Anger at 'slow' response to Cory report
The British government was today accused of dragging its heels over the setting up of public inquiries into controversial killings in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin vice president Pat Doherty said there was a real concern about the lack of movement on three public inquiries the Government pledged it would set up following the release of reports by Canadian judge Peter Cory.
Judge Cory, who was asked in 2001 by the British and Irish governments to consider the cases of six controversial murders, called for inquiries into:
:: Allegations that police threatened the life of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was killed in a loyalist car bomb outside her home in 1999.
:: Police actions during the murder of Portadown Catholic father-of-two Robert Hamill by a loyalist mob in 1997.
:: The suspicious circumstances surrounding the gunning down of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright by Irish National Liberation Army inmates in the high security Maze Prison during Christmas 1997.
:: Allegations of British army intelligence and Royal Ulster Constabulary collusion in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in front of his family in their north Belfast home by the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters in February 1989.
Last year the Irish Government confirmed it would also set up an inquiry into allegations of Garda collusion with the IRA in the double murder of senior RUC officers Bob Buchanan and Harry Breen in south Armagh in 1989.
In April, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announced the British government would proceed with three of the inquiries relating to the Nelson, Hamill and Wright killings.
However, nationalists in Northern Ireland were angry that the British government withheld plans for an inquiry into the Finucane murder until all legal proceedings have been completed.
Mr Doherty said families were concerned at the slow pace of the British government’s response to the Cory Report.
The West Tyrone MP said: “The British government received Judge Cory’s Report last October. They sat on it for months before finally publishing a censored version.
“At that time they committed themselves to holding three public inquiries but have repeatedly failed to give such a commitment in relation to the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
“Yet months on it seems that little actual progress has been made on establishing the three inquiries which the British government has announced are to go ahead. I would share the concerns raised by these families over the current slow pace being adopted by the British government.
“Given the record of the British government in these maters and the culture of concealment which exists at the heart of the British system there is obviously real concern that there are those within that system who are determined to continue to suppress the truth. That would be completely unacceptable.”
Mr Doherty said his party also supported the families of people he claimed were murdered because of collusion between members of the British security system and loyalist paramilitaries.
The Sinn Féin MP said his party would raise the need for inquiries in their peace process negotiations with the two governments.
