<HTML><PRE>Subj:	 RMD980217 Irish news for Tuesday 17 February
Date:	98-02-17 10:13:06 EST
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     IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
     http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
     
     Tuesday, 17 February, 1998
     

1.   No submission to 'Trimble principles' - SF
2.   Undercover operation exposed
3.   Republican refutes media slur
4.   Derry marchers given standard of loyalist murder gang
5.   Bloody Sunday event in Pennsylvania
6.   Edinburgh protest for Herri Batasuna
7.   Belfast civil right activist in Houston
8.   Call for support for Jimmy Smyth
     
______________________________________________________________

>>>> No submission to 'Trimble principles' - SF
     
     
     The freely elected representatives of more than 200,000
     Irish voters were today staging a protest outside
     Dublin Castle to express their fury at efforts to oust
     them from peace talks on the future of the Six
     Counties.
     
     Sinn Fein's three members of parliament, 106
     councillors and 17 Forum representatives gathered
     outside Dublin Castle this morning in a demonstration
     of the party's public support.
     
     The planned ejection of Sinn Fein at a critical
     juncture in peace negotiations has prompted broad
     outrage from grassroots supporters up to the party
     leadership. SF party President Gerry Adams made no
     attempt to hide his own personal disappointment at the
     turn of events last night:
     
     "I am absolutely pissed off with trying to make this
     thing work. Those who have no interest in making it
     work seize upon two men being killed and exploit it to
     bring this process down," Adams told reporters at the
     end of a day in which British officials formally moved
     to have the party expelled.
     
     Pointing to the irony of the expulsion bid taking place
     within 'the Pale', the historical territory of the
     Protestant ascendancy in Dublin, Mr Adams yesterday
     placed the blame for the indictment squarely on the
     shoulders of the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble.
     
     "It is clear David Trimble will not be satisfied until
     he has destroyed the possibility of bringing about the
     type of change that is required for a truly democratic
     peace settlement," Adams said.
     
     Britain's governor in Ireland Mo Mowlam, acting solely
     on the word of RUC police boss Ronnie Flanagan
     yesterday pressed the "indictment" to exclude Sinn Fein
     from the negotiations. Flanagan claimed the IRA was
     involved in two killings last week, and for that
     reason, Sinn Fein should be removed from the talks.
     
     On Monday, four men were charged with the shooting of a
     loyalist paramilitary after being arrested in Twinbrook
     last week. Flanagan publicly named the four as being
     members of the IRA, but significantly the men were not
     charged with IRA membership, which is illegal.
     
     Sinn Fein's Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said the
     British government had made a "very poor case".  He
     told British television: "They have effectively thrown
     on to the table a speaking note (correct) which, in my
     opinion, contains no specific allegations against my
     party.
     
     The Mid-Ulster MP claimed the developments amounted to
     "a lynch mob of Ulster Unionists, led by a British
     government that should know better".
     
     Mr Adams said the pressure to have Sinn Fein booted
     from the talks was coming from the "Ulster Unionist
     party and other unionists who have seized on these two
     killings and are attempting to bully the governments
     into breaking their own rules."
     
     The talks themselves have been stalled as efforts to
     expel Sinn Fein may now extend for up to a week or
     longer as advice is taken on the legal basis for the
     expulsion bid.  With the Sinn Fein leadership promising
     the party would not leave the talks without a fight,  a
     legal challenge to the British indictment is expected.
     
     The basis for the indictment is rooted in obscure
     British parliamentary law and has been put in doubt by
     a lack of evidence from British government.
     
     Meanwhile, allegations of bias in the application of
     the Mitchell Principles which govern the talks were
     highlighted by Sinn Fein representatives today. 
     Placards held up at the demonstration outside the talks
     venue read "Trimble principles" after Ulster Unionist
     leader David Trimble, with the original 'Mitchell'
     scored out by a broad Orange line.
     
     Trimble has said the killings should lead to the
     permanent exclusion of Sinn Fein. His allegations
     centre around unionists' identification of Sinn Fein
     with the Irish Republican Army, an identification which
     both organisations reject.
     
     Gerry Adams stressed that Sinn Fein was at the talks
     based on a mandate from the people of Ireland.
     
     "We don't and have never said we represent the IRA." He
     rejected as "entirely bogus" any attempt to draw a
     comparison between Sinn Fein and loyalists in the talks
     who have acknowledged their role as representatives of
     their paramilitary factions.
     
     Efforts to force Sinn Fein out appeared to have
     backfired after overwhelming support among Irish
     nationalists for their continued inclusion in
     negotiations.  Last night over a thousand packed into
     Liberty Hall in Dublin city to cheer Sinn Fein's
     leadership and back its demands for equitable political
     recognition. This morning, television interviewers were
     unable to find any northern nationalist favouring
     the party's removal. Meanwhile, the rival nationalist SDLP
     party issued a strong statement insisting that the
     British government show a "clear and unmistakable"
     dishonouring of Sinn Fein's commitment to democracy and
     peace.

