IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
Thursday, 17 June, 1999
1. BLOODY SUNDAY TRIBUNAL URGED TO APPEAL COURT RULING
2. Long march
3. Loyalist supremacy complex
4. Sinn Fein doubles its vote in 26-County EU elections
5. O Caolain praise for supporters
6. Fresh wave of military assaults on Chiapas villages
7. Analysis: A formidable force
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>>>>>> BLOODY SUNDAY TRIBUNAL URGED TO APPEAL COURT RULING
In a ruling which has eroded public confidence in the second inquiry into
the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, a High Court in London today ruled that 17
former soldiers should be allowed to remain anonymous when they give
evidence.
The soldiers are due to appear before the new Bloody Sunday Inquiry to
explain their actions on the day in Derry when they shot and killed 14
peaceful nationalist protestors. The chairman of the new inquiry, Lord
Saville, had previously ruled that their identities should be disclosed.
The High Court ruling has been strongly criticised by the families of those
killed and wounded; they said that the interest of justice had not been
served.
The Sinn Fein chairman described the ruling as "a significant blow".
Mitchel McLaughlin said that he very much hoped that the enquiry would
challenge the decision.
The court ruled that the Saville Tribunal's decision was legally flawed,
when it said that the ex-soldiers, mainly from the Parachute Regiment, must
reveal their names when they give evidence.
Last month, Lord Saville, who is chairing the three-man Tribunal of Inquiry
into Bloody Sunday, ruled that the men should be named, unless there were
special reasons to justify their anonymity. The British Ministry of
Defence challenged Saville's ruling at a cost of over #1 million.
The families of those killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday said the interest
of justice had not been served. In a statement, they said that they were
very disappointed that the High Court in England saw fit to intervene. They
said that they would make strong representations to the enquiry to appeal
the decision immediately.
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
In another development, families are to take legal action against a second
English newspaper, which is backing the soldiers in their fight. The
families have already been granted a temporary injunction against the Daily
Telegraph prohibiting it from publishing libellous material about the
relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead.
They are also applying for a similar injunction against the Daily Mail. In
the High Court in Belfast today, a lawyer for three relatives applied for
the injunction against the Daily Telegraph to be made permanent.
Michael Lavery, QC, said that the British Army was resisting the Saville
inquiry and was being supported by the Daily Telegraph, which claimed the
inquiry was a sop to the IRA. He said that the revelation that the names of
five former soldiers had been given to the families was followed by the
Daily Telegraph claiming that the names had been passed to the IRA and the
former soldiers "were as good as dead."
Their prominent involvement with the Saville inquiry was not out of
vindictiveness, he said. "It is simply to get at the truth of what happened
in 1972," said Mr Lavery. "Far from wishing any harm to these former
soldiers, they are very anxious that no harm should come to them because
that might frustrate the purpose of the inquiry."
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>>>>>> Loyalist walk to supremacy
Loyalists are attempting to up the ante in the run up to Drumcree by
planning a "long walk" throughout the Six Counties.
Members of the Protestant Orange Order based at Drumcree have laid siege to
the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown since their parade was rerouted
down a parallel road by the independent Parades Commission last July.
Now loyalists are planning the long walk from Derry on Thursday 24 June
and after making its way through Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney,
Ballymena, Antrim, Lisburn and Lurgan arrive in Portadown in time for the
participants to take part in Drumcree march on 4 July.
Announcing plans for the long march at a press conference yesterday, DUP
assembly member said "This is only the first stage. There will be another
in September and a third sometime in the millennium." Spokesperson Jonathan
Bell added: "No one should be offended if the march passes through
nationalist areas".
Berry recently threatened that Orangemen would walk the Garvaghy Road no
matter what in a clear message that this march has more to do with unionist
supremacy than civil rights.
The proposed route for the march, which will also link up with feeder
parades, has antagonised nationalists.
Their proposed route will take them through Greysteel, the site of the 1993
Rising Sun bar massacre in which the UDA killed seven people and wounded
13.
The marchers will then go through Coleraine and Limavady in order to reach
Ballymoney, the site of last year's murder by loyalists of the three Quinn
children. Feeder marches are also intended to pass through the mainly
nationalist villages of Bellaghy and Dunloy.
The march will then move through Antrim, a town in which nationalists and
Catholics have suffered from increasing loyalist violence in the last year.
Then on to Crumlin, where loyalists murdered Ciaran Heffron after a
Paisleyite rally in Antrim and recently has seen pipe bomb attacks on
nationalist owned pubs.
The marchers also intend to pass through Lurgan, where loyalists killed
Rosemary Nelson.
