Sinn Féin News, 7.2.2007
British state closes ranks to protect Finucane killers
The British government has closed ranks to protect the killers of Belfast
human rights solicitor Pat Finucane. Finucane was murdered at his home in
Belfast in February 1989.
Last year Ken Barrett, a unionist paramilitary convicted of killing
Finucane, was freed after serving three years in jail. But the Finucane
family has always insisted Barrett and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
did not act alone.
The latest chapter in the British cover up of the Finucane killing unfolded
on Monday 25 June when it was revealed that the so-called Public
Prosecutions Service (PPS) is refusing to prosecute any member of the
British crown forces involved in the murder and that of Adam Lambert.
Lambert, a Protestant man, was mistaken for a Catholic and shot dead by
members of the UDA gang who assassinated Finucane.
Nor will the British state be taking any action against its agents who
supplied weapons to the UDA gang who carried out the 1992 attack on Sean
Graham's bookmakers on the Lower Ormeau Road in South Belfast which left
five nationalists dead.
Special Branch agent
In its 25 June statement the PPS, confirmed for the first time, that UDA
quartermaster and Special Branch agent Billy Stobie -- who supplied the
weapons to Finucane's killers -- handed over weapons to the Special Branch
and that weeks later these weapons were returned to the UDA.
The PPS maintained that as none of the RUC officers who handed these guns
back to the UDA could be identified no one would be prosecuted.
One of the weapons, a handgun, was used to kill Catholic Aidan Wallace as he
played pool with his brother in the Devenish Arms on December 22 1991.
Within weeks of that attack on February 1992, a UDA death squad using that
same weapon and an AK 47 assault rifle, mowed down 5 Catholics, Jack Duffin
(66), William McManus (54), Christy Doherty (51), Peter Magee (18) and James
Kennedy (15) in the Sean Graham's bookmakers shop on the Lower Ormeau Road.
Collusion confirmed
The PPS announcement made on Monday 25 June effectively buries the
investigations into the Finucane killing carried out by one of Britain's
most senior police officers, John -- now Lord -- Stevens.
Stevens finished his investigations into the killings of Finucane and Adam
Lambert four years ago he confirmed that he had uncovered evidence of
collusion into both killings.
The high profile investigator said: "I have uncovered enough evidence to
lead me to believe that the murders of Pat Finucane and Brian Adam Lambert
could have been prevented. I also believe that the RUC investigation of Pat
Finucane's murder should have resulted in the early arrest and detection of
his killers. I conclude there was collusion in both murders and the
circumstances surrounding them".
He concluded that the, "actions or omissions", of crown force members had
led to the deaths of innocent civilians. He also accused members of the RUC
and the British army's FRU of, "wilfully", obstructing and misleading his
inquiries by withholding evidence and intelligence.
Brian Nelson
The Stevens inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Pat
Finucane lasted almost 18 years and centred on the activities of UDA
intelligence officer Brian Nelson -- a British agent attached to British
Military Intelligence through the Force Research Unit (FRU).
Nelson was a British soldier and had served in the Black Watch Regiment but
in the early 1970s he was imprisoned after being found guilty of carrying
out a UDA punishment beating.
Questions abound as to whether Nelson ever left the British army but he was
recruited into the FRU by a Colonel Gordon Kerr and was installed as the
UDA's top intelligence officer.
In that role Nelson was in a position to direct UDA deaths squads and using
information supplied to him by his FRU directors targeted republicans.
However, at least 29 people, many of them uninvolved Catholics, were killed
by the UDA at the time of Nelson's involvement and were identified through
crown forces intelligence files.
Ruling "scandalous"
Reacting to the PPS ruling Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey, described it as,
"scandalous".
Maskey was repeatedly targeted for death by the crown forces and Brian
Nelson. In the mid 1980s Maskey was shot and seriously injured at his
Andersonstown home while in May 1993 Sinn Féin activist Alan Lundy was shot
dead by a UDA gang as he worked in Maskey's home.
"There was a sustained and orchestrated campaign against my life which
included the murder of my best friend Alan Lundy as he worked in my home in
1993.
I find it absolutely galling that the PPS has taken this decision. It
wouldn't happen in any other country in the world", he said.
Echoing Maskey's anger the family of Pat Finucane said in a statement that
they were extremely angry and disappointed at the decision of the PPS.
"It is difficult to square the unequivocal nature of the conclusions reached
by Lord Stevens four years ago with the submissive, timid, unconvincing
reasons advanced by the PPS for not instituting a single prosecution.
It is notable that the PPS feels himself unable to use 'certain
intelligence records as evidence' a clear indication that the interests of
[British] national security remain more important than human lives".
The Finucane family statement went on to say that they would not be deterred
by the decision made by the PPS and that they would continue to press for a
fully independent inquiry into Pat's killing and all the circumstances
surrounding it.
"Only an independent public inquiry can satisfy the concerns of our family
and the wider public about the existence of collusion between the British
army, the RUC and the security services in the murder of Pat Finucane and
many others".