Collusion and British State Violence

The recent report by the Police Ombudsman confirms that collusion was an institutionalised practice involving the old RUC Special Branch, British intelligence and unionist death squads. It hasn't been the first report on collusion. Tons of evidence have been collected over the years in various inquiries. The British State has always refused to lead an inquiry and - if forced to by public pressure - to refuse publication of all results.

Nuala O'Loan's report is just the tip of the iceberg. Collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads was not confined to North Belfast. For many years republicans pointed out that collusion was an instrument of British policy in Ireland. The full truth about collusion has yet to be uncovered.

The following report shows that "collusion" is not an issue of the past.

Sunday Business Post , 22. April 2007

UVF spy ring had dossiers on 116 people
by Colm Heatley in Belfast

Shortly after 9am last Saturday, two police men called to Mark Thompson’s home in Belfast with news which he should take ‘‘very seriously’’.

In a scene which many thought had been left behind with recent political developments in the North, Thompson, a human rights worker with the Relatives for Justice group, was told the Ulster Volunteer Force had his personal details and that there was a substantial threat to his life. Thompson, a father of five, was told he should take appropriate security measures. By the middle of last week, 116 others had been informed of the same threat, as a UVF spy ring had allegedly been uncovered, operating at the heart of the PSNI’s civilian offices.

Among the others threatened were Declan Kearney, Sinn Fein’s chairman in the North, and Daithi McKay, Sinn Fein’s MLA in north Antrim. Most of those threatened, though, had no connection with republicanism. Details, including car registrations, home address, workplaces and personal routines, were being stored. The threats came just weeks after the Ulster Defence Association, the largest paramilitary group in the North, said publicly it had no intention of disarming its huge stockpiles in the near future.

The alleged spy ring was uncovered as speculation mounted that the UVF might have been preparing to issue a ‘‘definitive statement’’ over its future intentions. Senior UVF figures told The Sunday Business Post that the statement had already been agreed and would be issued in the near future. According to the loyalist, who helped draft the statement, it would deal with a wide range of issues and would ‘‘satisfy nationalists’’.

However, other sources said decommissioning was not on the agenda and loyalist groups argue that unlike republicans they would not have the international contacts to re-arm at a future date. Their huge stockpiles of weapons, including hundreds of assault rifles, which were smuggled into Ireland under the supervision of British intelligence in the late 1980s, would be staying intact, according to the loyalists.

As the North prepares for an embryonic power-sharing government with Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley at the helm, loyalist paramilitaries are once again flexing their muscles. While the IRA have decommissioned their arsenal and Sinn Fein supports the police, the loyalist gangs which terrorised nationalists for decades are still actively targeting potential victims.

When Gerry Adams met the British government in London last Wednesday, the question was asked: ‘‘Is the war really over?’’ Many nationalists in the North were asking the same question. For Mark Thompson, it is a threat he is taking seriously. ‘‘I have to. This is an armed group that is actively keeping tabs on me,” he said. Recent investigations into loyalist paramilitaries, especially those conducted by the Police Ombudsman, have revealed far-reaching collusion between the state and the UVF and UDA. Loyalist gangs were allowed to kill with impunity and protected from prosecution by Special Branch.

While it appears a lot of effort was invested in maintaining the UVF and UDA, no real political pressure is being exerted to ensure that the two groups dismantle. The discovery of the alleged spyring last week was greeted with a muted response by the PSNI’s Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, and the Secretary of State, Peter Hain. There is a suspicion that the recent wave of UVF activity is a response to investigative work carried out on them by groups such as Relatives for Justice. In recent times, Protestant victims of loyalist violence have come to the west Belfast-based group claiming their relatives were killed by UVF members who are paid Special Branch agents.

Through investigative work carried out by some human rights groups, fresh evidence has been uncovered which supports claims of deep-seated collusion between the security forces and loyalists in Mid-Ulster and Derry. The collusion, it is alleged, went so far as to include business deals and money-making schemes between senior UVF people and Special Branch members. Thompson believes the work of Relatives for Justice led to the UVF gathering intelligence on him.

For many, the continued existence of the UVF and UDA, and the lack of political will to get rid of them, is a direct result of the relationship which loyalists enjoyed with the RUC and British Army. Far from being adversaries, it appears from a substantial body of evidence now in the public domain, that the state and loyalists were colluding for decades, mutually assisting one another during the Troubles.

In Belfast, many of the most senior UVF and UDA figures are widely suspected - even by their own members - of working for Special Branch and MI5. In everyday life in the North, the loyalist groups still run their areas like individual fiefdoms. In loyalist areas, drug dealing is rampant, extortion is rife and the word of the local commander is final.

During their many internecine feuds, mass expulsions of dozens of families became almost commonplace, underlining the real power which the UDA and UVF enjoy. In an effort to encourage loyalists to move away from violence, they have been given access to the highest levels of political power in Ireland and England. Famously, Jackie McDonald - one of the leaders of the UDA and a convicted extortionist - enjoys a close relationship with President Mary McAleese.

McDonald has said publicly that the UDA will not disarm. While the political avenues are open to loyalists, the requisite political pressure has not been applied. Furthermore his particular UDA unit, the south Belfast brigade, is one of the most active in terms of extortion and drug dealing in what is the North’s most affluent district.

Last month in Tigers Bay, a loyalist enclave in north Belfast, residents called for street protests over the levels of drug dealing in the area. The residents said ecstasy and cocaine had flooded into the area, and they blamed the local UDA unit. The extortion rackets run by the loyalist groups also have an impact on small businesses, the backbone of private commerce in the North. Traders are routinely told to pay protection money or face the consequences.

Even if the UVF issues a statement declaring its support for the political process and its ‘‘peaceful intentions’’, it is unlikely its criminal activity would stop. One UDA leader in north Belfast, whose own organisation believes him to be an informer, is still in control of his area because he has a ‘‘talent’’ for making the group money. While the raison d’etre of loyalist paramilitaries may have been to terrorise nationalists, their day-to-day activity, has for a long time, been crime.

That is one reason why their political wings, the Progressive Unionist Party and the now-defunct Ulster Democratic Party, failed to win any real support at the polls. Working class unionism has so far failed to develop a genuine political voice, and is effectively out of the political loop. Therefore there is no incentive to leave behind criminality for constitutional politics.

Until working class unionists are adequately represented in politics, the North’s power-sharing assembly will function with the fully-armed UVF and UDA in the background.