"They are trying to intimidate nationalists and Catholics in vulnerable
areas and are trying to make nationalists, who have the right under the
Good Friday Agreement to live free from sectarian harassment, lie down
under loyalist triumphalism", said Sinn Fein's Eoin O'Broin .
The 'long walk committee', consisting of 80 members drawn from a variety of
Protestant, unionist and loyalist groupings, have issued an invitation "to
all sections of the Protestant and unionist population of Northern Ireland
who through no fault of their own have become directly or indirectly the
innocent victims of the past 30 years of terrorism". This comes despite a
plea from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to call off the
march.
DUP Assembly member Gregory Campbell has rubbished the Church's plea,
saying "as I go about Northern Ireland, I find ordinary rank and file
Protestants who, be they nominal or active churchgoers, are saying that the
things that they hear from some of their pulpits does not represent what
they believe".
The Parades Commission has started to canvass for public opinion on the
march and are expected to make a decision shortly.
Garvaghy Road spokesman, Breandan MacCionnaith condemned the 'long march'
as a "march of shame and death", pointing out that 12 people had died in
loyalist violence associated with Drumcree since 1996.
"Without a doubt, it's designed to heighten tension", he said. "It will
pass through a number of contentious areas and nationalists should treat it
as a march of shame and death."
Proximity talks at Stormont - aimed at breaking the Drumcree deadlock -
have been suspended. In a statement, independent chairman Frank Blair said
he had decided to call a temporary halt to the discussions after both sides
met in Stormont today.
He will review the situation with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
next week.
The Orange Order delegation has described the seven hours of discussion
with the independent arbitrator as "a useless paper chase".
MacCionnaith said the Orange Order is embarked on a course of confrontation
and intimidation. He said they had been informed by the Parades Commission
that 25 Orange marches were planned for Portadown between June 28 and July
24.
Meanwhile, over a hundred US congressmen have signed a letter calling for
British Prime Minister Tony Blair to put pressure on the Orange Order to
meet the Garvaghy Road residents face-to-face.
The letter states that the prospects of settling Drumcree are "grim", and
urges the British prime minister to use his "considerable influence" to
involve David Trimble directly in the talks.
In London, the Friends of the Garvaghy Road will be holding a protest
outside the Northern Ireland Office in Millbank on June 23.
A public meeting hosted by Jeremy Corbyn MP will follow, addressed by
Breandan Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition; Diane
Hamill, whose brother Robert was kicked to death by a loyalist mob; Sinn
Fein's Dara O'Hagan; and Robbie McVeigh, of the Rosemary Nelson campaign.
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>>>>>> Sinn Fein doubles its vote in 26-County EU elections
The 88,165 votes won by Sinn Fein in the 26 Counties amounts to a doubling
of the party's vote share compared to the 1994 EU election. The party vote
share increased in each of the four EU constituencies to 6.33% overall.
In Connacht/Ulster, Sean MacManus polled 20,457 votes, 6.39% of the poll,
up from 6% in 1994. In Dublin, Sean Crowe's 18,633 votes gave the party
6.64% of the total poll, up from 2.9% in 1994. Arthur Morgan's 20,015 first
preferences for Sinn Fein in Leinster was a significant increase from the
2.5% share the party had in 1994. It was in Munster though, that Sinn Fein
recorded the highest growth in vote share. Martin Ferris polled 29,060
votes, 6.48% of the poll compared to 1.4% in 1994.
The end result of the election saw little change in the make up of party
representation. Fianna Fail lost a seat in Connacht Ulster to Dana and it
seems that we must steel ourselves for Abortion referendum part three. In
Leinster, sitting Fine Gael MEP Alan Gillis lost out to poll topper Avril
Doyle, while the Green Party's Nuala Ahern hung on for the last seat.
In Dublin, Bernie Malone the loser in the Democratic Left/Labour merger,
was cuckooed by Prionsias DeRossa as Labour held its seat.
In Munster, Brian Crowley racked up almost two quotas with his surplus
spread around every other candidate. When Martin Ferris was eliminated on
the fifth count, 54% of his votes proved nontransferable.
The Sinn Fein transfers were interesting to watch in Dublin. The largest
share went to Patricia McKenna. She got 31% of Sean Crowe's transfers with
another 28% nontransferable. The performance of Sinn Fein across the four
constituencies and the growth in the party's vote share shows that in five
years time, there will be four Sinn Fein candidates knocking at the door
for EU seats.
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>>>>>> O Caolain praise for supporters
Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain has thanked the people of
the constituency who voted for Sinn Fein candidates in the local elections
for bringing about a "tremendous advance" in the party's representation.
