Conference tallis::celt

1276.0. "Upholding Democray" by KOALA::HOLOHAN () Tue Nov 02 1993 12:36

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                         CEART AGUS COIR
              Newsletter of the Pat Finucane Centre
           **Towards Human Rights and Social Change**

                   Issue No. 1---October 1993

      *****************************************************
                      UPHOLDING DEMOCRACY:
                    THE DEATH OF PAT FINUCANE

This article is one of several written by members of the Centre
which have been reproduced in the Derry journal and deal with the
subject of human rights and the rule, or misrule, of law within
the context of the current conflict in the six counties. The
purpose of these articles is to identify and provide an insight
into present and ongoing human rights abuses particular to the
northeast. Human rights violations occur when the state breaks
its own laws at the expense of the individual or international
laws as determined by the United Nations, for example. Violations
within the state of Northern Ireland are manifold and range from
wrongful conviction right through to the unlawful killing of its
own citizens.

The right to life is the most fundamental of all and is enshrined
within the Universal Declaration of Rights, to which the
government of Great Britain is signatory.

                            COLLUSION

Here we deal with the negation of that right and although the
content does not relate to an incident of immediate local origin,
it is nevertheless felt that its importance and implications are
crucial to the understanding of a phenomenon known throughout the
world as "collusion".

The killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in February 1989
ranks among the most obscene and coldly calculated of the
several thousand violent deaths which have occurred in the north
since 1969. This assertion is not made with particular reference
to the precise manner in which he was gunned down of that it
happened in his own hone in front of his entire family.
Tragically,these are traits associated with many killings in this
part of Ireland and as such are not especially noteworthy in this
case, except, of course, to his family and close friends.

What makes Pat Finucane's death rank among the most horrific and
terrifying of  the last 25 years is, first of all, the work he
was involved in and its possible consequences; secondly, that is 
was widely accepted that the British government, through its
intelligence services in the north, had prior knowledge of an
attempt to kill him, and had actually participated in a
conspiracy with members of the UDA which led to his death.

Official fingers had been pointing in Pat Finucane's direction
for several years before his murder. Pat, working from his 
Victoria Square office since 1979, had become a thorn in the side
of  the government and military due to his persistence and
tenacity in challenging human rights abuses, in particular shoot-
to-kill incidents such as those in Armagh in 1982.

                          "IRA LAWYER"

Discontent among those who considered him a threat and an enemy
had gathered to such an extent that by January 1989 junior Home
Office Minister Douglass Hogg felt safe in proclaiming before the
House of Commons at Westminster that "there are in Northern
Ireland a number of solicitors who are unduly sympathetic to  the
cause of the IRA." Such an assertion must be viewed against the
backdrop of a policy of a deliberately malicious policy of
bracketing anyone with a genuine interest in promoting civil
rights in the north as subversive, regardless of the probable
consequences.

Indeed, this  was immediately and prophetically pointed out in a
reply by Seamus Mallon MP who said "I have no doubt that there
are lawyers walking the streets or driving the roads of the North
of Ireland who  have become targets for assassins' bullets as a
result of the statement that has been made tonight...people's
live are inn danger..People who  have brought cases to the
European Court of Human Rights will be suspected."

Allusion to Pat Finucane was implicit in Mr. Hogg's statement as
a year before it was made, Amnesty International had reported
numerous threats directed against him in Castlereagh to the
effect that he would be killed because the RUC believed him to be
an "IRA Lawyer". There is no doubt that Mr. Hogg was given this
information based on assessment by either the RUC or another
source of military information. Where else?

On the night Pat was killed, the then Secretary of State, Tom
King, said that "No civilized society can tolerate murder from
whatever vicious extreme it comes... The security forced will do
all they can to bring the perpetrators to justice. Everyone in
Northern Ireland must help in ending this awful cycle of
violence." The rhetorical emptiness of this and other similar
utterances from British Ministers became evident some time later
as events unfolded.

                          BRIAN NELSON

In August 1989, as a result of increasing evidence of collusion
between the RUC/UDR and loyalist paramilitaries, the British
Government set up an Inquiry under Cambridgeshire policeman  John
Stevens. Stevens presided over the arrests and questioning of
almost a hundred people and arranged the seizure of thousands of
photographs passed from law enforcement and military departments
to the UDA and UVF. It was not until January 1990 that the
Stevens team arrested and charged Brian Nelson, UDA Intelligence
Officer for Belfast who, unknown to Stevens, was on the same
payroll as himself. Nelson was a member of FRU (Force
Reconnaissance Unit), a key component of Military Intelligence.

