The petition for justice for Rosemary Nelson is online at <http://www.free-eire.org/nelson.html>. You can sign the online petition and request a petition form to collect signatures in person. Alternatively, you can print the form found at the GRRC site <http://members.aol.com/garvaghy/petition.html> Please encourage others to sign this petition - friends, colleagues, family members, your local elected representative. JUSTICE FOR ROSEMARY <http://www.free-eire.org/nelson.html> *************************************** Collusion report by UN slams Flanagan By Staff reporter THE British government and the RUC will come in for scathing criticism at the United Nations today in a report compiled by the organisation�s special rapporteur. Param Cumaraswamy, who investigated claims of RUC-loyalist collusion and harassment of lawyers, demands that the government establishes an independent inquiry into the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane. He also recommends the publication of the Stevens report. He states that �there is at least prima facie evidence of such collusion� in the murder of Pat Finucane. And the murder of Rosemary Nelson � whom the UN rapporteur interviewed extensively for his report � is likely to feature prominently. He will also draw attention in Geneva to the report by the Independent Commission on Police Complaints on the RUC�s handling of alleged threats against Mrs Nelson. In Mr Cumaraswamy�s report, obtained by the Irish News, he accuses Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan of �allowing the situation to deteriorate� after a number of defence solicitors complained of harassment by the RUC. He quotes a statement attributed to Sir Ronnie in which he says that John Stevens uncovered RIR involvement in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. Mr Cumaraswamy will deliver his report in Geneva to 1,000 people from 53 nations. They will include British government representatives and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Irish president Mary Robinson. In his report he says that the RUC showed �complete indifference� to allegations of harassment and intimidation of defence lawyers. He says the solicitors concerned could �easily have been identified� and the chief constable could have �called them for a meeting and inquired why they were complaining to the non-governmental organisations and not the RUC�. The report continues: �Through such a dialogue, confidence in the RUC investigation mechanism could have been restored. This the chief constable failed to do and allowed the situation to deteriorate.� On the accusations of RUC-loyalist collusion, the report also reiterates the UN�s call for a royal commission of inquiry into the Pat Finucane murder to �lay to rest the lingering doubts about this brutal murder which had a chilling effect on the independence of the legal profession in Northern Ireland�. The report states: �The government�s response was that there was no new evidence to justify such an inquiry. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that the government may have misunderstood the reason for his call for such an inquiry. His concern over this murder was over doubts as to whether there was state collusion, ie military and/or RUC collusion. �From the materials seen by the Special Rapporteur, there is at least prima facie evidence of such collusion. His conclusion to this effect is fortified by the refusal up to now by the government to make public the report of John Stevens�s second inquiry. Even a summary of the report was not made public as was done in the earlier inquiry.� Mr Cumaraswamy reveals that he met journalist John Ware in London following an article about collusion published in the New Statesman. In the report, he says the journalist�s revelation of British army collusion in murders �further substantiates� his conclusion �that there was possible security force collusion in the murder of Pat Finucane�. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
