<HTML><PRE>Subj:	 RMD980219 Irish news for Thursday 19 February
Date:	98-02-19 09:06:04 EST
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    IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
    http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
    
    Thursday, 19 February, 1998


1.  Body may be new loyalist victim
2.  Britain in the dock
3.  Fighting every single step of the way
4.  Compensation after gruesome RUC attack on POW
5.  Analysis:  Justice and the Pale
6.  URGENT APPEAL FOR FUNDS
7.  Black Watch protest in Ohio


_________________________________________________________________
    
    
>>> Body may be new loyalist victim
    
    
    A loyalist murder gang is believed to have carried out
    the murder of a Lurgan man found bound with his hands
    behind his back near the village of Aghalee, County
    Antrim overnight.
    
    Thirty-year-old Kevin Conway had not been seen for more
    than 48 hours after leaving his home on the Republican
    Kilwilkee Estate, where he is thought to have been
    abducted by a loyalist death-squad.
    
    He was found with head wounds in a derelict house in
    the countryside with his hands tied behind his back.
    
    The building where the man's body was discovered is on
    a farm at Soldierstown Road near staunchly loyalist
    Aghalee, where last year Catholic teenager Bernadette
    Martin was shot dead as she stayed overnight in the
    family home of her Protestant boyfriend.
    
    BOMB
    
    Meanwhile, a loyalist letter bomb delivered to a
    Catholic family in north Belfast exploded today as it
    was being investigated by one of the residents of the
    Ardoyne area. The package contained in a video case
    detonated after the home-owner became suspicious and
    threw it into his back garden.
    
    The man, who did not want to be named, said his family
    had been targeted simply because they are Catholics.
    "If that thing had gone off in the living room with my
    family in there, it would have been caused death or
    very serious injury."
    
    A similar package is reported to have been delivered to
    a house in Trea Gardens in Toombridge, Co Antrim.
    Nationalists are being urged to remain vigilant,
    particularly against letter bombs and possible
    abduction attempts.
    
    
_____________________________________________________________


>>> Britain in the dock

    
    A court bid to block British efforts to expel Sinn Fein
    from peace talks continued today after three days of
    fruitless discussions wound up last night at Dublin Castle.
    
    Sinn Fein is fighting for the right to attend
    negotiations, and is demanding demonstrable proof that
    the party has violated the Mitchell principles of
    non-violence which underpin the talks.
    
    The High Court action was taken yesterday morning by
    the 17 Sinn Fein delegates in the negotiations against
    the three independent chairmen of the negotiations,
    Senator George Mitchell, Gen John de Chastelain and the
    former Finnish prime minister, Mr Harri Holkeri, and
    Britain's governor in Ireland, Mo Mowlam.
    
    Britain has cited allegations by its RUC police chief
    that the IRA was involved in two recent shootings, with
    the claim that Sinn Fein is "inextricably linked" to
    the IRA. SInn Fein has stressed its independence as a
    political party with 120 elected representatives across
    the country and its right to represent its voters at
    the talks alongside the other parties.
    
    Sinn Fein is seeking immediate relief from the
    expulsion threat with an injunction, by way of judicial
    review, to prevent any further steps being taken to
    exclude the Sinn Fein delegates from the negotiations
    and an order, if necessary, quashing any order
    purporting to exclude the delegates.
    
    Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, MP and party
    colleagues last night insisted that there was "no case
    for Sinn Fein to answer".
    
    "The indictment is without foundation and can only
    undermine the potential of the peace process. Despite
    this and our formal request to do so, the British
    government refused to withdraw their indictment."
    
    Mr Adams said he believed the British government had
    come to Dublin with a predetermined decision to exclude
    Sinn Fein from the talks process. Borrowing the words
    of Mo Mowlam, he said his party's High Court action was
    a bid to defend "the integrity of the peace process".
    
    "This legal intervention is part of Sinn Fein's
    determined effort to defend the rights of our
    electorate and the integrity of the peace process. Sinn
    Fein has demonstrated both inside and outside the talks
    that we are not prepared to collude in our own
    exclusion or the labeling of this party and of our
    electorate as second class.
    
    "We made clear our absolute determination to defend the
    democratic rights of our electorate and the integrity
    of the Sinn Fein leadership and of the peace process."
    
    Adrian Hardiman SC, acting for Mr Adams and his
    colleagues has this morning continued with arguments
    that the procedure to exclude Sinn Fein was
    fundamentally flawed. Because it occurred in a context
    of "high politics" made no difference, he said.
    
    The court was told it was contrary to the principles of
    natural justice to allow the RUC Chief Constable to
    determine who participates in the peace process.
    
