Joint statement from the Pat Finucane Centre and Justice for the Forgotten* in advance of the RTE documentary on Collusion

Posted By: June 15, 2015

Tonight’s investigative documentary on Collusion on RTE One at 9.35 will include a focus on attacks carried out by the Glenanne Gang including the Step Inn and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the murder of Pat Finucane, the activities of the Mount Vernon UVF gang and official British policy towards loyalist paramilitaries. There have been a number of documentaries on the issue of collusion in recent weeks yet the response of the British Government has been one of denial and prevarication. As an NGO working with families bereaved in these and other attacks we regard it as essential to the process of truth and reconciliation on these islands that London face up to its responsibilities in the face of overwhelming evidence of collusion;

  • The classified documents withheld from Justice Barron in respect of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings should be released to a third party agreeable to both governments and JFF,
  • The independent public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane and promised at Weston Park, should be announced without further delay,
  • The denial by the British government and the PSNI of the extent and impact of collusion in the ‘Glenanne series’ is damaging to the process of reconciliation and should be reversed,
  • The independent Historical Investigation Unit proposed under the Stormont House Agreement should be set up regardless of any disagreement over Tory cuts to the welfare budget,
  • All families, irrespective of their perceived community background or nationality, have an inalienable right to truth about the circumstances surrounding the death of their loved ones,
  • All parties to the conflict, British, republican and loyalist should cooperate with the proposed HIU.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s programme Margaret Urwin of JFF said,

‘This flood of revelations about collusion is not going to stop. Prevarication doesn’t work. London tolerated, even encouraged collusion. The British government’s response to the IRA murders of 9 people on Bloody Friday in Belfast was to launch the largest military operation since Suez-Operation Motorman. The British Government response to the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 was to enact legislation which legalised, deproscribed, the organisation that carried out the attacks-the UVF.’

*Justice for the Forgotten provides advocacy support to families in the Republic of Ireland bereaved as a result of the northern conflict. Since 2010 JFF has been a project of the PFC.

 

 
To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing

PFC
Unit B8, Ráth Mór Centre
Bligh’s Lane, Derry, BT48 0LZ
Tel: 028 71268846

PFC Contacts:
Armagh:    028-37515191     armagh@patfinucanecentre.org
Derry:        028-71268846     info@patfinucanecentre.org
Dublin:       +35318554300    info@dublinmonaghanbombings.org

www.patfinucanecentre.org