Media leaks show RUC bias

HISTORICAL ENQUIRIES TEAM | INVESTIGATION DETAILS HANDED TO REPORTERS

BY PEADAR WHELAN

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

THE credibility of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) is being further eroded by leaks from within the HET to the press about ongoing investigations involving the RUC.
In December, HET investigators leaked information about the 1987 killings of eight IRA Volunteers and a civilian at Loughgall, County Armagh, by the British Army’s SAS.
According to the leaked information, published in the unionist daily Belfast Telegraph on Friday 2 December, the SAS units involved in the ambush were justified in killing the eight Volunteers as they had opened fire first. Civilian Anthony Hughes was also shot dead as he drove through the SAS ‘kill zone’.
In a second leak, in relation to the 1987 bomb attack on the Enniskillen Cenotaph, in which an IRA bomb killed 11 people, the HET is accusing the IRA of deliberately targeting civilians.
Both leaks coming in advance of the completion and publication of the reports call into question the objectivity and credibility of HET investigators.
Republicans have raised concerns over the ability of the HET to carry out its work objectively because it employs quite a number of former RUC members.
Questions have also been raised about the suitability of former RUC members to carry out investigations into so-called legacy cases as they may have been involved in or close to the initial inquiries into the reopened cases.
Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice also asked whether the HET could investigate “controversial killings by state forces” when it was made up of former members of the RUC and British Army.
Reacting to the leaks, members of the dead IRA Volunteers’ families say they are “incensed” that this information was leaked and made public through the media.
Sinn Féin MLA Barry McElduff told An Phoblacht:
“The Loughgall killings were part of the British Government’s shoot-to-kill policy.
“Nobody believes that the British Army units sent to Loughgall were sent there as part of an arrest operation. They were sent to wipe out the IRA unit involved in the attack on Loughgall Barracks and that is what they did. If the HET tries to put forward a different theory it will say more about its credibility than anything else.”