10 June 1999 Edition
Lies and conspiracy
The head of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, has claimed that he was unaware of specific threats against the life of Rosemary Nelson. He has also denied he knew of requests to have her included on the key persons protection scheme, denials that fly in the face of the available evidence.
At a meeting with the `Police Authority of Northern Ireland' in April of this year, RUC Chief Constable Ronnnie Flanagan claimed that prior to her murder in March, the RUC had no specific information to suggest that Rosemary Nelson was the subject of a specific threat.
Despite the mountain of available evidence to the contrary, Flanagan, it seems, made the deliberate choice to stand firm against the many criticisms being made against the RUC and the calls for an investigation into Rosemary's death that was totally independent of the RUC.
These calls were not without foundation. Over the years, Rosemary Nelson had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse from RUC members.
As head of the RUC, Flanagan was well aware of the specific threats made by serving RUC officers against Rosemary Nelson.
He would have seen the Independent Commmission for Police Complaints (ICPC) report compiled by Geralyn McNally and which was eventually released on March 22, seven days after Rosemary was killed.
McNally made ``consistent'' criticisms of the RUC officers she was questioning, saying they showed by their ``behaviour and attitude'' a total disregard for Rosemary Nelson. McNally also expressed ``serious concern'' at how individual RUC members obstructed her inquiry. She raised this with both Mo Mowlam and Flanagan in July last year.
One RUC officer turned up late to an interview with McNally and smelling of drink.
As a result of the criticisms raised by McNally and the mounting evidence against the RUC, the ICPC for the first time ever invited an English policeman, Niall Mulvihill, to the North to investigate complaints against the RUC and the threats against Rosemary Nelson.
RUC Federation chairman Les Rodgers accuses Sinn Féin of coordinating an ``evil conspiracy'' in an attempt to vilify and destroy the RUC and that ``an international collection of politicians and human rights spokespeople'' and ``lawyers and academics'' are all part of this plan
In September 1998, a British minister informed the Committee for the Administration of Justice that evidence of loyalist death threats had been passed on to Flanagan's office, so he should again have been well aware, eight months before Nelson's death, of specific loyalist death threats.
The details of the threats against Rosemary Nelson and the efforts made by concerned individuals on both sides of the Atlantic to have the Britisih government protect her life are contained in correspondence compiled by Ed Lynch of the American-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice.
The correspondence from Lynch, of the U.S.-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland, includes letters to the RUC including RUC assistant Chief Constables Gamble and Day who oversaw the ICPC investigation, Louis Blom-Cooper, chair of the Independent Commission for Holding Centres, the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC), British Home Secretary Jack Straw, Six-County British minister Adam Ingram, the NIO police division, and British Metropolitan Police Commander Mulvihill.
Taken with the statements of clients of Rosemary Nelson through whom the RUC delivered their threats and two reports from the UN special rappatour Data Param Cumaraswamy, the available evidence shows the very real threat to Rosemary Nelson's life.
Ronnie Flanagan would have been aware of the bulk of this information.
In March 1997, Lynch wrote to Blom-Cooper about the death threats against Nelson eminating from Gough barracks in Armagh and the behaviour and attitudes of RUC personel shown to people held in custody towards Nelson.
The ICPC replied on March 24 1997 that it had passed details of the complaint onto the RUC.
On April 4 RUC Chief Inspecter Gamble replied to Lynch that he had been appointed to the investigation and two days later the ICPC confirmed that it would supervise the investigation.
As early as June 30 1997, nearly two years before Rosemary Nelson's murder, Lynch warned the ICPC that unless ``prompt and responsible action'' was taken Nelson may suffer the same fate as Patrick Finucane.
UN special Rappateur Data Param Cumaraswamy's report into the Independence of Judges and Lawyers highlighted that there was ``prima facie'' evidence of collusion between the crown forces and loyalist death squads in the murder of Pat Finucane and that lawyers defending nationalists and republicans were subjected to threats by the RUC.
On 7 April 1998, the RUC informed Lynch that the file about the RUC death threats would be placed before Flanagan.
On February 12, 1999 the Lawyers Alliance met Flanagan and raised the issue of death threats against Nelson.
