Andersontown News, 13. December 2001, http://www.irelandclick.com/
WE SAY: A vital choice to make
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out
that if it can’t be proved at present that Special Branch were involved in
some way in the murder of William Stobie, then they are at least on a very short
list of suspects with an interest in seeing him dead.
It is being said that yesterday was a very bad day for the RUC and the new PSNI
after the Ombudsman’s report into the RUC’s handling of the Omagh bomb was
released before the gunsmoke had cleared from the North Belfast air.
A more realistic assessment of yesterday’s events could be proferred.
This is the very first time that a light has been shone into the dark and murky
corners inhabited by Special Branch and the result has been an apocalyptic
series of revelations and condemnations that have placed a time bomb at the
heart of the old guard.
Just when that bomb will explode and banish the last vestiges of
state-sanctioned black arts and terror is anybody’s guess, but explode it
will.
It is up to the British government to decide whether they want this issue to be
drawn out painfully and bitterly in a series of dripfeed further revelations, or
whether they will show the courage required and act immediately and decisively
to ensure that the truth is revealed.
It is only then that the new start to policing that we all crave can be made.
It has been a bad week for the SDLP. While Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan was
courageously standing by her hard-hitting report in the face of an hysterical
response from Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, the SDLP were holed up in Belfast
with the UUP and the DUP arguing over the shape and colour of a badge for the
new force.
It is patently obvious this morning that the SDLP has jumped too early on the
issue of policing.
Alex Attwood argues that his party is best placed to address issues of concern
from within the new Police Board, but that is a feeble attempt to obscure the
true facts of the case, which are that Special Branch and the huge raft of
problems associated with it should have been sorted out before the SDLP gave the
new police arrangements the thumbs-up instead of after.
It’s not as if the issue hasn’t been a live one for some time.
Those opposed to the new arrangements placed Special Branch firmly on the
‘A’ list of objections because anyone familiar with the baleful reality of
Special Branch and their activities down through the years knew that no real
progress is possible so long as that organisation holds a position of such
absolute and unquestioned hegemony within the police service – whatever name
or badge it may have.
The implications of the events of the past few days and weeks are so profound
that immediate and far-reaching steps need to be taken before the name of the
PSNI itself is besmirched even before it has been printed on the headed
notepaper.
Ronnie Flanagan is damaged goods on so many levels now that he is effectively
incapable of meaningful command and should stand down right away.
The British government should illustrate that it is taking this shocking series
of events seriously.
Secretary of State John Reid is engaged in a furious and seemingly futile damage
limitation exercise, but he’s torn between the need to keep the lid on the
truth about his country’s dirty war and his duty to uphold the institutions of
the Good Friday Agreement – in this case the office of the Police Ombudsman.
Sadly, the two activities are mutually exclusive. The best thing that John Reid
could do now would be to admit that awful wrongs have been perpetrated and lines
crossed over.
The Good Friday Agreement demands a new start to policing and, just as gambling
and drink addicts cannot begin seriously to address their problems until they
admit to their existence, so no new start can be envisioned until the policing
demons of the past are acknowledged and exorcised.
For the British it is a simple choice. Not only does the direction of policing
depend on what choice is made, the very future of this corner of Ireland does
too.