Nelson was initially charged with 35 offenses alleged to have
taken place between 1987 and 1989, among these most notable were
the murders of two Belfast Catholics, Terence McDaid and Gerard
Slane, in 1988. At his subsequent trial in 1992, it emerged that
Nelson had given considerable notice the his British Intelligence
handlers as to imminent murder attempts on the two, yet both men
were shot dead by the UDA without hinderance from the RUC.
However, as part of a deal between the Crown and military
intelligence, the murder charges were dropped in return for a
pleas of guilty by Nelson to a range of lesser offenses. Nelson
received a ten-year sentence.

                    INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

Pat Finucane's killing has been the subject of much independent
investigation by journalists and human rights campaigners.
Despite the gravity implied in allegations linking intelligence
service to the killing, the government has resisted pressure to
sponsor an independent inquiry and appears quite happy to let
allegations stand.

What has been ascertained by various sources so far is that: the
murder weapon was stolen from a UDR barracks by a UDR soldier
some months before the killing and sold in a loyalist drinking
club to the UDA. The victim has been pointed to loyalists during
interrogations in Castelreagh some weeks prior to the killing.
Three days before the fatal shooting, Brian Nelson supplied a
magazine photograph of Mr. Finucane to a UDA chief in Belfast.
Given access to Nelson's journal in June 1992, several renowned
journalists afterwards stated that had also carried out
surveillance work on the Finucane home in north Belfast shortly
before the killing.

                         LAWYER'S REPORT

Among the conclusions in a report compiled by the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights entitles "The Intimidation of Defense
Lawyers, The Murder of Patrick Finucane", published in February
of 1993 were that "Mr. Finucane's effective legal advocacy in
politically sensitive cases resulted in his harassment and
ultimately led to his killings. We also found credible evidence
suggesting collusion between elements within the security forceps
and loyalist paramilitaries in Finucane's murder."

The Report continued: "There is substantial evidence suggesting
the British Army's complicity in Finucane's murder...Nelson's
journal links him directly to Finucane's murder". The Report also
presented evidence pointing to the involvement of the RUC inn the
form of "knowing, acquiescence or perhaps even instigation."

                          RUC RESPONDS

It is significant that upon receipt of a draft copy of Report
(the RUC refused to cooperate with the Lawyers Committee), the
Deputy Chief Constable of the RUC, Michael McAtamney, responded
appallingly by contrasting the killing of Finucane to those of
judges,magistrates, etc. who had been killed over the years
"...striving to uphold democratic values and restore peace."
Presumably, those responsible for at least some time, if not all,
of these deaths, had been prosecuted. At the very least their
deaths had been vigorously investigated by the RUC in sharp
contrast to RUC endeavors as to finding out hoe and why Pat
Finucane died and who was responsible, or even investigating
threats made against him by their won members. The RUC has been
unable and unwilling to do so for fear of certain self-
incrimination and severe embarrassment to the government.

Mr. McAtamney appears unaware that "democracy" cannot be upheld
by threatening and murdering solicitors, nor will "peace" be
restored by colluding and conniving with the murderers of
Catholic civilians. Attempting to balance the killing of Pat
Finucane by invoking the ghosts of others merely serves to
reinforce the popular belief that the RUC is a force partial to
accepting a one-dimensional view of the present situation.

With regard to the killings of Pat Finucane, Gerard Slane and
Terence McDaid, Tom King's assertions concerning justice are
particularly meaningless. Firstly, "civilized society" has
tolerated these three murders, if that isn't a contradiction in
terms, or maybe it's because they didn't come from a "vicious
extreme?" Secondly, it is clear that the "security forces" and
Tom King's government have done all they could to prevent the
perpetrators being brought justice. Finally, it  is indeed
incumbent on everyone to bring about an end to "this awful cycle
of violence." However there is a greater incumbence on the
government to admit that its handling of the situation in the
north, particularly when views in light of the murder of Pat
Finucane, has been an unmitigated disaster for which it is solely
responsible.

It goes almost without saying that there is a clear need for an
officially recognized, independent inquiry into the whole Brian
Nelson affair with particular reference to the murder of Pat
Finucane. The obscenity of  his death lies in the fact that
during his lifetime, in his professional capacity as a solicitor,
he was committed to exposing and challenging injustices of  the
state by employing legal, peaceful methods. The utter tragedy for
all who believe in non-violence as a means to achieving progress
is that he died as a consequence of his own success and
dedication at the hands of those who perceive progress worth
killing for to prevent.

                           **********

                       Pat Finucane Centre
                         1 West End Park
                         Derry  BT48 9JF
                             Ireland

                        tel- (504-268846)