2004/02 and 2004/03, The Sovereign Nation (February/March, 2004)

              32 county sovereignty movement publications i the republican voice february - march 2004 the cease-fire d i rty war recent revelations are only tip of the iceberg the republican communiuty has been left ask ing itself what has really changed since the signing of the good friday agreement while the british establishment have been trying to present themselves in a less overt manner and portray themselves as benign per iders for peace their covert military wing is as malignant and as rotten as ever the revelations in the last number of months that the ruc/psni and the british army have interfered with the work of the independent forensic science laboratory is a matter of great concern and is cause for an immediate independent inquiry the revelations also call into question any convictions secured using forensic evidence from the same channels republicans all across the nation fear that these revelations may only be the tip of the iceberg in two cases recently men have served long sentences on remand only to have their cases thrown out due to lack of admissable evi dence and police malpractice dungannon man noel abernathy was arrested following a shooting incident in draperstown south derry and was subsequently charged in connection with this matter noel spent several months on remand in maghaberry gaol and a year on bail before being aquitted when the case came to court despite the fact that several different eyewitness gave different accounts of the appearence of the gunman noel was charged on the basis of forensic evidence recovered from a blue jacket found in his car during the trial it was discovered that none of the police officers at the scene had taken any precautions to prevent evidence from being tampered with senior police officers then put pressure on the forensic science laboratory to accept evidence that had quite obviously been tampered with in order to produce the result the ruc/psni wanted in another jofli^ent two south down men scene of brit dirty tricks operation martin brogan and mark carroll were arrested outside newry and subsequently charged with possesion of explosives with intent to endan ger life and membership of an illegal organi sation the case rested on whether or not there was any forensic evidence to connect them to explosives found elsewhere brogan and carroll spent 14 months and 10 months on remand respectively in maghaberry gaol where brogan took part in the no-wash protest for segregation when the case came to court the prosecution had no case to present and the judge decided the men had no case to answer the reason no evidence was presented to the court is far from clear but it has since been revealed that a document discovered by the men's solicitor alluded to the fact that the men's clothing had been deliberatley contaminated by british sol diers in newry police station it also points out that the police and security services asked the forensic laboratory to modify its finding to protect a police informer who was trying to set the two men up on hearing that the case had been dismissed martin brogan called for an independent non british inquiry team made up of legal clerical and human rights personel these sentimen mts were echoed by andy martin of the 32csm national executive who called for an immediate independent inquiry into the delib erate attempts by shady british security serv ices to secure purely political convictions on critics of their new order mr martin further stated it is no suprise to the 32csm that these dirty tricks are continuing despite huge efforts by the british to present the six coun ties as a normal entity it is quite obvious that this is not the case given the abnormal lengths that they will go to to silence political oposition what is suprising is the deafening silence of so called republican and nationalist parties on this issue new year statement 2004 new years statement issued on behalf of the national executive by mr francis mackey national chairman j as we enter 2004 we are mindful that on 21st january 85 years ago the elected represen tatives of the irish nation declared their freedom through the declaration of independence the historic election of december 1918 formed the first irish parliament dail eireann and was the clear democratic wish of the irish people to end british rule in ireland the irish people have been denied that right to this day in commemorating this historic event the 32 county sovereignty movement looks forward with patriotic principle to uphold and defend the democratic right of the irish people we emphasise the responsibility of all republicans to uphold the principle of the 1916 leaders the first dail eireann and the sovereignty of the irish nation we look forward to advancing the search for real peace with justice and we question why the british government insists on continuing their illegal claim to the occupied six counties continued on page 2