The party now has six members of Monaghan County Council an increase of
four. It secured 17 of the 21 seats it contested and is represented on
every local authority in the County.
The TD paid tribute to his party's candidates, election workers and
supporters across the constituency who achieved this success. He said:
"These results, following on from our general election success in 1997 and
previous local government advances, show that there is no ceiling to what
can be achieved. I want to thank most sincerely all those people in
Counties Cavan and Monaghan who put their faith in the Sinn Fein candidates
and cast their vote for them last Friday. They voted on the basis of the
solid record of work by this party and on our sound policies and we fully
intend to fulfil the mandate given to us.
"To all our candidates, election workers and supporters I extend warm
appreciation. Your efforts have secured these successes and your sense of
achievement is well-deserved. Sinn Fein in Cavan and Monaghan, with this
greatly strengthened mandate, now takes up the task of providing the best
representation for the citizens of these Counties."
In many respects this was a tremendous achievement for Sinn Fein. The
securing of three County Council seats in the Electoral Area of North
Monaghan, and of four seats on Monaghan UDC, shows the strength in depth of
Sinn Fein support. Sinn Fein went into the election with no local
representation at all in South Monaghan and emerged with a County
Councillor and a UDC member. In Mid-Monaghan, Sinn Fein has gone from two
local authority seats to four. Clones Electoral Area has added a County
Councillor to the three UDC members.
Effective electoral organisation and vote management ensured maximum gains.
On Monaghan UDC, Sinn Fein is the largest party with four councillors (Owen
Smyth, Padraigin Ui Mhurchadha, Sean Conlon and Gerry Loughran), an
increase of one, and they came close to taking a fifth, with Pauline Martin
narrowly losing out. In the North Monaghan Electoral Area of the County
Council, both sitting councillors Caoimhghin O Caolain and Brian McKenna
were elected on the first count and brought in Brenda McAnespie with them
on the eighth count.
In Clones Electoral Area, Brian MacUaid made it onto the County Council.
The vote was neatly divided between Brian and running mate Sheila McKenna,
who when eliminated secured the election of her colleague on the fourth
count. Peter McAleer, Debbie Moore and Pat Treanor retained their seats on
Clones UDC. Castlebayney UDC member Jackie Crowe held his seat and took a
colleague James Cunningham with him. Jackie also won a County Council seat.
In Ballybay, Gene Duffy retained his seat on the Town Commissioners with
his running mate Barry Cunningham narrowly missing taking a second. Ogra
Shinn Fein National Organiser Matt Carthy won a seat on Carrickmacross UDC
and another new candidate, Noel Keelan, made it onto the County Council.
CAVAN
One of the most dramatic successes in the country was the Sinn Fein
breakthrough in County Cavan. The party had no local elected
representatives before 11 June -- it now has six.
To come from such a position to win two County Council seats and four
municipal authority seats was a major achievement. Pauline Tully and
Charlie Boylan are the new Cavan Sinn Fein County Councillors. They join
Brian McKeown (Cavan UDC) Benny Henry (Belturbet TC) and John Martin and
Harry McCabe (Cootehill TC) on the Sinn Fein team.
It was always expected that the support won by Caoimhghin O Caolain when he
became a TD in 1997 could be translated into local authority seats, but
much work was required to make it happen. This has now paid off. Though
initially worried that the first preference totals in the County Council
areas would not be sufficient, the two successful candidates benefited from
strong transfers. "The success has given great encouragement to the party
in County Cavan" says Director of Elections Tina Tully. She said that
essential to their success was the fact that Sinn Fein operated on a
Cavan/Monaghan constituency basis, with the stronger neighbouring county
helping Cavan create its own dynamic.
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>>>>>> Fresh wave of military assaults on Chiapas villages
BY NICK JONES
Mexico's new Minister for the Interior, Dionisio Carrasco Altamirano,
appears to be bent on marking his arrival in power with a series of strikes
against the poorest and historically weakest sector of society: the
indigenous peoples of the state of Chiapas.
'Nazareth' is the name of a small Indian village which has supported the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation ever since it made its presence felt
in the historic 1994 uprising that demanded land, work, education,
democracy and indigenous autonomy. The community thus has a significance
far beyond mere biblical reference: it is part of a symbolic movement which
offers leadership and hope to many people around Mexico. These rebels are
poor by definition. They hide their identity behind red and orange bandanas
and are equipped with a bizarre medley of different armaments. It's
rumoured there are several thousand of them, but nobody knows for sure.