    The British complaint was "almost grotesquely
    deficient" because of the lack of specificity in it.
    Because of that, his clients could not make a defence
    of their position, and no steps had been taken to
    safeguard his clients' interests or give them basic
    information.
    
    Sinn Fein is seeking further orders that they are
    entitled to be present and to contribute to the
    negotiations and are seeking to restrain the chairman
    and Mo Mowlam from making any decision that Sinn Fein
    had "demonstrably dishonoured" the Mitchell Principles.
    
    Unfounded allegations that Sinn Fein delegates should
    be identified with the IRA were a serious matter, he
    argued. "This requires more than an assertion, it
    requires proof",  said Mr Hardiman.
    
    The talks chairmen and the British government were
    today challenging the jurisdiction of the Dublin Court
    over their actions.
    
    Speculation continues as to whether the two governments
    will make an expulsion order despite the ongoing court
    action.
    
    Mo Mowlam said last night the governments had spent
    three days listening to Sinn Fein's presentation of its
    case and the views of the other parties.
    
    "The governments are now taking into account the points
    made by Sinn Fein and the other parties in making our
    final determination. Both governments hope to reach a
    decision as quickly as possible," she said.
    
    Mr Adams urged both governments to provide Sinn Fein
    directly -- "face-to-face" -- their decision on the
    British government's indictment.
    
    Sinn Fein was committed to its peace strategy and to
    the search for peace, he stressed.  "Our exclusion can
    only devalue this process and diminish its potential to
    deliver a peace settlement."  He wondered to what end
    the peace process was now operating.
    
    "Who is setting the agenda for these talks? who is
    running the talks process? - is the Irish government
    and the British government, or is it the RUC and the
    securocrats?
    
    He blasted the double standards and inconsistency of
    the British government, which insisted on
    "incontrovertible evidence" before the expulsion last
    month of the loyalist UDP.  The road to peace was
    thorough inclusive talks, he insisted.
    
    "It is up to nationalist and democratic opinion in
    Ireland, Britain and internationally to ensure that
    this is an inclusive process and to resist any efforts
    to reduce or subvert its potential to resolve conflict
    and deliver a lasting peace.
    
    
    APPEAL FOR CALM
    
    He acknowledged the  "anger, concern and frustration"
    caused by the week's events.  "The energy expended
    negatively in attempting to exclude Sinn Fein should
    have been employed to make progress on the many issues
    which need to be resolved. That is a matter for regret.
    But that concern should not result in any loss of hope.
    Sinn Fein does not have an exit strategy, nor are we
    walking away from our peace strategy."
    
    "I would appeal to everyone to respond calmly to
    whatever decision the two governments make but also
    with determination to ensure that the opportunity for
    peace is not wasted."



________________________________________________________________


>>> Fighting every single step of the way


    It wasn't until three o'clock on Monday afternoon that
    the penny finally dropped with the posse of journalists
    in Dublin Castle. It was then that Martin McGuinness
    made it clear that Sinn Fein would fight the attempt to
    have them expelled "every single step of the way".
    
    Suspicions were raised earlier when an Irish government
    spin doctor refused to say whether Mo Mowlam's
    accusations against Sinn Fein was a "formal
    indictment". He was surrounded by puzzled journalists
    demanding an answer to this apparently simple question.
    Then his mobile phone rang. "Thank God," he said,
    "rescued!"
    
    That morning the world's press had collectively decided
    that Sinn Fein would be gone in an hour or two. It was
    a foregone conclusion, bolstered by NIO briefings. As
    time ticked by and no information emerged from the
    talks, certainty turned to puzzlement. Mowlam's
    accusation was in the form of a 'speaking note' which
    contained no new information. It simply said that it
    was RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan's 'firm view' that the
    IRA was responsible for two recent killings.
    
    Sinn Fein gave a number of briefings. Is it now up to
    Ronnie Flanagan to say who is part of negotiations? How
    can we defend these vague and non-specific accusations?
    There is absolutely no proof that Sinn Fein has
    dishonoured any commitments.
    
    It became clear that when Mowlam made her 'statement'
    she was asked whether she had sought information from
    the RUC on who had killed Liam Conway and John
    McColgan, two nationalists shot dead in Belfast in the
    days after the UFF said they were reinstating their
    'ceasefire'. Mowlam said she hadn't. Sinn Fein pointed
    out that this was one among many double standards.
    
    "This [attempted expulsion] is a fundamental issue of
    equality," Martin McGuinness said. "This is an issue of
    whether or not the political representatives of around
    130,000 people are going to be thrown onto the streets,
    effectively by the British government and the UUP. The
    big question people have to ask themselves is whether
    or not the expulsion of Sinn Fein assists the search
    for peace on this island."
    
