Paul T Colgan - RUC trained loyalist assassins

RUC trained loyalist assassins,UDA chief's diary reveals

By Paul T Colgan

4 April 2004

British military intelligence and the RUC Special Branch helped with the covert training of loyalist assassins, according to the prison journal of a British agent, the late Brian Nelson.

The Sunday Business Post has seen Nelson's diary, which is crucial to Judge Peter Cory's report on the UDA's murder of solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

Nelson, the chief intelligence officer of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), was controlled by the British army's Force Research Unit. He was implicated in the murder of at least 29 people, including Finucane, and scores of murder attempts.

Many of the UDA men involved in the training later took part in a campaign of sectarian violence in which more than 200 people were killed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Nelson, who played a central role in the training, claimed that he was assured that "friendly forces", such as the RUC Special Branch, MI5 or the SAS,would not interfere with the operations.

"It wouldn't be the first time the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing," he wrote in the diary. "Before such escapades, I always ensured that my handlers were informed as to the actual areas that we would be training in."

Cory's report into Finucane's murder implicated members of the security forces and showed that the solicitor was not told about three previous UDA plots to kill him. The British government has said it will not act on Cory's recommendation for a public inquiry into the murder until prosecutions relating to the case are finished.