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> *************************************** The Irish News 17 April 1999 Family of Nelson in campaign for justice By Steven McCaffery RELATIVES of murdered solicitor Rosemary Nelson are to launch a pressure group demanding an independent and international inquiry into her death. The 'Rosemary Nelson Campaign' will be officially launched at a Belfast press conference on Monday due to be attended by Mrs Nelson's bereaved husband Paul. The campaign will also be endorsed by her wider family. The move follows a week of unprecedented international pressure, with the United Nations, European Parliament and US Congress all backing the call for an independent inquiry. It is understood the campaign group will call for an independent international investigation into Mrs Nelson's murder in a loyalist car-bomb attack on March 15, as well as a wider international and judicial probe of the circumstances surrounding her death. Meanwhile, the UN last week also claimed there was "prima facie evidence" of military and/or RUC collusion in the 1989 loyalist murder of solicitor Pat Finucane and the Irish News has since learned that the Irish government has written to British authorities calling for a public inquiry of this case. Last night, spokesman for the Rosemary Nelson Campaign, Dr Robbie McVeigh, welcomed the international support already given to the Nelson family. Dr McVeigh, who has researched, lectured and written on human rights issues, said: "The swift support for an independent inquiry into the murder of Rosemary Nelson from both the US Congress and the EuropeanParliament is an important step forward in the pursuit of truth and justice in this case. This is evidence of the growing international pressure in support of the Nelson family request for a fully independent investigation and inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Rosemary's murder." This latest development comes after a week of intense pressure on the RUC and British government. On Monday United Nations special investigator Dato Param Cumaraswamy made a series of hard-hitting criticisms of the police in both the Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane cases. On Thursday the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for an independent investigation into Mrs Nelson's murder. This came hours after the US Congress began moves to cut-off American funding for RUC training programmes - unless inquiries were established into the murders of both the Nelson and Finucane cases. The entire episode comes two weeks after the RUC was heavily criticised for its handling of the investigation into claims that officers made death threats against Mrs Nelson. Last night, in a further development, a second measure passing through the US Congress in support of the Nelson inquiry calls passed its second procedural hurdle. While it does not carry any financial penalty, its architect, congressman Chris Smith, argues it carries heavy political significance. SF assembly member for Upper Bann Dara O'Hagan welcomed the European and US intervention. She said: "It is time for the British government to grasp the nettle and immediately set-up the international inquiries into these deaths now demanded across the world." But last night an RUC spokesman argued that the FBI representative overseeing the ongoing hunt for Mrs Nelson's killers had endorsed the RUC's role. In addition Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan said: "All the advice I have had concurs with my own view that a totally independent investigation without RUC involvement would not stand a hope of bringing to justice the perpetrators of this dreadful deed and that must be our first focus - the bringing to justice of those involved." Meanwhile, the UDP criticised the US intervention. A UDP spokesman said: "The RUC invited the FBI to oversee the investigation into the Rosemary Nelson murder. They were quite satisfied with the professionalism of the investigation." 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
