Issue 030, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (October, 1989)

              deireadh fomhair - october 1989 25p usa 18 per year : issn 0791 - 0002 ruc chief's choice resign or cover up the systematic leaking to the media polit ical parties and individuals of intelligence files on republicans during the month of september is directly connected with a challenge from with in the ruc and the security establishment in the six counties to the new chief constable hugh annesley this challenge has its origins in the controversy over the killing of seam us duffy in belfast by a plastic bullet on august 9 and the attempted inquiry into it by the ruc chief this inquiry very quick ly ran into a stone wall of ruc silence and was the first stumbling-block for hugh annesley since he took over the ruc from john hermon reports from belfast indicate that the investigation never got further than establishing that two landrovers with twelve ruc men were in the dawson street area of the city at the time the message to the new chief constable was clear and the promises by annesley and peter brooke the new british secretary of state that full answers would be given came to nothing in short it was another cover up to protect the killers of an innocent six-county nationalist just as almost 200 killings by the brit ish crown forces had been covered up before in the previous twenty years just two weeks later loughlin maginn was gunned down by the uff and on august 29 a bbc reporter revealed he had been shown intelligence documents and a video by the loyalist death squad showing their victim to have been a suspect stevens inquiry in a controlled and sys tematic manner since then files on ira suspects have turned up throughout the whole of the six counties and into the bor der area of south donegal in the 26 counties after a file was reported missing from dunmurry ruc stat ion on september 14 con taining photo montages of 12 suspects annesley ann ounced the setting up of an inquiry by the english deputy chief constable john stevens this step was taken only after an in itial inquiry which invol ved questioning 100 crown forces and civilian personnel found out noth ing at the same time it was revealed that an ruc leak to loyalists had happened from a belfast police stat ion over a year before in august 1988 and had since come into the possession of a newry solicitor - by september 22 chief constable annesley took the unprecedented step of taking out a quarter page advertisement in the three daily newspapers in the six counties as well as in the irish times appealing for information in respect of the leaks to be repor ted to his office or stevens and he stated that he was committed to impartial policing sign of panic this appeal directly to the public is a sign of the panic that annesley is now feeling faced as he will certainly be by the usual conspiracy of silence in the ruc annesley is now in the position where his whole reputation and future ca reer rests on the outcome of the stevens inquiry when the realisation dawns on him that his own force is putting it up to him to join the ruc by actively colluding with them in the inevitable cover up he will have two choices the first is to resign and admit the failure of his in quiry and his career and the second is to get his hands dirty and cover it up like the stalker inquiry ruc role we can be definite that • top ruc chief hugh annesley and below one of his force's intelligence files leaked to the london independent during september none of these intelligence files would have been leaked if john hermon re mained as chief constable — he could be relied on to stand by the ruc in their role as supplier of informa tion and other resources to their loyalist allies in the uff uvf and uda etc two recent revelations in the media remind us that british crown forces have worked hand-in-hand with loyalist death squads over the years in ireland firstly former british mili tary intelligence officer fred holroyd reveals in his new book war without honour that sas soldier robert nairac's gang and the ruc were involved with loyalists in the miami showband massacre in 1975 and the killing of john francis green in the 26 counties in the same year he has commented that the present situation is just a continuation of the policies we carried out in the early and mid seven ties secondly loyalist prison er albert ginger baker in a letter to the irish news in belfast septem ber 19 has stated that an ruc man was second-in command of a uda gang in 1972-73 these two examples illu strate the fact that british terror in ireland has both its official and unoffic ial sides and any attempts by people like hugh anne sley to try to make the ruc appear more accept able to nationalists is doomed to failure it is by its very nature a sectarian bigoted arm of british rule that is irreformable . • see also 26-county collusion with loyalist assassins page 3 sinn fein poblachtach october 21-22 1989 spa hotel lucan co dublin tom falvey unveiling of memorial in kilflynn co kerry sunday october 1 at 3pm epehtubser commemoration assemble at 3pm border inn carrickcarnon co louth sunday november 5 frank driver commemoration , bally more eustace , co . kildare , sunday november 5 assemble at the square 3pm