SF says UK will only publish censored Cory report
The British government is planning to publish only a heavily-censored version of a report on four controversial killings in Northern Ireland, it was claimed tonight.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Bairbre de Brun warned the UK government of the impact of it editing retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory’s report.
Judge Cory investigated:
:: Allegations of security force collusion in the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 by the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters.
:: The police response to a fatal attack by a mob on Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill in April 1997,
:: The shooting dead by the Irish National Liberation Army of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in the high security Maze Prison in December 1997.
:: Allegations of police death threats against Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was murdered in a loyalist booby trap car bomb in March 1999.
Seven US Senators, including Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, have written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for the release of the report.
After a meeting today with Northern Ireland Office Minister John Spellar at Stormont, Miss de Brun said she was alarmed he was unable to give guarantees Judge Cory’s report would be released in full.
“Sinn Féin is especially concerned that when we raised the need for the Cory Report to be published in full and uncensored we could not get a commitment from him that that would be the case,” the West Belfast MLA said.
“Clearly there is a strict refusal by the British government to release the Cory Report in full yet the Irish Government, when it was also handed its report by Judge Cory, was able to do so last December full and uncensored.
“You have to ask why is the British government reluctant to release the Cory Report in full.”
Judge Cory is believed to have asked for a full inquiry into each of the four cases and contacted the Finucane, Wright, Hamill and Nelson families in January to inform them of his decision.
Last week the Government said it was intending to release the report by the end of the month after three of the families took legal action to force its publication.
The Irish Government asked Judge Cory to examine two controversial killings in its jurisdiction.
The Irish Government released its report before Christmas and followed Judge Cory’s recommendation that there should be a public inquiry into one of the cases.
The inquiry will look into alleged collusion between members of the gardaí and the IRA in the double murder of senior Royal Ulster Constabulary officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan in 1989.
The British government has said security and legal implications have caused the delay in the release of its report.
In a letter to Tony Blair, seven US Senators, including Edward Kennedy, warned the UK Prime Minister the delay was damaging confidence in them.
They told Mr Blair: “It is of grave concern that your Government’s handling of this matter is jeopardising much of the progress made to date in achieving a new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland.”
