2 April 1998 Edition
British Army and RUC must go
A number of issues which go to the heart of the Six County state have been brought into clearer focus by both the latest evidence of the United Nations report regarding RUC intimidation of solicitors and separate revelations regarding British Army collusion with loyalist death squads.
Issues which have been of concern to nationalists and which Sinn Féin has consistently sought to have addressed in any negotiations around a political agreement have now been further validated. They are scandals of the utmost gravity.
What has become known as the Nelson Affair was a clear conspiracy over several years involving the British political and military establishment in a systematic murder campaign against nationalists and republicans. It demands nothing less than an immediate, full and independent judicial inquiry.
This has all gone to underline the case, if ever it was needed, that the British military can have absolutely no role whatever on Irish streets. They have been involved in the targeting and murder of nationalists since they were first deployed and they must be withdrawn as a matter of urgency.
The UN report has called on the British government to order an independent inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane and a separate inquiry into RUC intimidation of solicitors by the RUC. It also demands sweeping changes in the emergency legislation which operates in the Six Counties.
The case that the RUC was completely unacceptable as a police force to the nationalist community has been made for many years. Calls for the disbandment of the force have been made throughout the peace process.
That such murderous methods were employed by forces for the state in Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s merely highlights the shaky legitimacy of the Orange state and the undemocratic foundation for British rule in Ireland.
These issues of demilitarisation and policing are fundamental and must be tackled if nationalist consent is to be gained for a political agreement. Unionist resistance to such urgent change must at this stage be firmly faced down.
Without a serious will to deal with what are life and death issues for the nationalist community, no agreement will be worth the paper it is written on.
Issues which have been of concern to nationalists and which Sinn Féin has consistently sought to have addressed in any negotiations around a political agreement have now been further validated. They are scandals of the utmost gravity.
What has become known as the Nelson Affair was a clear conspiracy over several years involving the British political and military establishment in a systematic murder campaign against nationalists and republicans. It demands nothing less than an immediate, full and independent judicial inquiry.
This has all gone to underline the case, if ever it was needed, that the British military can have absolutely no role whatever on Irish streets. They have been involved in the targeting and murder of nationalists since they were first deployed and they must be withdrawn as a matter of urgency.
The UN report has called on the British government to order an independent inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane and a separate inquiry into RUC intimidation of solicitors by the RUC. It also demands sweeping changes in the emergency legislation which operates in the Six Counties.
The case that the RUC was completely unacceptable as a police force to the nationalist community has been made for many years. Calls for the disbandment of the force have been made throughout the peace process.
That such murderous methods were employed by forces for the state in Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s merely highlights the shaky legitimacy of the Orange state and the undemocratic foundation for British rule in Ireland.
These issues of demilitarisation and policing are fundamental and must be tackled if nationalist consent is to be gained for a political agreement. Unionist resistance to such urgent change must at this stage be firmly faced down.
Without a serious will to deal with what are life and death issues for the nationalist community, no agreement will be worth the paper it is written on.