Collusion highlighted

The relatives and friends of nationalists killed by the British state and unionist death squads gathered at Belfast City Hall on Thursday 8 December to remember them.

The Ring of Truth picket, organised by the human rights pressure group An Fhirinne, saw the demonstrators, displaying photographs of the dead form a circle around Belfast City Hall.

Speaking at the event Mark Sykes, who was shot by UDA gunmen in the Graham's Bookies massacre in 1992, told An Phoblacht that the event was organised in the run up to International Human Rights Day.

"We wanted to focus attention onto the fact that so many people were killed by British crown forces and their allies in the unionist death squads. These people want to know the truth about the assassinations of their loved ones and in particular the role of the British Government's intelligence services in these killings."

In a second event, on Saturday 12 December at An Culturlann on the Falls Road, West Belfast the Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams turned on the lights of the Tree of Truth Christmas Tree. The tree lighting event was also organised by An Fhirinne.

Accompanied by the relatives of people killed by loyalists including Séamus Finucane, the brother of solicitor Pat Finucane, and members of the family of West Belfast man Joe Murphy, who was shot dead by the UDA in 1973, Adams said it was important that nationalists continued to expose the policy of collusion that had cost so many lives.