Ed Lynch and five colleages spent two hours with Flanagan on 27 February, Lynch said they ``asked him directly what he was doing regarding the threats against Rosemary''.
Just over two weeks later, the lawyer who had been subjected to threats from the RUC and who had been assaulted by the RUC and who had received two specific death threats from loyalists, was dead.
Responding to Flanagan's false claims that he knew nothing of death threats or the application for Nelson's protection, close friend and Garvaghy Road spokesperson Breandán MacCionnaith retorted that ``Flanagan knows the truth of the matter.
``He is aware of the threats because some of them emanated directly from senior [RUC] officers.
The Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ), which had independently taken some of the initial witness statements against the RUC, has also insisted that it sent details of written death threats made against Nelson to the NIO eight months before her murder; one a posted note that threatened to ``teach her a lesson'' and ended ``RIP'' and the second a leaflet circulating in Portadown that included Nelson's office address and telephone number.
In a letter from British minister Adam Ingram's private secretary dated 24 September 1998, the CAJ was told that the NIO ``passed the documents immediately to the Chief Constable's office for investigation. They would obviously, given the nature of the material, assess the security risk against Ms. Nelson''.
Meanwhile, RUC Federation chairman Les Rodgers' claim that there is an ``evil conspiracy'' against the RUC, aided and abetted ``wittingly or unwittingly'' by lawyers, amongst others, shows a willingness to accept that lawyers representing nationalists are legitimate targets.
Speaking in Newcastle on Tuesday, 8 June, Rodgers claimed Sinn Fein is coordinating an ``evil conspiracy'' in an attempt to vilify and destroy the RUC and that ``an international collection of politicians and human rights spokespeople'' and ``lawyers and academics'' are all part of this plan.
Sinn Féin policing spokesperson, Assembly member Bairbre de Brún said: ``It says a lot for the RUC members' representative in the Police Federation that they think implementing the Good Friday Agreement is an evil conspiracy and they are mounting a rearguard action against it.
``Mr. Rodgers' comments represent a rearguard action by those who want to prevent change. Over the years, the RUC have discredited themselves by their own actions.''
Also commenting on Rodgers remarks, Ed Lynch said: ``This type of language... demonising lawyers who have had the courage to speak out... is almost giving an implied approval to take physical action to harm people who criticise the RUC.''
At a meeting with the `Police Authority of Northern Ireland' in April of this year, RUC Chief Constable Ronnnie Flanagan claimed that prior to her murder in March, the RUC had no specific information to suggest that Rosemary Nelson was the subject of a specific threat.
Despite the mountain of available evidence to the contrary, Flanagan, it seems, made the deliberate choice to stand firm against the many criticisms being made against the RUC and the calls for an investigation into Rosemary's death that was totally independent of the RUC.
These calls were not without foundation. Over the years, Rosemary Nelson had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse from RUC members.
As head of the RUC, Flanagan was well aware of the specific threats made by serving RUC officers against Rosemary Nelson.
He would have seen the Independent Commmission for Police Complaints (ICPC) report compiled by Geralyn McNally and which was eventually released on March 22, seven days after Rosemary was killed.
McNally made ``consistent'' criticisms of the RUC officers she was questioning, saying they showed by their ``behaviour and attitude'' a total disregard for Rosemary Nelson. McNally also expressed ``serious concern'' at how individual RUC members obstructed her inquiry. She raised this with both Mo Mowlam and Flanagan in July last year.
One RUC officer turned up late to an interview with McNally and smelling of drink.
As a result of the criticisms raised by McNally and the mounting evidence against the RUC, the ICPC for the first time ever invited an English policeman, Niall Mulvihill, to the North to investigate complaints against the RUC and the threats against Rosemary Nelson.
RUC Federation chairman Les Rodgers accuses Sinn Féin of coordinating an ``evil conspiracy'' in an attempt to vilify and destroy the RUC and that ``an international collection of politicians and human rights spokespeople'' and ``lawyers and academics'' are all part of this plan
In September 1998, a British minister informed the Committee for the Administration of Justice that evidence of loyalist death threats had been passed on to Flanagan's office, so he should again have been well aware, eight months before Nelson's death, of specific loyalist death threats.