     Britain has also not enjoyed the vocal support of the
     Dublin government after Bertie Ahern backed calls for
     evidence to be presented that the IRA was indeed
     involved in two killings last week.
     
     Ahern said: "This is a very serious matter, a due
     process has to be followed, and has been taking place
     today and will continue tomorrow."
     
     But he denied that their were differences between the
     two governments. "Any considerations that I take into
     account are on the word of the British Prime Minister,
     and I consider him a person whose word I listen to."
     
     A full plenary session of the talks is taking place
     today following yesterday's brief hour-long meeting.
     
     Martin McGuinness said the expulsion of Sinn Fein from
     the talks would be "unfair, unjust and undemocratic".
     
     "We are faced with an Ulster Unionist party who are not
     prepared to negotiate and are employing double
     standards."
     
     A peaceful settlement would not come about until the
     British government compelled the Ulster Unionist party
     to "stop this nonsense and move decisively in the
     direction of negotiating a settlement," he added.
     
     Last night Sinn Fein's national chairperson, Mitchel
     McLaughlin, challenged the RUC to arrest him, following
     RUC assertions that Sinn Fein and the IRA were the
     same.
     
     Replying to a journalist's assertion that Sinn Fein and
     the IRA were the same, McLaughlin asked, "Why then
     doesn't Ronnie Flanagan come and arrest me?"
     
     Mr McLaughlin feared that efforts to to force Sinn Fein
     out of the talks would put the whole process in
     "calamitous jeopardy".
     
     Many people who supported Sinn Fein in three elections
     this year would be alienated, he said. Keeping their
     faith in the talks process would be "made virtually
     impossible by the application of double standards", he
     told the programme.
     
     "Sinn Fein remains totally and absolutely committed to
     finding a resolution through entirely peaceful and
     democratic means. We further add and demand of those
     who engage in violent activities to desist
     immediately."
     

______________________________________________________________

     
>>>> Undercover operation exposed
     
     
     New information has confirmed that the undercover
     British soldier who shot and seriously wounded an RUC
     man in North Belfast on 14 January was carrying out
     surveillance on republicans in the Ardoyne area.
     
     At the time of the incident the RUC police said the
     woman soldier, who was a member of 14th Int, an
     undercover unit of the British army, was involved in an
     operation against loyalists in the Shankill Road area.
     
     These claims were retracted after An Phoblacht revealed
     that the undercover British soldier was observed at
     numerous locations in Ardoyne in the hours before a
     high speed chase when she crashed at a roundabout en
     route to the city centre.
     
     An RUC source has now admitted in a newspaper article
     that the British soldier, who was wearing civilian
     clothes and driving an unmarked car, had been
     "observing an IRA suspect" close to Ladbrook Drive in
     the Ardoyne area on 14 January.
     
     At around 1.20am she was spotted by four RUC members,
     also in an unmarked car, who gave chase. According to
     an RUC inquiry, the British soldier thought she had
     been detected by the IRA, and sped away at 80 miles an
     hour in an attempt to shake off her pursuers
     
     Meanwhile the RUC, who claim they were on a routine
     patrol on the look out for loyalist killers, gave chase
     because they believed the woman soldier was a
     "joyrider".
     
     The British army's 14 Intelligence Company was founded
     in 1974 and is commanded by an SAS colonel. One of the
     most secret sections of the British army, 14 Int. is
     associated with covert 'dirty tricks' operations and
     so-called 'counter gangs'.
     
______________________________________________________________
     
     
>>>> Republican refutes media slur
     
     
     A Belfast republican has said he fears for his life after 
     newspaper allegations linking him financially to drug
     dealers.
     
     The stories which appeared in the British 'Sunday Times'
     newspaper and the Irish tabloid 'Sunday World' on
     February 15 claimed the man was "booted out of the IRA"
     after a "top level inquiry".
     
     The man's fears are not unfounded. It was disclosed
     that drug dealer Brendan Campbell, shot dead on
     Monday evening of last week, had a supply of South African
     fragmentation grenades and attacked Sinn Fein's
     Connolly House, where the man works, using one of these
     bombs.
     
     In the story last weekend the papers concerned stated
     that the man had been thrown out of the IRA after what
     they termed, "senior IRA investigators accused him of
     being on the payroll of a drugs dealer in Belfast".
     
     "It's rather ironic," said the man ,"that only a few
     months ago these same papers were saying that I and
     other republicans were terrorising drug pushers through
     neighbourhood watch and community alert schemes. The
     real intention is that the RUC is using these papers to
     try to set me up for drug pushers."
     
