London to launch Finucane murder inquiry – ISN
September 24th, 2004
DERRY – Last week saw the first conviction for the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane, one of Northern Ireland’s most notorious political assassinations.
Now, the British government has promised a judicial inquiry to discover the truth behind the killing, which has been one of a few such murders tainted by allegations of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and elements of the security forces.
Speaking at the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast on Thursday, British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Paul Murphy announced that new legislation would allow the inquiry to probe alleged collusion with loyalist paramilitaries by members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army intelligence.
However, skepticism remains about how thorough any inquiry would be. Michael Finucane, son of the murdered solicitor and, along with other family members, a prominent and vocal campaigner for a full public inquiry into his father’s death, said that the inquiry would be controlled and restricted by the British government. Finucane’s family members have not confirmed whether they plan to cooperate with the inquiry. The full terms of reference for the inquiry and its mandate have not yet been published, but it is anticipated that much of the inquiry would be held in private, due to issues of British national security involved in public hearings detailing military and intelligence operations.
A full public inquiry into the Finucane case, as well as five other cases carrying allegations of security force-terrorist collusion, was recommended by Canadian judge Peter Cory. Cory was commissioned by the British government to gather information and publish a report on a number of such cases from Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict.
Nationalist political parties reacted in a mixed fashion. The Social, Democratic, and Labour Party (SDLP) said that the announcement fell short of what they had expected, echoing the Finucane family statements. However, Sinn Féin – believed to be the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) – remained cautious, citing the need to wait for the full terms of reference for the inquiry to be published.
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said that the Irish government’s position remained in line with the findings of the Cory Report that the British government should hold a full public inquiry.
On 16 September, Ken Barrett, a member of the Loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the murder of Finucane in February 1989. The solicitor was a prominent figure in defending IRA clients throughout the 1980’s.
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