The
Ballymurphy Massacre
Committee has expressed
special thanks to Fr. Sean
Mc Manus, President of the
Capitol Hill-based Irish
National Caucus, and to
Congressman Chris Smith (
R-NJ) for the help they gave
in highlighting the case.
The
Chairman of the Massacre
Committee, John Tegart,
offered his thanks after the
decision by the
Attorney-General to re-open
10 inquests relating to the
Massacre in 1971.
Mr.
Teggart said : " In
desperation we went to
Washington in December 2010
to see Fr. Mc Manus. He
dropped everything to help
us, and promised he would do
all in his power to get us a
Congressional Hearing. He
even held up the publication
of his Memoirs, My American
Struggle for Justice in
Northern Ireland, so as to
get our photo in the book.
And
then on March 16, 2011 we
got our Congressional
Hearing before the Helsinki
Commission, Chaired by
Congressman Smith, who is
devoted to human rights
around the world.
It
is certain that the
Congressional pressure has
played a significant role in
forcing the reopening of
inquests into our case. We
are deeply grateful to Fr.
Mc Manus and Congressman
Smith."
John
Tegart
******
STATEMENT BY THE BALLYMURPHY
MASSACRE FAMILIES - INQUESTS
RE-OPENED
The
Ballymurphy Massacre
families welcome the
decision by the
Attorney-General to re-open
10 inquests relating to the
death of our loved ones 40
years ago. We commend the
Attorney-General for showing
leadership and credibility
in announcing that the
inquests will be re-opened.
We
feel that when he considered
the facts surrounding the
sham inquests which took
place 40 years ago, his
decision was the correct
one. We regard the original
sham inquests as a serious
neglect of duty by everyone
involved and leave a lot of
questions to be answered.
A
question that should be
answered is why did the
Coroner not compel the
soldier's to give evidence
in person to the Coroner's
Court? In 1971 an agreement
was reached between the GOC
of the British Army and the
Chief Constable of the RUC,
whereby the interviewing of
soldiers involved in
murdering our loved ones was
carried out by the Royal
Military Police, another
branch of the army 'family
tree'. How could any
investigation have
credibility when the people
in the dock are
investigating themselves?
The
soldiers involved were
helped to fabricate their
accounts of what happened.
There was no attempt to
contrast these accounts with
the evidence of numerous eye
witnesses, particularly in
relation to their
justification for firing
live rounds. The soldiers'
statements were simply
accepted without question.
Key civilian evidence and
inconsistencies between the
soldier's accounts were
withheld from the Coroner.
The
lack of pre-inquest
disclosure to the families
or our legal representatives
and the inability of the
Coroner's court to reach
'findings' is another
indication of serious flaws
with the original inquests.
All
of these shortcomings mean
that the original inquests
into the deaths were so
flawed that they could be
regarded at best as a sham
and at worst as a shameful
cover-up!
There are a number of
changes to the Coroner's
court in recent years which
influenced the family's
decision to apply to the
Attorney-General to re-open
the inquests and provide the
family with hope that the
inquests will reach credible
findings. These changes
include the fact that:
* the inquests will
have to comply with Article
2 of the European Convention
on Human Rights (ECHR);
* the British soldiers
involved in the killings can
now be compelled to give
evidence in person;
* the House of Lords
has made it clear that the
Coroner dealing with an
inquest has a generous
discretion in relation to
the remit of an Inquest; and
* a jury will now be in
a position to reach
'findings';
The
families believe that that
these inquests must be held
without delay, with
sufficient resources and
funding provided to the
Coroner and the families
legal representatives to
ensure that all of the facts
are known.
The
inquests will be re-opened
into the deaths of Fr Hugh
Mullan, Francis Quinn,
Daniel Teggart, Joan
Connolly, Joseph Murphy,
Noel Phillips, Edward
Doherty, John Laverty,
Joseph Corr and John McKerr.
We are extremely
disappointed that the death
of Pat McCarthy will not be
covered by these inquests.
The death of Pat McCarthy
was not investigated by the
Coroner in 1971 because in
all of the confusion and
misinformation surrounding
the Massacre, his death was
recorded as a heart attack.
However, we now know that
Pat's heart attack occurred
as he was subjected to a
cruel and terrifying mock
execution, and what's more,
he was denied access to
medical help which could
have saved his life. We will
continue to gather evidence
and locate and record
witness evidence to assist a
further application to the
Attorney-General in relation
to the death of Mr McCarthy.
We will continue in our
quest to have the truth
about Pat's death to be a
matter of historical record.
The
families regard the
re-opening of the inquests
as a very important step on
our journey for truth. But
even a fully resourced and
effective inquest will have
limitations. It will be able
to provide facts and gather
crucial forensic, logistical
and witness testimony
evidence, but it will not be
able to examines the causes,
context and consequences of
the Massacre and answer so
many of the questions that
must be answered. We believe
that only an International
and Independent
Investigation can facilitate
the discovery of the facts
and provide an accurate
historical account of the
events of August 1971 on the
streets of Ballymurphy.
Fr. Sean Mc
Manus
President
Irish
National Caucus
P.O.
BOX 15128
Capitol
Hill
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel.
202-544-0568
Fax.
202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org