______________________________________________________________
     
     
>>>> Derry marchers given standard of loyalist murder gang
     
     
     The Derry-based human rights group, the Pat Finucane
     Centre have in their possession a document of the
     Loyalist Volunteer Force, which states a loyalist flute
     band that played at last August's parade in Derry has
     been presented with LVF colours.
     
     The revelation will embarrass the Protestant Apprentice
     Boys marching organisation, which insists that its
     parades are not sectarian.  Loyalists participating in
     the parades have often engaged in sectarian chants and
     open violence, however.   Nationalists protest that the
     marches, the largest of which is the Derry parade, are
     triumphalist and provocative and have called for
     discussions on the problem between residents of the
     affected areas and the marchers.
     
     The LVF, which is openly opposed to the peace process,
     has engaged in a campaign of sectarian murders since it
     broke away from the larger Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
     in 1996.
     
     The document now in the possession of the Derry group
     titled 'Leading the Way', says the County Down band
     'Sons of Beragh' was presented with the Loyalist
     Volunteer Force standard which it hoped would be
     carried, "with honour, dignity and pride".
     
     The document goes on to explain that the LVF came into
     being during the 1996 Drumcree stand-off when the
     Portadown unit of the UVF disregarded the orders of the
     UVF command based in Belfast and supported Portadown
     Orangemen who were attempting to parade along the
     nationalist Garvaghy Road area of the town.
     
     One of the first actions of the newly formed LVF was to
     kill Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick.
     
     The Apprentice Boys group have denied any
     knowledge of the band.
     
     
     INTIMIDATION
     
     * Meanwhile Sinn Fein's Lynn Fleming has extended her
     support to the teachers, parents and children of St
     Columba's school in Newbuildings, on the outskirts of
     Derry, following the latest sectarian attack on the
     building last week. Sectarian graffiti was painted on
     the walls and doors of the building.
     
     Newbuildings, a predominantly Protestant estate with a
     large Catholic community, has seen an upsurge in
     attacks on Catholics over the past number of years.
     
     Ms Fleming went on to say the attacks on Catholics in
     the area are "orchestrated" and designed to drive
     Catholics out of the area. 
     
     
______________________________________________________________
     
     NOTICES
     
______________________________________________________________
    
     
>>>> Bloody Sunday event in Pennsylvania
     
     Don Mullan, the author of the book, "Bloody Sunday:
     Massacre in Northern Ireland," will speak at the
     following Philadelphia, Pennsylvania venues:
     
     Sunday, Feb 22, 7:30 PM  The Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street
     
     Monday, Feb 23, 2:00 PM  Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa
     
     And at Rutgers University
     
     Monday, Feb 23, 11-Noon  Room 401 Penn (Paul Ronbeson Library)
                              Rutgers Univ, Camden, NJ
     
     Copies of the book should be available at each venue.
     
     Contact: Email Jack Worrall at jworrall@crab.rutgers.edu
     or phone 609-354-3270 for additional information
     

______________________________________________________________
     
     
>>>> Edinburgh protest for Herri Batasuna
     
     
     PROTEST PICKET :
     FRIDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2.30 P.M.
     Spanish Consulate
     63 North Castle Street
     Edinburgh.
     
     Calling for the immediate release from prison all 23
     members of the National Executive of Herri Batasuna,
     and all inclusive talks with a view to finding a
     political solution to the current conflict in the
     Basque country
     
     Many groups will support the picket including the JAMES
     CONNOLLY SOCIETY.

______________________________________________________________
     
     
>>>> Belfast civil right activist in Houston
     
     
     Caitriona Ruane, one of the founders of the civil
     rights group Cearta - Charter for Change, will be
     visiting Houston from March 4th to March 8th in
     celebration of 1998's International Women's Day.
     
     Caitriona was until recently the director for the
     Centre for Research and Documentation -- a human rights
     organization in Belfast that documents abuses in the
     north of Ireland.  In addition to her continuing
     involvement with the Centre, Caitriona is the current
     director of the West Belfast Festival, the largest
     community festival in Ireland.  Held each year on the
     anniversary of the introduction of internment in the
     north of Ireland, the Festival highlights the
     nationalist community's efforts to take control of its
     own image-making. As a socialist, feminist, and an
     internationalist, Caitriona has written extensively of
     her time spent in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and its
     continuing impact on her outlook as a community
     activist in Ireland.
     
     
     Thursday, March 5th
     
     3:30 pm -- "Indigenous Women's Leadership in Building
     Community in the North of Ireland," third floor of the
     Roy G. Cullen Building, University of Houston, main
     campus, hosted by the Women's Studies Program and the
     Latina Coalition as part of Chicana Week (March 2 thru
     March 6th).
     
