial revenge in the form of wholesale doubtful convictions against some forty people for the murder of two undercover British soldiers in Casement Park.

Catholics despair of getting fair treatment in human rights from the British government. Its image of keeping the peace between warlike factions is felt to be propaganda. It is beside the point when it comes to the forces of the state doing its share of unjust killing and murder. Catholics do not trust the RUC and the British army and they regard the UDR as a sectarian force. If the main motive and objective is to save human life it seems fruitless to inform the RUC who themselves pursue a ‘Shoot-to-Kill' policy and allow the British army to take human life with impunity. The anger aroused in people when the security forces of the state engage in ill-treatment or killing outside the law, and then protect themselves by lies, can lead people into using violence with disastrous results for themselves and the whole community.

The government of the United Kingdom is deaf to pleas for justice and fair play. In its report of June 1991 Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry which should look into the legislation and regulations governing the use of lethal force, as well as into the procedures used to investigate disputed incidents. The government of the United Kingdom has constantly refused to do this.

In the past 20 years sectarian assassinations of Catholics have been carried out by loyalist paramilitaries and pseudo-gangs tolerated and often directed by the British secret service. The purpose of the 500 murders of the 1970s was to break the nerve and sap the morale of the Catholic population, weaken its powers of resistance and draw off support for the IRA. This included British intelligence support for the Ulster Workers' Strike in May 1974 (which brought down the power-sharing executive government in Northern Ireland), the two Dublin bombings, 1 December 1972 and 17 May 1974, and other bombings in the Irish Republic, and cross-border assassinations and kidnappings. So close has been the collusion between the state and one loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, that it took twenty years to proscribe them, even though this group has murdered more than 500 innocent Catholics, men, women and children.

The Stevens inquiry was set up in 1989 to investigate the collusion of police and army with the loyalist murder gangs. Collusion, however, has gone on for twenty years. The UDA has been switched on and off as a ‘third force'. The Nelson Affair gave the public a glimpse of this underground murder campaign on the part of the British secret service. The manipulation was noticeable after the murder of Airey Neave and the Brighton bombing atrocity. It continues in east Tyrone and south Derry where in the past two years 19 Catholics have been murdered and no one made amenable. At political high-points, too, when indications are that Catholics might have a share in power the loyalist gangs are switched on. The ‘taking out' of Sinn Féin councillors and members is systematic. In October 1991 a combination of loyalists groups, UVF and UDA, conducted an assassination campaign which resulted in the murder of 8 Catholics. The campaign was believed to be aimed at forcing Britain to adopt a more conciliatory attitude towards unionism in the pre-election period.

There are three main areas where the killing of Catholics takes place – north Belfast, south Derry/east Tyrone, and the Craigavon area extending into Lisburn. Murders of Catholics in these three areas have taken place in the past few years. Let us take the Derry/Tyrone area as an example. Since January 1989 21 Catholics have been murdered there by loyalist paramilitaries and security forces. The UDA under its cover name UFF shot dead Danny Cassidy a Sinn Féin election worker on 2 April 1992. He was hit seven times in the day time. His widow claimed that he had been constantly harassed by the DMSU – the District Mobile Support Unit of the RUC. At his funeral Mass Bishop Edward Daly said that a factor in his killing was the ‘undue attention paid to him by some units of police'. The bishop told the congregation that Mr Cassidy had suffered constant cruel and public harassment from some members of the RUC. ‘In a society such as ours,' he said, ‘with more than its share of sectarian murders, it is unjust, irresponsible and wrong for police officers to pick out and highlight individuals in this public manner, thus putting their lives in mortal danger. This activity is wrong and unjust and it must stop.' Bishop Daly said that a week before Danny Cassidy was murdered a complaint was made by a local representative to a senior RUC officer about the way he was mistreated.

Prosecutions for these crimes are nil. There have been few arrests. Only one person has been prosecuted for indirect involvement. This must be the worst record for any police force in the world. Catholics believe there is collusion between the RUC, the UDR and the loyalist paramilitaries. They come from the same background and are politically hostile to nationalists. The feeling of the people of south Derry is stronger than the words of Bishop Daly. They think that the RUC through collusion were responsible for Danny Cassidy's murder.

The same pattern occurs in many of these killings. There is a presence of security forces before the shooting, then they disappear, the loyalist gunmen carry out the shooting, the UDR appear on the roads laughing and mock and harass Catholics. The RUC in most cases do not inform the relatives of the shooting or they do so in a cruel callous manner (like a phone call to Mrs Mc Govern in the early hours of the morning – ‘Your son is in the morgue'). They rarely take statements from the relatives as to recent events in the life of the deceased and his movements on the day of the shooting. It is almost impossible for relatives to have an interview with the investigating detectives.