    After a further few hours of bottomless cups of coffee
    interrupted by regular consultations with spin doctors,
    the journalists prepared to go home. Then it was
    announced that Gerry Adams was to give a press
    conference. It was an explosive event.
    
    Adams outlined their position. After fielding a few
    questions he was asked by ITN reporter Johnny Irvine to
    explain the 'influence' Sinn Fein had with the IRA.
    "You covered the last election, what did it say in our
    manifesto? It said 'Sinn Fein is not the IRA'. Ask any
    of the people here how the cessation came about," Adams
    said. Irvine then repeatedly interrupted him: "I
    didn't ask you that. In the run-up to the last
    ceasefire did you or did you not say... I will seek a
    time when I can go to the IRA... Tell us what influence
    you have with the IRA."
    
    Adams replied: "The children in the streets know how we
    brought about the cessation. John Hume and I and Albert
    Reynolds and people in Irish America moved beyond
    marginalisation and started to deal with the north as a
    political problem instead of the collusion that it was
    a problem created by republicans. And we were able then
    to put up an alternative... And that's how we were able
    to bring about a cessation. And you know that, so don't
    smart-arse me. I have given you a reasonable answer to
    which you knew the answer. The Sinn Fein leadership
    have placed our lives, our integrity, our reputations
    on the line to create along with others this
    opportunity for peace and to maintain this opportunity
    for peace."
    
    Johnny Irvine didn't interrupt him again.

________________________________________________________________


>>> Compensation after gruesome RUC attack on POW
    
    
    An imprisoned cousin of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams
    was today awarded #30,000 damages against the RUC
    police for injuries he received when he was assaulted
    by several officers.
    
    Republican POW David Adams suffered a broken leg, two
    fractured ribs, a punctured lung and multiple cuts and
    bruises at the hands of the RUC when they arrested him
    in 1994.
    
    Human rights campaigners have called for the
    prosecution of police officers who took it in turns to
    run at the prisoner and use martial arts-type kicks to
    break his leg in a cell at Castlereagh holding centre.
    
    Mr Adams said his cubicle door in Castlereagh holding
    centre was left open and "four or five policemen were
    coming in and out".
    
    "They took it in turns to run at me and use martial
    arts kicks to break my leg. In between, they were
    digging me on the back of the head and banging my face
    off the wall. By that time I had acquired a punctured
    lung and a broken nose, there was blood all over the
    place.
    
    "It went on for a period of hours, then they left me
    for two and a half hours before I was taken to
    hospital. These guys were HMSU, they are very arrogant
    and they look down on ordinary RUC. They think they can
    do anything they like and get away with it."
    
    Mr Adams said the beatings had started earlier at the
    site of his arrest, when his hands were cuffed behind
    his back and his movements restricted by two forensic
    capes used to preserve evidence.
    
    "The beating on the street took place over about half
    an hour and was not carried out in the heat of the
    arrest. What made it worse was that I could see every
    blow coming and could do nothing about it. It carried
    on in the vehicle on the way to Castlereagh and
    particularly in Castlereagh. After they were finished,
    I was in a vegetative state, beaten to a pulp," he
    said.
    
    The judge also accepted that evidence from a young
    couple who heard the commotion at Belmont Avenue
    established that a police officer direct shouts of
    "fenian bastard" and "I hope he chokes on his blood" at
    Mr Adams.
    
    Paul Mageenan of the Committee for the Administration
    of Justice, said his organisation would be calling on
    the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider the
    judgment "and subsequently begin prosecution of the
    officers involved".
    
    "This judgment confirmed many of the concerns we have
    had about Castlereagh and reinforces the need for
    safeguards for suspects and also lends support to the
    case for the closure of Castlereagh altogether," Mr
    Mageenan said.
    
_________________________________________________________________    
    
    
>>> Analysis:  Justice and the Pale
    
    
    By Eoghan MacCormaic
    
    
    Standing outside Dublin Castle the other morning,
    trying to think of an opening line for this weekly
    article, I realised that sometimes there isn't really
    anything else to write about except the big show.  The
    politics.  The same as everyone else is writing about.
    The statue of Justice above the gates of the Castle sat
    immobile, her back to us on the outside and I was
    reminded of the saying that the Castle never showed
    justice to those outside its gates.  The psychological
    problem for those of us standing there, protesting, was
    that our representatives were now inside the gates.
    Could they get justice there?
    
