Adams to challenge Blair on Collusion
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will lead a party delegation tomorrow to hold
a meeting with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the issue of Collusion.
Mr.
Adams said:
"The O Loan report is the tip of the iceberg.
Collusion was an integral part of British policy. It existed under the
Tories and Labour in the 1970s but became a more focussed weapon of state
terror under the Thatcher government.
"Not only did MI5, the
Force Research Unit, Special branch and other state agencies run informers
and agents but they trained, equipped and supplied specific information on
potential targets. The Glenanne gang which carried out the Dublin Monaghan
bombings is one example, but perhaps the example which best exposes the
extent of institutionalised collusion was the murder of human rights lawyer
Pat Finucane.
"The British government and its agencies also
encouraged and facilitated informal acts of collusion which were always part
and parcel of the relationship between the RUC and UDR and unionist
paramilitaries.
"It isn't good enough for Hugh Orde to express
support for the O'Loan report and then criticise Sinn Fein for condemning
those who carried out these actions, and others, some still within his
organisation who covered them up.
"Neither is it enough for this
British government to express concern and do nothing to right this wrong.
British government ministers who sanctioned collusion must face the
consequences of their actions.
"We intend telling Mr. Blair
tomorrow that British government figures, including successive Prime
Ministers who sat around the British Cabinet table, and who sanctioned
collusion, and received reports on its implementation, must be held
accountable. 10 years ago when we first met Mr. Blair in Downing Street we
gave him a file on Collusion and specifically the case of Pat Finucane.
Years later he told me that since his time in Downing
Street he had not
authorised any such activities in Ireland. Then who did authorise the
killing and the cover-ups, which have occurred while he has been British
prime Minister? Who authorised the running of the drug pushers, or the
payments of these killers?
"Who authorised their non-prosecution
by the DPP? Who within the British establishment thinks they are more
powerful than the British Prime Minister? Moreover, four years ago the
Stevens Inquiry sent files on 25 individuals to the DPP with a view to
charging them. Four years later nothing has happened. This is the same DPP
office that made a sordid little side deal with Brian Nelson, the
UDA/British agent who helped kill Pat Finucane and many others. What does
Mr. Blair intend doing about the DPP?
"These are questions which
demand answers. Mr. Blair must be prepared to open up this can of worms to
public scrutiny. And as a first step he should accede to the Finucane
family's request for a proper public, international based, enquiry.
"But
Mr. Blair also has to acknowledge the great hurt successive British governments
have inflicted on almost a thousand citizens who were killed, and their
families who have suffered directly, and all the thousands of others who had
their rights undermined and subverted by a policy, which encouraged
paramilitarism and violence and which in turn corrupted Protestant working
class communities.
"The reality is that Collusion is a symptom of
a bigger problem; British rule in Ireland. The RUC Special Branch, British
intelligence and their agents were doing exactly what they were paid to do.
It was a political policy decided in Downing Street by the British
government and implemented by the Special Branch, FRU and others.
"Collusion
and State terrorism was used by the British government to uphold the Union;
to defend and assert British government involvement in Irish affairs. The
history of that involvement is littered with examples like this. Sinn Féin
remains resolute in our determination to end that involvement." ENDS