4 March 1999 Edition
Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland visit the Six Counties
Following a session in Derry where the Lawyers Alliance took submissions on the RUC on Thursday, Martin Finucane of the Pat Finucane Centre told to AP/RN: ``This fact-finding mission for the Lawyers Alliance who will be preparing a report for Ben Gilman's US congressional hearing on the RUC in April was very informative and constructive. People submitted old and new cases and painted a picture that nothing has changed.''
``The collusion, harassment and the failures of the courts and inadequate protection offered to nationalists were exposed. The meeting made it very clear that radical, root and branch change is needed.''
Finucane added: ``What is needed is the creation of a human rights culture within the new framework.''
Paul O'Connor, also from the Pat Finucane Centre, said the process of people telling the stories of their own lives was also being developed as part of the process of dealing with the outstanding injustices of Bloody Sunday.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein Assembly members Conor Murphy and Pat McNamee met with members of the Lawyers Alliance when they visited South Armagh last Thursday and Friday. The two Assembly members presented the group with a dossier of thirty submissions from South Armagh and Newry outlining people's experiences at the hands of the RUC and British Army, including killings, assault, false arrest and torture in interrogation centres.
After the meeting Conor Murphy said: ``It is important that what has happened and is happening here is opened up to the scrutiny of the world. The presence of this group helps to expose this type of injustice and will go some way to creating peace with justice in our country.''
The Lawyers Alliance also met with members of the South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee (SAFRC) on Friday morning, where they also visited the Crossmaglen GAA grounds and many of the British Army/RUC installations in the South Armagh area.
Edmund Lynch, who led the American delegation said that contrary to what many people believe, the Good Friday agreement has not been implemented as far as the legal system is concerned. He added that they plan to strengthen the links between American judges, lawyers and police officials and members of the Irish and British legal community who had resisted the widespread violation of basic civil rights during the past 30 years of British emergency legislation. On completion of the fact finding mission the Lawyers Alliance will submit their findings to the US Congress, the American Bar Association and the United Nations Committee on Human Rights.
``The collusion, harassment and the failures of the courts and inadequate protection offered to nationalists were exposed. The meeting made it very clear that radical, root and branch change is needed.''
Finucane added: ``What is needed is the creation of a human rights culture within the new framework.''
Paul O'Connor, also from the Pat Finucane Centre, said the process of people telling the stories of their own lives was also being developed as part of the process of dealing with the outstanding injustices of Bloody Sunday.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein Assembly members Conor Murphy and Pat McNamee met with members of the Lawyers Alliance when they visited South Armagh last Thursday and Friday. The two Assembly members presented the group with a dossier of thirty submissions from South Armagh and Newry outlining people's experiences at the hands of the RUC and British Army, including killings, assault, false arrest and torture in interrogation centres.
After the meeting Conor Murphy said: ``It is important that what has happened and is happening here is opened up to the scrutiny of the world. The presence of this group helps to expose this type of injustice and will go some way to creating peace with justice in our country.''
The Lawyers Alliance also met with members of the South Armagh Farmers & Residents Committee (SAFRC) on Friday morning, where they also visited the Crossmaglen GAA grounds and many of the British Army/RUC installations in the South Armagh area.
Edmund Lynch, who led the American delegation said that contrary to what many people believe, the Good Friday agreement has not been implemented as far as the legal system is concerned. He added that they plan to strengthen the links between American judges, lawyers and police officials and members of the Irish and British legal community who had resisted the widespread violation of basic civil rights during the past 30 years of British emergency legislation. On completion of the fact finding mission the Lawyers Alliance will submit their findings to the US Congress, the American Bar Association and the United Nations Committee on Human Rights.