10 April 1997 Edition

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Mayhews last act 'an indictment of his tenure'

By Mick Naughton.

By the time you read this, two convicted British soldiers may have been secretly transferred from Maghaberry jail to Scotland and released despite having served just 27 months of the life sentence they received for murdering North Belfast teenager Peter McBride.

News of their impending transfer and subsequent release on the orders of departing British Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew was released on Tuesday 8 April. A statement from the Northern Ireland Office said, ``the Secretary of State is to receive advice from officials about the cases of Guardsmen Fisher and Wright during the course of this week and will therefore deal with it....without delay.''

From his days as British Attorney General cutting deals with top UDA murderer and British Intelligence agent Brian Nelson, Mayhew has a good record with British forces.

So it comes as no surprise, especially for 18 year old Peter McBride's still grieving mother that Mayhew will authorise the release of the two Scots Guards, just as he did with paratrooper Lee Clegg in 1995.

``They have won again, the establishment has won again,'' she said. Repeating a plea made since her son was shot in the back in September 1992 in the New Lodge Road area, Jean McBride told An Phoblcaht that no one from the British government had ever apologised; ``not the Ministry of Defence, no one. The British government obviously don't care. The British army certainly don't.''

McBride also called for everyone to remember almost 200 other civilians who have also been killed by British forces.

Meanwhile Sinn Fein's North Belfast candidate Gerry Kelly responded to a letter from two British generals in the London Times on Monday of this week asking, ``where is the justice in two British soldiers who have admitted killing an Irish teenager being speedily dealt with and the continuing incarceration of young mother-to-be Roisin McAliskey in a London jail?''

The British generals Murray-Naylor and Scott-Barrett organisers of the campaign to have Wright and Fisher released gave their address as, `Headquarters Scots Guards', Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, SW1, London, and demanded that the outgoing government and Secretary of State do their ``clear duty''.

An Phoblacht
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