Here is a list of the Derry/Tyrone killings of Catholics since January 1989. Unless otherwise stated these killings were carried out by the UVF:–

14 February 1989. John Joe Davey, Sinn Féin Councillor. Car ambushed near home.

29 November 1989. Liam Ryan and Michael Devlin. Shot dead in public house, Ardboe.

26 October 1990. Tommy Casey. Member of Sinn Féin. Shot dead at house, Cookstown.

3 March 1991. John Quinn, Dwayne O'Donnell, Malcolm Nugent, Thomas Armstrong. Shot outside pub in Cappagh.

3 June 1991. Three IRA men, Pete Ryan, Tony Doris, Lawrence McNally, ambushed by SAS at Coagh.

12 August 1991. Pádraig Ó Seanacháin. Member of Sinn Féin. Van ambushed.

16 August 1991. Thomas Donaghy. Kilrea. Shot outside work.

16 September 1991. Bernard O'Hagan. Member of Sinn Féin. Shot outside work at Magherafelt.

29 September 1991. Kevin McGovern shot by RUC in Cookstown.

25 October 1991. Seán Anderson shot outside his home in Pomeroy.

3 January 1992. Kevin McKearney shot dead in the family butcher shop, Moy. His uncle Jack McKearney wounded in the shooting died some months later.

6 September 1992 Charlie and Theresa Fox were shot dead near the Moy.

In revenge for loyalist killings in this area and in the absence of RUC detection of the killers the IRA on 17 January 1992 murdered by a landmine seven Protestant workers at Teebane near Cookstown with the ‘excuse' that they worked for the security forces – William Bleeks, David Harkness, James Caldwell, Robert Dunseith, John McConnell, Nigel McKee, Robert Irons. An eighth man – Oswald Gilchrist died on 21 January 1992 from injuries. There was a further repercussion to this slaughter when the UDA murdered five Catholics in a betting shop in Belfast on 5 February 1992 – James Kennedy, Peter Magee, Christy Doherty, William McManus, Jack Duffin.

As regards the shooting dead of Thomas Donaghy on 16 August 1991 as he arrived for work at Portna Eel Fishery, an area covered by the Ballymoney UDR, there is some background information which leads relatives and friends to suspect collusion. Thomas Donaghy was an ex-prisoner who left the IRA several years before his release from prison and did not become re-involved. The RUC harassed and tormented him non-stop from the three years from his release to his death.

In the same area Gerry Casey was shot dead in his home on 4 April 1989 by a gang who smashed in his door minutes after he went to bed. The police had already drawn a plan of the bedrooms of his house on a previous raid. His murder came only weeks after two men with a sledge-hammer were stopped at a checkpoint on their way to kill a Dunloy man a few miles from where the Caseys lived. In the same area of Kilrea, John O'Kane survived a booby-trap attempt on his life, 5 March 1988; another man with him, Stephen Kennedy, received head and eye injuries. The UDR had been in the vicinity on the previous night. There was a second booby trap attempt on O'Kane's life the following year 1989. A similar type of booby trap was used when a man was injured in an explosion at Kilrea GAA Club Rooms. Other ex-prisoners in this area are constantly harassed by the RUC, particularly by the District Mobile Support Unit. The RUC have told some of these men that their files are missing from Antrim RUC station.

I would suggest that international human rights organisations, besides carrying out
post factum
investigations and reports, should set up a ‘Red Adair' type emergency team of lawyers, forensic experts, photographers, engineers, and doctors to fly immediately to the aid of families after they have a member shot dead by the security forces. Vital information may be lost through a cover-up. One no longer has full confidence in forensic evidence gathered by the authorities. It is important that the families have independent autopsies and that as much evidence as possible is gathered in statements from witnesses. Photography and mapping are also important. The legal experts should then attend the inquests and trials that may emerge. Those who dare to challenge the British authorities, such as solicitors, also are in danger of assassination. On 17 January 1989, Douglas Hogg, a junior government Home Office minister stated in Westminster that ‘there are in Northern Ireland a number of solicitors who are unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA'. This statement was interpreted as a warning to solicitors not to contest too vigorously cases against British government institutions. Three weeks later, as though to underline this point, Pat Finucane, one of the leading human rights' lawyers in Northern Ireland, who had been particularly active in a number of the cases investigated by John Stalker, was murdered by the UDA in front of his family.

Amnesty International in its recent report focuses on this murder:

‘A year before his death Amnesty International had heard from a former detainee that during interrogation at Castlereagh the police had said his lawyer, Pat Finucane, would be killed ... Loyalist sources claimed that prior to the killing UDA members detained at Castlereagh had been told by detectives that Mr Finucane and a few other solicitors were IRA members and implied that they should be shot. Although some of them were later arrested by the Stevens team, apparently none of them were questioned about these allegations. Furthermore it was reported that Brian Nelson, the alleged (British) army and UDA intelligence officer questioned by the inquiry, knew that Patrick Finucane would be shot, and indeed had been involved in providing intelligence which led to the lawyer's killing'.