    Obviously, the answer to that was no, since efforts
    were underway to drive the Shinners back outside to
    where they belonged. With us.  Then, once more, Justice
    could happily turn her back on all those standing
    symbolically beyond the Pale, those whom the Castle
    sought to exclude.  It was a bit historic, and it had
    all of the connotations of history being repeated - in
    reverse.  The Dubin Government were now the hosts, the
    British and the Unionists the visitors, but suddenly
    they were back and seeking to dictate the pace of the
    process.  Seventy five years was forgotten in a blip.
    The tape was in rewind.
    
    Mind you, their understanding of the changed realities
    was, to say the least, a bit on the superficial side.
    The Unionists decided to take in a spot of Unionist
    culture while they were in the capital, and led by a
    Trinity Unionist, Wot wot, they headed for Harcourt
    Street to view the birthplace of Carson.  Hoardings,
    sadly, prevented Trimble, Taylor et al from achieving a
    clear view of things, and so in the finest tradition of
    Unionism they imagined what they were seeing.  The site
    was a disgrace, by all accounts, and they moaned that
    if this was the way the State was treating the site of
    the birthplace of the founder of Unionism, then there
    was little hope for fairplay for them.  Ah, the
    soundbite and the imagery of it all.  The little
    Unionist chappie from Trinners, David Christopher, had
    a coup and his photo taken with the big boys.
    Unfortunately all was not as it appeared to be and the
    site was not so much a derelict ruin as a building
    under refurbishment (interior and exerior) with a
    preservation order on it to boot.
    
    'It's symbolic that they don't want to preserve
    anything connected with Unionism' was John Taylor's
    recorded comment. Lamentable.  His misportrayal of
    reality, that is. As they stood gawking, just two doors
    away from the Ceannaras of Conradh na Gaeilge - the
    cradle of many leaders from the Gaelic and nationalist
    movement in the early years of the century, the
    Unionists might have felt a little uneasy. But they
    needen't have worried, they were in Harcourt Street,
    after all, and Harcourt Street is not only home to the
    Conraitheoiri but also home of the Special Branch.
    Unionist accusations against the state of 'neglect' or
    'failing to preserve' symbols of Unionism are
    misplaced, however, and if they wanted to view examples
    of real neglect of the leaders of the past all they
    needed to do was take a stroll across the green and
    down to Pearse Street and see the dereliction which is
    or was the home of PH and Willie Pearse.  Now that's
    what I call neglect.
    
    Of course, if their schedule had been too busy they
    wouldn't have even had to leave the castle precincts to
    experience the state's wilful neglect of the foundation
    of the Republic. Their joint prosecution and indictment
    of Sinn Fein, on the word of the discredited RUC and at
    the behest of the British and of the Unionists was
    surely the proof of how readily this state can abandon
    its roots, and slip back into colonised mode.
    
_________________________________________________________________
   
    
>>> URGENT APPEAL FOR FUNDS
    
    
    To cover costs of the court challenge in defence of the
    rights of the Sinn Fein electorate and the integrity of
    the Peace Process.
    
    Please send all donations to Sinn Fein National
    Treasurers 44 Parnell Square Dublin 1
    
    or make an online credit card donation at the Sinn Fein
    web site at http://sinnfein.ie/


_________________________________________________________________
    
    
>>> Black Watch protest in Ohio
    
    The British Army, a.k.a.The Black Watch Band, is on
    tour in 38 American cities. At every step of the way
    throughout their tour they will be met with protesting
    human rights activists.
    
    In Akron, Irish Northern Aid will hold an exciting and
    colorful protest in front of E.J.Thomas Hall on Sunday,
    February 22, starting at 1:00 p.m. with activists from
    the Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Warren and Youngstown.
    
    The Black Watch Band, famous for its expertise on pipes
    and drums, is better known in the north of Ireland for
    its brutality while on military tour in Nationalist
    neighborhoods.  Black Watch members have murdered more
    than a dozen innocent Irish citizens and, also, a
    Polish photo- journalist. Members have been cited on
    many occasions for human rights abuses by Amnesty
    International and the Helsinki Watch Commission,
    nonpartisan and credible worldwide organizations.
    Typical members have proudly stated that they "split
    their time between cradling machine guns and bagpipes."
    
    At a time when the United States has promised to be a
    neutral partner in aiding the Irish peace process, the
    parading of British armies through American cities
    contradicts our aim for impartiality.
    
    Look for Irish and American  flags and anti-British
    Army/Black Watch Band banners. Participants will read
    the names of the innocent people who were murdered by
    this musical arm of the British Army while songs
    describing the terrible crimes of Black Watch fill the
    air.
    



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Subject: RMD980219 Irish news for Thursday 19 February

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