The details of the threats against Rosemary Nelson and the efforts made by concerned individuals on both sides of the Atlantic to have the Britisih government protect her life are contained in correspondence compiled by Ed Lynch of the American-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice.
The correspondence from Lynch, of the U.S.-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland, includes letters to the RUC including RUC assistant Chief Constables Gamble and Day who oversaw the ICPC investigation, Louis Blom-Cooper, chair of the Independent Commission for Holding Centres, the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC), British Home Secretary Jack Straw, Six-County British minister Adam Ingram, the NIO police division, and British Metropolitan Police Commander Mulvihill.
Taken with the statements of clients of Rosemary Nelson through whom the RUC delivered their threats and two reports from the UN special rappatour Data Param Cumaraswamy, the available evidence shows the very real threat to Rosemary Nelson's life.
Ronnie Flanagan would have been aware of the bulk of this information.
In March 1997, Lynch wrote to Blom-Cooper about the death threats against Nelson eminating from Gough barracks in Armagh and the behaviour and attitudes of RUC personel shown to people held in custody towards Nelson.
The ICPC replied on March 24 1997 that it had passed details of the complaint onto the RUC.
On April 4 RUC Chief Inspecter Gamble replied to Lynch that he had been appointed to the investigation and two days later the ICPC confirmed that it would supervise the investigation.
As early as June 30 1997, nearly two years before Rosemary Nelson's murder, Lynch warned the ICPC that unless ``prompt and responsible action'' was taken Nelson may suffer the same fate as Patrick Finucane.
UN special Rappateur Data Param Cumaraswamy's report into the Independence of Judges and Lawyers highlighted that there was ``prima facie'' evidence of collusion between the crown forces and loyalist death squads in the murder of Pat Finucane and that lawyers defending nationalists and republicans were subjected to threats by the RUC.
On 7 April 1998, the RUC informed Lynch that the file about the RUC death threats would be placed before Flanagan.
On February 12, 1999 the Lawyers Alliance met Flanagan and raised the issue of death threats against Nelson.
Ed Lynch and five colleages spent two hours with Flanagan on 27 February, Lynch said they ``asked him directly what he was doing regarding the threats against Rosemary''.
Just over two weeks later, the lawyer who had been subjected to threats from the RUC and who had been assaulted by the RUC and who had received two specific death threats from loyalists, was dead.
Responding to Flanagan's false claims that he knew nothing of death threats or the application for Nelson's protection, close friend and Garvaghy Road spokesperson Breandán MacCionnaith retorted that ``Flanagan knows the truth of the matter.
``He is aware of the threats because some of them emanated directly from senior [RUC] officers.
The Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ), which had independently taken some of the initial witness statements against the RUC, has also insisted that it sent details of written death threats made against Nelson to the NIO eight months before her murder; one a posted note that threatened to ``teach her a lesson'' and ended ``RIP'' and the second a leaflet circulating in Portadown that included Nelson's office address and telephone number.
In a letter from British minister Adam Ingram's private secretary dated 24 September 1998, the CAJ was told that the NIO ``passed the documents immediately to the Chief Constable's office for investigation. They would obviously, given the nature of the material, assess the security risk against Ms. Nelson''.
Meanwhile, RUC Federation chairman Les Rodgers' claim that there is an ``evil conspiracy'' against the RUC, aided and abetted ``wittingly or unwittingly'' by lawyers, amongst others, shows a willingness to accept that lawyers representing nationalists are legitimate targets.
Speaking in Newcastle on Tuesday, 8 June, Rodgers claimed Sinn Fein is coordinating an ``evil conspiracy'' in an attempt to vilify and destroy the RUC and that ``an international collection of politicians and human rights spokespeople'' and ``lawyers and academics'' are all part of this plan.
Sinn Féin policing spokesperson, Assembly member Bairbre de Brún said: ``It says a lot for the RUC members' representative in the Police Federation that they think implementing the Good Friday Agreement is an evil conspiracy and they are mounting a rearguard action against it.
``Mr. Rodgers' comments represent a rearguard action by those who want to prevent change. Over the years, the RUC have discredited themselves by their own actions.''
Also commenting on Rodgers remarks, Ed Lynch said: ``This type of language... demonising lawyers who have had the courage to speak out... is almost giving an implied approval to take physical action to harm people who criticise the RUC.''