Tribunal: ‘No evidence’ of police complicity in murder of Rosemary Nelson

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roughing up an attorney who was defending her clients at the site of an Orange Order march—thus legitimizing Demands were levied for an independent investigation, but now 12 years later, the report of the tribunal says In a press release about the report, the Pat Finucane that though the police and the state failed to take “rea- Centre, an advocacy group for victims of injustice in the sonable and proportionate” steps to provide safety to North, frames the question of what is collusion in the Rosemary, there was no evidence that the security forc- eyes of the state: “The report says: ‘The combined effect of these omissions by the RUC and NIO was that the In 2006, the Irish Times published a series of articles state failed to take reasonable and proportionate steps on an uncovered secret report called “Subversion in the to safeguard the life of Rosemary Nelson.’ This amounts, UDR,” the regiment of the military in Northern Ireland in the view of the PFC, to conclusive evidence of state from the 1970s to the early ’90s. The report spells out how the British government, all the way up to Downing Rosemary Nelson was murdered during my senior year of high school, and her death provided the eye-opening Citing UDR officers’ guns going “missing” while they moment that led me into activism. While I was volunwere watching an Orangemen parade, and UDR armor- teering in Ireland I attended a memorial in her honor ies being ransacked of weapons with no shots fired, a in Belfast, organized by some of her former colleagues. document in the report states that “since the beginning I learned there that Rosemary was not just a champion of the current campaign the best single source of weap- for nationalists but courageously represented women in ons, and the only significant source of modern weapons, cases of domestic violence, travelers, and immigrants— often for free. She was a woman to be greatly admired, On May 23, a tribunal in Northern Ireland absolved the The report also states that 5 to 15 percent of officers state security forces of any collusion in the murder of in the UDR were linked to loyalist paramilitaries. The What does a state say to working people—no matter Rosemary Nelson. Nelson was a solicitor who was killed Times also states that a soldier cited in the report, who their religion or politics—when it refuses to see illegal in 1999 by a car bomb planted under her car by loyal- was a member of the UDA, a loyalist paramilitary group, and threatening actions by the police, and refuses to ists. She represented Irish nationalists, including the later became a member of the RUC. Though the govern- recognize the turning of a blind eye by the government Garvaghy Road Residents, who fought a bitter battle ment knew about this subversion in the UDR, nothing as collusion? This does not just speak to what the conagainst the infamous Orange Order parades through cern for safety and the right to due process was back in their streets each year. She also defended the family of In light of the attitude of the government and military 1999, but tells the tale of the current Northern Ireland Robert Hamill, a young Portadown man who was beaten leaders about earlier subversion in the UDR exposed by this report, should we not see a continued pattern The Irish Times revealed recently that some of the RUC As a result of this work, Nelson faced harassment and in their attitude today towards the same issues in the senior officers and government civil servants who are death threats from both loyalists and the Royal Ulster police force that was well known to be heavy handed cited as having had a part to play in Rosemary Nelson’s Constabulary (RUC, the police force in Northern Ireland with the nationalist community? With the exception of death, whether by action or inaction, might be working at the time) while interviewing her clients. She took this providing arms, which was replaced instead with proharassment seriously and brought her treatment by the viding intelligence, the report by the Rosemary Nelson cops and loyalist groups to the international communi- ment or police administration and to continue a policy ty, even testifying before the U.S. Congress. Only months In fact, the Irish Times cites the report of the tribunal disregarding the rights of people in Northern Ireland as saying, “We believe there was some leakage of intel- should not be met with silence or with shootings of cops Reports by neighbors of increased helicopter presence ligence which we believe found its way outside the RUC. and bombings of their family homes. It should be met over Rosemary’s home in the days before her murder Whether the intelligence was correct or not, the leakage with political discussion and mass actions to demand and the constant threats she had received made it obvi- increased the danger to Rosemary Nelson’s life.” Does that the state own up to its criminal acts and ensure a ous to most that the police were involved in her death. not providing intelligence indicate collusion? Does not more just future for the people of the North. n 10 Socialist Action july 2011 to death by loyalists while police sat only yards away. later, though, she was murdered yards from her home.

(Left) Rosemary Nelson in 1999. es had a part in her death.

Street, knew about complicity in the North. for Protestant extremist groups has been the UDR.” was done to terminate it.

Tribunal lists the same issues inside the RUC force. her as a target—indicate collusion? collusion in the death of Rosemary Nelson.” and this injustice is a crime against her memory. administration’s concern for people’s rights today.

today in the Department of Justice at Stormont This report’s attempt to deny any blame of govern-