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Conference tallis::celt

Title:	Celt Notefile

Moderator:	TALLIS::DARCY

Created:	Wed Feb 19 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1632
Total number of notes:	20523

1032.0. "Update on Caraher Shooting" by EPIK::HOLOHAN () Fri Apr 10 1992 11:58




                          Caraher Shootings Update
                          by Sandy Carlson (Belfast)


Two Royal Marine Commandos were charged in February for murdering 20
year-old Fergal Caraher and attempting to murder 24 year-old Michael
Caraher on December 30, 1990, in Cullyhanna, South Armagh.  Richard
Elkington (23) and Andrew Callaghan (20) both responded "Not Guilty",
after a 5-minute hearing and were remanded until March 4.  The charging
followed Belfast barrister Reginald Weir's review of the RUC's file, on
the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

At the time of the incident, the British armed forces alleged that the
Carahers drove through a checkpoint and injured a soldier, but Michael
Caraher, who was driving, was never charged for driving through a
checkpoint or for injuring a soldier.  In addition, eye witnesses and
family members have consistently denied this allegation.  Michael
Caraher testified at the June 1991 Public Inquiry into the shooting
that, at the checkpoint, Fergal asked, "Are we right?". Then, when the
brothers drove out, soldiers opened fire.

The report of the Public Inquiry, published January 1992, called for the
prosecution of the soldiers involved.  Margaret Caraher, Fergal's widow,
has said, "We feel that this decision [to prosecute] is largely due to
the pressure by the Cullyhanna Justice Group and the Inquiry (citizen
organized inquiry) held by them and the Irish National Congress; the
publishing of their report; and international pressure placed on the
British government and the authorities.  The Irish National Congress
points out that a recent Congressional hearing into shoot-to-kill heard
evidence from the Caraher family.  "That could also have had something
to do with it, as the British came out of it very badly," said an INC
spokesperson.

However, Peter John Caraher, the brothers' father, said, "From
happenings over the past two decades and because of the way we have been
treated by the authorities since this shooting, we have very little
confidence in British justice."

There is a widely-held belief that the British operate a shoot-to-kill
policy throughout northern Ireland.  According to Amnesty
International's June 1991 report: "339 people have been shot dead by the
security forces in Northern Ireland...many of these in disputed
circumstances.  Since 1969, 27 members of the security forces have been
prosecuted, 19 found not guilty, one found guilty of manslaughter and
given a suspended sentence.  Private Ian Thain was convicted of murder,
given a life sentence, released after two years and three months, and
reinstated into the British Army."
 
