SALVAGED FILM AIDS HUNT FOR BOMBERS
Salvaged film aids hunt for bombers
By MARTINA DEVLIN and TOM BRADY
VIDEO film found amid the wreckage of Omagh could help police catch the bombers who murdered 28 people there.
It shows the killers' parked car and the RUC hope it will provide a vital clue or jog the memory of a crucial witness.
The intact film was found in a video camera under the rubble. It shows the red Cavalier saloon that contained the bomb, with a little girl on a woman's shoulders posed innocently alongside.
The shot has enabled policemen to compile a striking poster with the word Murder on top.
RUC Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson, leading the investigation, does not believe terrorists panicked and planted the bomb outside Kells Shop in the High Street because they could not reach the courthouse.
Parking is impossible in the Tyrone town's main street on Saturday afternoons and a space must have been held for the car, he said.
Evidence pieced together by RUC investigators so far confirms the strong belief expressed immediately after the Omagh atrocity that the bomb was made in south Armagh. Two former members of the Provisional IRA's south Armagh unit who defected to the so-called Real IRA are reckoned to be have been behind a string of recent bomb attacks in the North.
Last June, the Irish Independent reported that the breakaway terrorist group had moved its bomb-making base from Louth to south Armagh because of the successful penetration of its operations here by gardai.
And this has now been borne out by the initial investigations into the Omagh blast, indicating that, apart from the theft of the bomb car, the operation was carried out totally north of the Border.
The Omagh bomb has also forced the RUC to review its intelligence gathering along the Border as it has relied heavily on gardai up to now for information on the identity and strength of dissident republicans.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will tomorrow promise new measures to convict active terrorists in the North amid hopes that the IRA may at last be ready to act over the decommissioning of its weapons.
As Mr Blair prepared to fly straight to Belfast from his family holiday in France, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern voiced confidence that the IRA would soon signal a readiness to start disarmament.
He said: "I am confident that we will get into a position fairly soon where we will be able to move on beyond a lot of the rhetoric of the past ... and that we will deal with the decommissioning issue.''
President Clinton's visit to the North could provide the cover required for such a move. Mr Clinton will meet relatives of the Omagh victims, though security reasons may rule out a visit to the devastated town.
By MARTINA DEVLIN and TOM BRADY
VIDEO film found amid the wreckage of Omagh could help police catch the bombers who murdered 28 people there.
It shows the killers' parked car and the RUC hope it will provide a vital clue or jog the memory of a crucial witness.
The intact film was found in a video camera under the rubble. It shows the red Cavalier saloon that contained the bomb, with a little girl on a woman's shoulders posed innocently alongside.
The shot has enabled policemen to compile a striking poster with the word Murder on top.
RUC Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson, leading the investigation, does not believe terrorists panicked and planted the bomb outside Kells Shop in the High Street because they could not reach the courthouse.
Parking is impossible in the Tyrone town's main street on Saturday afternoons and a space must have been held for the car, he said.
Evidence pieced together by RUC investigators so far confirms the strong belief expressed immediately after the Omagh atrocity that the bomb was made in south Armagh. Two former members of the Provisional IRA's south Armagh unit who defected to the so-called Real IRA are reckoned to be have been behind a string of recent bomb attacks in the North.
Last June, the Irish Independent reported that the breakaway terrorist group had moved its bomb-making base from Louth to south Armagh because of the successful penetration of its operations here by gardai.
And this has now been borne out by the initial investigations into the Omagh blast, indicating that, apart from the theft of the bomb car, the operation was carried out totally north of the Border.
The Omagh bomb has also forced the RUC to review its intelligence gathering along the Border as it has relied heavily on gardai up to now for information on the identity and strength of dissident republicans.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will tomorrow promise new measures to convict active terrorists in the North amid hopes that the IRA may at last be ready to act over the decommissioning of its weapons.
As Mr Blair prepared to fly straight to Belfast from his family holiday in France, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern voiced confidence that the IRA would soon signal a readiness to start disarmament.
He said: "I am confident that we will get into a position fairly soon where we will be able to move on beyond a lot of the rhetoric of the past ... and that we will deal with the decommissioning issue.''
President Clinton's visit to the North could provide the cover required for such a move. Mr Clinton will meet relatives of the Omagh victims, though security reasons may rule out a visit to the devastated town.
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/101
Published Date: 24-Aug-98
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