     Friday. March 6th
     
     1 pm -- "Government Repression in the North of Ireland,
     Britain's Prevention of Terrorism Act," Room 134, Adams
     Hall, 3100 Cleburn Avenue, hosted by the History
     Department, Texas South University.
     
     5 pm -- Reception/Celebration of Irish-Mexican Unity
     and in honor of the 150th anniversary of the San
     Patricios Battalion, 603 Welch, Houston, hosted by the
     Irish Unity Committee.  Special guest will be Cecilia
     Rodriguez, the official representative of the
     Zapatistics in North America.
     
     Saturday, March 7th
     
     9 am -- Women's Breakfast (Dutch treat), La Mexicana
     Restaurant, 1018 Fairview, Houston, hosted by Blue
     Stockings.
     
     7 pm -- "Ireland's Prospects for Peace" moderator-Maria
     Gonzalez, Mediterranean Room, University Center
     (underground), University of Houston, main campus,
     hosted by Amnesty International (UH), Black Student
     Union, Guatemala Support Network, History Department
     (UH), Irish Unity Committee, Latina Coalition, NOW-UH,
     Revolutionary Communist Party-USA, Women's Studies
     Program (UH), and Young Socialist (UH).
     
     Sunday, March 8th
     
     1 pm -- "The Phony War of Religion in the North of
     Ireland" at First Unitarian Church, 5200 Fannin,
     Houston.
     
     4 pm -- "Defending Our Homes" Shape Community Center,
     3903 Almeda Road, Houston, hosted by the All People's
     Congres and Friends in Defense of Allen Parkway Village
     Unity Committee.
     
     Irish Unity Committee Contact: Victoria at phone no.
     713/667-2726 or email ccapitai@bayou.uh.edu.com
     

______________________________________________________________
     
     
>>>> Call for support for Jimmy Smyth
     
     Progress was made last week in the Jimmy Smyth case when a
     Belfast court granted his right to appeal the Northern
     Ireland Office's refusal to recognize his time served
     in US prison as part of his British prison sentence.
     The court's action acknowledges that Smyth's appeal of
     the NIO decision has legal merit that requires the
     attention of the court.
     
     Smyth has argued that he was held in prison while
     fighting his extradition from the US at the
     request--and through the direct intervention--of the
     British government. A successful appeal would not only
     reduce Smyth's remaining sentence by two years, it
     would set an important precedent for other similar
     cases, including that of the remaining members of the
     H-Block Four, who remain in jail without bail as they
     fight extradition.
     
     One notable aspect of the NIO's refusal was the
     suggestion that Smyth's early release depended on the
     on-going peace process. This, according to Smyth's
     attorneys, was an admission that Smyth's case is in
     fact a political one and contradicts British arguments
     while pursuing his extradition that his case was merely
     "criminal". Smyth fought extradition partly on
     political grounds.
     
     Smyth's attorneys have requested a show of support for
     Smyth's case from American supporters. They ask that
     supporters sign copies of the following letter,
     preferably on letterhead, and fax them to the offices
     of Madden and Finucane at 011 44 1232 439276. They plan
     to present the letters in court while arguing the
     appeal.
     
     The text of the letter is as follows:
     
     The Right Honorable Dr. Marjorie Mowlam, MP
     Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
     Stormont Castle
     Belfast BT 4 3FT
     Northern Ireland
     
     Dear Madame Secretary:
     
     I am writing at this time to request that you
     reconsider the decision handed down regarding time
     served in the US by Jimmy Smyth. The time he spent
     incarcerated in California was solely at the request of
     the British government. His bail was revoked due to a
     letter from the British government asking that it be
     so.
     
     Mr. Smyth's case is being held hostage by the talks
     process. The British government claimed in court, at
     Mr. Smyth's extradition proceedings, that he was not a
     political prisoner. Yet, if the question of time served
     can be looked at only in terms of a political
     settlement in Northern Ireland, that is clearly what he
     is. This brings to question the government's further
     extradition proceedings currently awaiting appeal in
     the US. It is clear that the rejection of Mr. Smyth's
     request is a purely political one, and therefore stands
     to reason that Mr. Kirby, Mr. Artt and Mr. Brennan will
     not be treated any differently.
     
     It is with these facts in mind that I respectfully
     request that you review your position in the matter of
     Mr. Smyth's credit for time served. And, at his
     upcoming appeal, grant Mr. Smyth credit for his
     detentions and restrictions in US custody.
     
     Respectfully yours,
     
     ________________________________
     (Your Name, Address and Organization, if any.)
     



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Subject: RMD980217 Irish news for Tuesday 17 February

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