Thus, whether or not justice will be done in this case remains to be
seen.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1032.1	Words that mean the opposite: "British" & "justice"	WREATH::DROTTER		`Fri Apr 10 1992 13:10`	20
	re: .0 Thanks for the update, Mark. In northern Ireland, when it comes to investigating the deaths, nay, the murders of nationalists, the words "British justice" are an oxymoron that creates more than a mockery of justice, it creates an obscenity of justice. These two Brit scumbags will be given a slap on the wrist, then returned to their unit so they can kill more nationalists. Hell, I betcha 30 quid on it, Mark.... Not quite the obscenity Bloody Sunday was in 1972, but hey, these are the '90s. Kill 'em one at a time, instead of a whole bunch at one time, that's the Brit Army way. Besides the old way is too messy, and causes too much world attention.
1032.2	Coalisland Incidents Update	CHEFS::HOUSEB		`Mon Sep 28 1992 04:16`	8
	Entered here because the Coalisland note is write-locked. In the news this morning it was reported that members of the Parachute regiment will face charges in relation to the Coalisland incident earlier this year (May ?). The details of what charges these will be have not been released. Brian.
1032.3	There is no such thing as British Justice	KOALA::HOLOHAN		`Mon Jan 03 1994 12:37`	9
	The two soldiers who murdered Fergal Caraher, and attempted to murder his brother, Michael, where found not guilty by H.M.'s Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Hutton. What a surprise. Mark
1032.4	Will they leave by 2000?	TALLIS::DARCY	Alpha Migration Tools	`Mon Jan 03 1994 12:51`	3
	According to VNS the soldiers believed that Fergal's car was dragging another British soldier behind it, so the soldiers shot the car up. Yet another reason for demilitarizing Northern Ireland.
1032.5	Irish Times Articles on British injustice	KOALA::HOLOHAN		`Tue Jan 04 1994 09:26`	132
	The Irish Times December 24, 1993 Widow will continue campaign by DICK GROGAN The verdict in the Caraher case was criticised yesterday by the widow and father of Mr Fergal Caraher, as well as by Sinn Fein and spokesmen for the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The Committee on the Administration of Justice warned that it could compound public lack of confidence in the administration of justice in Northern Ireland. Mrs Margaret Caraher, widow of Fergal, said after the verdict was given: "We are obviously, disappointed by the judge's decision, but we have come to expect nothing more from the legal system in the North of Ireland. "In all the talk of peace, all of that declaration, there is absolutely no word of State violence, of the people responsible for killing Fergal."We said three years ago that we wouldn't let this rest and we wouldn't leave any stone unturned, and that very much still applies, we won't rest until we get justice done properly. Mr John Caraher, father of the Caraher brothers, also said they were disappointed, but not surprised. "This is what we've come to learn down through the years, from our own experience and from the experience of several other people. This is what we as expect from British justice. It is very sad on us, in the few days before Christmas, to be here - Feral will not be coming to celebrate Christmas with his family." Mr Tom Hartley national chairperson of Sinn Fein, said in a statement that the verdict highlights in a clear way the lack of British justice in Ireland and the nature of violence in this state. It also point's up the contradiction in John Major's denial of amnesty for political prisoners. As with all these cases, there is an amnesty for members of the British Crown forces." Cllr Alex Atwood of the SDLP related the outcome to other recent controversial cases which had come after years of such decisions which defeat the cause of justice and thereby damage the cause of peace." He said public confidence in the DPP and the judiciary had been deeply damaged by the lack of successful security force prosecutions, in spite of the hundreds of state killings in the last 25 years. He said he particularly criticised the manner in which the evidence of civilian witnesses to the Caraher killing had been regarded by the most senior judge in the North. The Alliance spokesman on human rights, Cllr Steve McBride said the verdict would leave many people with a sense of unease, and would do nothing to dispel, continuing concerns about the possibility of abuse of force by members of the security forces. The law as it stood was inadequate to deal with serious abuses by the security forces, and it needed to be reviewed. Mr Michael Ritchie, of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said that the statistics pointed to a serious situation. Out of more than 350 deaths caused by police officers and soldiers in the North during the Troubles, only four convictions had ensued. "It simply beggars belief that all those other deaths were carried out in legal circumstances. He said the legal test for such cases should be changed in the UK as a whole, policemen or soldiers could use such force as was "reasonable" in the circumstances, but the international standard allowed such force as was "strictly necessary". The CAJ believed that the international standard as laid out, for example, in the European Convention, should be incorporated into domestic law. That would ensure that soldiers and police would be much more cautious before opening fire. The organisation, Relatives for Justice, claimed that security forces, continued, "to have a licence to kill". The Pat Finucane Centre called for the standards on the use of lethal force set by the UN Code of Conduct for Law. Enforcement Officials to be incorporated into domestic law. Republican Sinn Fein and the Socialist Workers Movement also issued statements criticising the verdict. ********** The Irish Times December 24, 1993 Contradictory accounts given The Sinn Fein member, Mr Fergal Caraher (20), was shot dead by British soldiers in an incident in Cullyhanna, south Armagh, on December 30th, 1990, in which his brother Micheal was seriously injured. The British army and civilian eyewitnesses gave contradictory accounts of the shooting. The army said, through the RUC, that the car in which the men were travelling drove through a checkpoint without stopping. A soldier was carried some distance on the bonnet of the car, and two other soldiers opened fire. Two soldiers were subsequently brought to hospital, the RUC and the army said, although both were back on duty the next day. Six eyewitness accounts given to The Irish Times contradicted the army's version. According to these accounts - the Caraher brothers were not asked to stop at a check-point, and were fired upon following no obvious provocation. No soldiers were struck by the car, according to these accounts. Mr Micheal Caraher who was driving the car in which his brother was killed, also flatly contradicted the army's version. He said that they, had been waved through an army check-point, and were pulling out of a Cullyhanna pub car park on the way to Dundalk when the firing started. Two days later, in his first major statement since being installed as Catholic Primate, Cardinal (then Archbishop) Cahal Daly, called for a "full independent inquiry" into the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting. In June 1991, a panel of jurists from Ireland, Britain, France, Germany and the US led by Mr Michael Mansfield QC, one of the barristers who represented the Birmingham Six - held an unofficial independent inquiry. The jurists issued separate reports in January 1992, although Mr Mansfield said he would reserve his findings until a later date, following indications that the North's Crown Prosecutions Service was likely to proceed with a prosecution of a soldier or soldiers involved in the killing of Mr Caraher. Two, US members of the inquiry panel called for the soldiers involved to be charged with murder. In April 1992 two Royal Marine commandos went forward for trial on a charge of murdering Mr Caraher.