BT/0932

Interpol hunt Omagh suspect

GARDAI have called in Interpol today to help track down the man they believe masterminded the Omagh bomb.
He is thought to have fled the country to avoid being arrested and charged in connection with the blast which killed 29 people and injured more than 300.
The man, understood to be a former Provisional IRA quartermaster who detected in protest at the calling of the second ceasefire and set up the Real IRA, has disappeared from his Co Louth home.
He has not been seen in any of his regular haunts for some days.
The special team of experienced gardai set up to investigate the bombing has been painstakingly building up evidence against him during the past six months.
A source close to the investigation revealed today that they had contacted Interpol - the European intelligence agency - for help in finding the man.
Gardai had been expected to move to arrest and charge the man in connection with the bomb attack in a matter of days.
Gardai are confident of bringing charges against a number of people in addition to Co Armagh man Colm Murphy who was accused last week at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin of conspiring to cause an explosion. He was also charged with membership of an organisation styling itself the IRA or Oglaigh na hEireann.
Three men and a woman are being questioned in Monaghan Garda station about the bombing.
The men were detained in Co Louth last Saturday. The woman, who has connections with Republican Sinn Fein, was arrested in Dublin yesterday.
They are being detained under the Offences Against the State Act, which enables the gardai to hold them without being charged for up 72 hours.
Meanwhile, more than £2m has been donated to the Omagh Bomb Fund since its launch last September, the organising committee was due to announce today.
The fund has fallen far short of its original £12m target, but still represents one of the most resounding expressions of public grief seen in Northern Ireland.