On 4 June, a mixed contingent comprising over a thousand soldiers, federal
and state police entered Nazareth and dispersed the inhabitants using tear
gas. Three hundred people had to flee into the mountains, leaving the army
in control of their village. Since then, the soldiers and police have been
camped in the area around the village's primary school, and the men, women
and children of the community have been forced to shelter in the hills.
It's the rainy season here and they have practically nothing to eat. It's
likely that when the army eventually leaves their village they will have
destroyed all the beans and maize which are the people's staple diet, as
well as taking tools, blankets, pots and pans and what little money they
come across. That's been a consistent pattern over the last five years of
"low intensity warfare" as the theoreticians up in the U.S.-based School of
the Americas like to call it.
This year's offensive has started with almost no pretext given. A police
official claimed that the huge operation had been mounted in order to
investigate a roadblock allegedly set up by the rebels two kilometres down
the road. "But we didn't find anything" he admitted openly. The general in
charge refused to clarify how long the soldiers would remain in the
village. "Until orders change" was the stated position. The Mexican
military tends to fight shy of the press.
A further two Zapatista villages have since been invaded by similar
contingents of police and soldiers. There has also been a significant
build-up of army units around already existing bases in this massively
militarised corner of Mexico. Again, no explanation has been given.
Observers can only guess at what the government hopes to gain from a tactic
that last year led to carnage and severe loss of face in the international
community. One possibility is that the new Minister for the Interior hopes
to "soften up" the Zapatistas before coming out with a new peace offer
known to be on the cards already. However he is unlikely to succeed. These
people have been in resistance ever since Columbus arrived.
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>>>>>> Analysis: A formidable force
By Micheal MacDonncha
The local election marks the arrival of Sinn Fein as a formidable force in
the 26 Counties. It was a long time coming and many years of hard work had
to be done to achieve it. If successive governments had not repeatedly
postponed local elections we would have seen these advances earlier, but
now they have come they are all the sweeter for the long wait.
Sinn Fein is now the fourth largest party in the 26 Counties. Despite Mary
Harney's desperate efforts on Sunday to claim that the Progressive
Democrats are ahead of Sinn Fein, her protestations were in vain. In
overall local authority seats, vote share and Euro vote totals -- where the
PDs could not stand a single candidate -- the republican party is streets
ahead. Sinn Fein was undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary in these
elections. Democratic Left is gone from the scene and Labour failed to
benefit electorally from the merger. The Greens lost seats also.
The extent of the Sinn Fein success had to be recognised by the media, much
of which had almost completely ignored the party during the election
campaign. Many expressed "surprise" at the results. Of course, if fair and
balanced coverage had been given to the party during the campaign, there
would have been no such surprise as a careful examination of the party's
work would have shown that major gains were on the cards.
The other establishment reaction to the Sinn Fein success was the
patronising one that it was generally a "good thing" and that they were
"welcome into the democratic process". This from parties who had repeatedly
denied the electorate the chance to vote in local elections by postponing
them. That this was a gross abuse was in fact recognised by the 'forgotten
referendum', the passing of which now means that local elections must be
held every five years. What is very significant about this result is that
it cannot be classed as an inner city Dublin and border vote alone. Gains
were made in suburban Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Kerry and in large and small
towns dotted around the country. This is a process of building and for the
first time really solid foundations have been laid on a widespread basis
and have been built upon.
Time needs to be taken to assess very carefully Sinn Fein's political
strategy in the 26 Counties, given this new political strength. There has
been some talk of Sinn Fein possibly being "in government" North and South,
but republicans need to be very cautious about such notions. First of all,
the Executive in the Six Counties -- if it is ever established -- will not be
a government in any ordinary sense. It is a unique experiment involving
parties who have come together in a peace process and agreed structures
without concurring even on basic constitutional questions. Sinn
Fein is there because of its considerable political strength in the Six
Counties.
The situation in the 26 Counties is utterly different. Sinn Fein is still a
small albeit rapidly growing party. Its challenge is to build not only an
alternative radical party but alternative radical politics. It needs to
provide the real Opposition.
Last weekend's gains are the fruits of organisational work over the past
five years. It came tantalisingly close to paying off in multiple Leinster
House seats in 1997. In the event, the breakthrough was made by Caoimhghin
O Caolain on his own but even a cursory glance at these local election
results shows the potential for gains in a number of constituencies come
the next general election.
That election may be upon us sooner than expected. While the Opposition is
sniping unsuccessfully at the government at present with the likes of the
Paddy Duffy affair, continuing tribunals may contain the ticking bomb which
will end the life of the Fianna Fail/PD government. Sinn Fein needs to be
ready for the general election which would follow -- and that could be as
early as this autumn.
c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
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