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8 January, 2004 |
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Basque left produces new plan for progress The Basque pro-independence movement starts the year with new hope for a negotiated solution to the conflict in the Basque Country. It has presented a new peace proposal, the Bergara Agreement, as the basis for a common strategy for all those Basques who want to see the right to self-determination for the Basque Country. The proposal was supported by the Basque armed group ETA, which said in a statement published on 29 December that it is ready "to do whatever is necessary so this initiative reach its final objective". Inquest families demand full access 
The decision of the British Ministry of Defence to limit access to documentation relating to a number of controversial killings in Tyrone has been slammed by the relatives of those who died. The MoD has agreed to provide the coroner investigating the ten killings, including the deaths of seven IRA Volunteers, with access to documentation relating to the deaths but has refused to allow access for the families and solicitors acting on behalf of the families of the deceased. Photo: Michelle Gildernew Zapatistas call on Indigenous people to organise 
The first of January 2004 marked the tenth anniversary of the rising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas in Southern Mexico. In the last days of December, the EZLN called on the Indigenous people to take their future into their own hands. It was Commander David, one of the indigenous leaders of the EZLN, who made public the statement of the Zapatista army as the anniversary of its rising against the policies of the Mexican Government of the day approached. 
North Antrim Sinn Féin Assembly member Philip McGuigan has hit out at the UDA after they issued a public threat to his party colleague, Cllr Oliver McMullan, through a Ballymoney newspaper. "Before Christmas, loyalist thugs attacked Catholic schoolchildren at an outdoor pursuits centre in Bushmills," McGuigan explained. Photo: Oliver McMullan Court told missing man a police informer 
Belfast High Court has heard that the missing Armagh man Gareth O'Connor was an informer working for the PSNI. The allegation was made by defence lawyers acting on behalf of four men arrested in connection with the seizure of a rocket-propelled grenade alleged to have been intended for a dissident attack on crown forces' personnel. SDLP blocks St Patrick's Day Funding 
An SDLP councillor has been accused of wrecking this year's St Patrick's Day Carnival after she broke ranks with her party to oppose Belfast City Council funding for the event. Carmel Hanna "did a solo run" - breaking with her own party colleagues and Sinn Féin - when she refused to support a motion that would have seen the council providing £50,000 funding for three events on 17 March of this year. Photo: Eoin Ó Broin DUP road blockers escape punishment East Belfast Sinn Féin representative Joe O'Donnell has criticised the judge who on Tuesday gave absolute discharges to the DUP MP Peter Robinson (pictured) and his party colleague Ruth Patterson after they were found guilty of illegally blocking traffic on the Albertbridge Road to facilitate a loyalist event. Former prisoner made to miss flight Martin McGuinness has called for an end to the harassment of Irish people at British airports following a former prisoner being made to miss his flight home from London just before Christmas. Brian Arthurs and his wife were returning from a weekend visit to his brother, who lives in England, when he was detained by British Security Services and held without explanation until after his flight had departed. A report from April 1973 reveals that British Government officials only legalised Sinn Féin because they believed it was a means of halting the party's rise. The report, by one F Steele, is an account of his visit to the Bogside and Creggan where he met with, amongst others, John Hume. It reveals the British habit of both patronising those in the nationalist community who were prepared to be anti-republican, and of profoundly underestimating the abilities and electoral prospects of Sinn Féin. 
Unionist paramilitaries who planted two pipe bombs in a public house in Lime Market Street, Coleraine on New Year's Eve were intent on causing serious injuries and even death, said Sinn Féin Assembly member Francie Brolly. British Army bomb squad members defused the two devices after a telephone warning was received. Photo: Francie Brolly Pregnant women assaulted by racist thugs 
Two Chinese families and one African family, some with small children, were forced to flee their homes over the Christmas holidays following a series of outrageous racially-motivated attacks in the Lower Donegall Road area of the predominately unionist Sandy Row. In the most serious of the three incidents, a gang of men broke into a house and assaulted two pregnant Chinese women before breaking a man's nose by smashing a brick into his face. Movement urged on Stormont office accomodation Sinn Féin Assembly team leader, Newry/Armagh MLA Conor Murphy, has called on the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy to allocate office space and facilities to MLAs at Stormont. Murphy's refusal to allocate office space to the new Assembly members, he said, is hindering their opportunity to get on with the job they were elected to do. Ógra collusion camp-out at Divis Sinn Féin Assembly member for West Belfast, Fra McCann, is calling on the people of West Belfast to support a camp-out at Divis Tower on Friday 9 January organised by Ogra Shinn Féin. The camp-out is to highlight state collusion in the killings of numerous Catholics and the lack of demilitarisation by the British Government, especially in relation to the British spy posts on the top of Divis Tower. Troops Out Movement launches book online As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, the Troops Out Movement, which campaigns for British withdrawal from Ireland, will launch a new book on its website www.troopsoutmovement.com on 15 January 2004 The book, Oliver's Army - A History of British Soldiers in Ireland and other Colonial Conflicts, is written by founder member of the movement, Aly Renwick. Naíscoil Thaoilinn ag fás i bPoll Glas The provision of Irish-Medium Education has been making its mark in the Six Counties and judging by the response from local people on the doorsteps to the recent promotional drive of Naíscoil Thaoilinn, it would appear that Poleglass in Belfast is embracing this desire for bilingual education. Children request Irish be made an official EU language 
Children from Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg, Ranelagh, Gaelscoil Chabrach, Cabra and Ráth Cairn in the Co Meath Gaeltacht, made an early request from Santa on Friday 19 December outside the EU Commission offices in Dawson Street, Dublin, with a giant card calling for the recognition of Irish as an official EU language. Photo: Niadh Ní Chasaide outside European Commission offices in Dublin with children delivering a Christmas card to Romano Prodi requesting that Irish be made an official EU language Prodi remarks on two-speed Europe confirm need for new direction Sinn Féin Six-County EU candidate Bairbre de Brún MLA says comments by EU Commissioner Romano Prodi and by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder about a two-speed Europe reinforce Sinn Féin's argument that the EU is heading in that direction and that smaller countries will lose out. Arrogant Brennan responsible if bus & rail workers strike Sinn Féin spokesperson on Transport Seán Crowe TD has said the Transport Minister Séamus Brennan will be "wholly responsible for the loss of service" if CIE workers go ahead with a threatened strike this week. He described the Minister's attitude to recent talks to settle the dispute as arrogant and "incredibly destructive" in terms of labour relations. Ahern urged to pursue social justice agenda 
Bairbre de BrÚn, has also called on Bertie Ahern to use the Irish Presidency of the European Union to pursue a social justice agenda across a range of areas. Detailing a 13-point plan of proposed priorities for the six-month Presidency, de Brún called on the Government to make the drive for social justice and poverty eradication the main focus of its Presidency and ultimately its legacy. SF welcomes EU Parliament Report on GM 
Sinn Féin Spokespersons on Agriculture, Martin Ferris TD and Gerry McHugh, have welcomed the adoption by the European Parliament of a report on Genetically Modified food and crops. The report, written by German Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf and adopted by the Parliament last month, proposes that the EU adopt much stricter guidelines on tolerance levels for GM and on potential contamination of conventional and organic crops. Over 200 people braved the wet weather on Sunday 4 January to attend the annual Séan Sabhat commemoration in Limerick. Marchers assembled at Bedford Row in the city centre and proceeded to the Republican Plot in Mount St Laurence Cemetery, led by the Youghal Republican Flute Band. |
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