Blair urged 'to come clean over collusion'
Tony Blair was today urged to reveal the entire truth of the extent of collusion between British agents and loyalist paramilitaries.
Sinn Fein Assembly member Alex Maskey, who delivered an address at a collusion rally in west Belfast, said the issue of collusion must be dealt with in talks aimed at restoring the power-sharing institutions.
Mr Maskey said: “In the run-up to these talks in September, Tony Blair has been made aware that this process is being dominated very much by the Northern Ireland Office.
“That means that the entire process is being filtered through a unionist agenda.
“The very essence of the Good Friday Agreement was to make this state an equal place for everybody. That hasn’t been the case and Tony Blair needs to face these people down and get on with implementing the Agreement.”
The South Belfast MLA echoed yesterday’s call by Geraldine Finucane, the widow of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, for an inquiry into his killing.
He said the Prime Minister’s refusal to deal with the issue meant he had become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
“Tony Blair needs to get to the bottom of this.
“He needs to tell people the truth about the extent of collusion between his predecessors’ government agencies and loyalist paramilitaries, which resulted in the deaths of many people here.”
Yesterday Mrs Finucane accused the British government of condoning state killings by refusing to establish a public inquiry into her husband’s murder.
She alleged that by successfully delaying a public inquiry into her husband’s death for 15 years, the British authorities were ensuring it would become more and more difficult to establish the truth.
The Belfast solicitor was shot dead in front of his family by the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters in his north Belfast home. There have been constant allegations of security force collusion in the murder.
Mrs Finucane, delivering the PJ McGrory Memorial Lecture at the West Belfast Festival, said: “It started with the Thatcher administration in 1989 after Pat was murdered…and persists to this day under the leadership of Tony Blair.
“Throughout all of that time, perhaps surprisingly, they have never actually denied that they colluded with Loyalist paramilitaries in Pat’s murder.
“They have simply frustrated and delayed the implementation of a solution to the problem. The strategy has proved very successful.”
