MCALEESE SAYS TURN OVER THE BOMBERS
McAleese says 'turn over the bombers'
By Brendan Anderson
THE Omagh bombers must be turned over to the RUC and Gardai by those who know their identity, Irish president Mary McAleese said yesterday.
Mrs McAleese was among several dignitaries and politicians who travelled to the stricken Co Tyrone town to show solidarity with shocked residents.
She said she had come to the town to show she cared about the people whose lives had been "devastated by this act of the most extraordinary evil and anarchy ever to be visited on the people of this island".
"I have just come from Market Street, its a tragic scene there. Of course, it's very quiet... There is a great silence, all you can hear is the sound of the brushes clearing up the rubble.
"Whoever planted that bomb, there in that maze of small shops, whoever it was, man or woman, they walked through mummies and daddies to get away. They could only have seen people going about the humblest and the simplest of domestic chores on what was a rare summer's day here. You can see that in the bags of shopping that will never reach home, lying on the pavement, shoes lying on the pavement."
Mrs McAleese said she had spoken to an RUC man, an "extraordinary man" who had spent Saturday commandeering "anything on wheels" to rush injured people to hospital. The policeman, she said, was still on duty on Sunday, "still working, still calmly going about his business".
Asked about her opinion of the bombers, she said they appeared to be capable of anything.
"There are no markers to measure them against standards of human decency. They are off the scale. I don't know what they are capable of, but Omagh gave me some chilling, absolutely terrifying insight into what they are capable of.
"All I do know is, they absolutely have to be stopped, they have to be stopped now. I do not know what they are planning for tomorrow, but it scares me what they could be planning. And they are planning in the teeth of a country, north and south, which committed itself to consensus-based politics, committed itself to a decent way forward. ... These people, in the most callous, brutal way, they gave us their answer. Now I think we have to give them their answer, by stopping them."
Mrs McAleese said there were people who knew the identity of the bombers should give the Gardai and the RUC the information "to which they were entitled".
"It is the only thing to guarantee that these people will not have another day like yesterday," she said.
By Brendan Anderson
THE Omagh bombers must be turned over to the RUC and Gardai by those who know their identity, Irish president Mary McAleese said yesterday.
Mrs McAleese was among several dignitaries and politicians who travelled to the stricken Co Tyrone town to show solidarity with shocked residents.
She said she had come to the town to show she cared about the people whose lives had been "devastated by this act of the most extraordinary evil and anarchy ever to be visited on the people of this island".
"I have just come from Market Street, its a tragic scene there. Of course, it's very quiet... There is a great silence, all you can hear is the sound of the brushes clearing up the rubble.
"Whoever planted that bomb, there in that maze of small shops, whoever it was, man or woman, they walked through mummies and daddies to get away. They could only have seen people going about the humblest and the simplest of domestic chores on what was a rare summer's day here. You can see that in the bags of shopping that will never reach home, lying on the pavement, shoes lying on the pavement."
Mrs McAleese said she had spoken to an RUC man, an "extraordinary man" who had spent Saturday commandeering "anything on wheels" to rush injured people to hospital. The policeman, she said, was still on duty on Sunday, "still working, still calmly going about his business".
Asked about her opinion of the bombers, she said they appeared to be capable of anything.
"There are no markers to measure them against standards of human decency. They are off the scale. I don't know what they are capable of, but Omagh gave me some chilling, absolutely terrifying insight into what they are capable of.
"All I do know is, they absolutely have to be stopped, they have to be stopped now. I do not know what they are planning for tomorrow, but it scares me what they could be planning. And they are planning in the teeth of a country, north and south, which committed itself to consensus-based politics, committed itself to a decent way forward. ... These people, in the most callous, brutal way, they gave us their answer. Now I think we have to give them their answer, by stopping them."
Mrs McAleese said there were people who knew the identity of the bombers should give the Gardai and the RUC the information "to which they were entitled".
"It is the only thing to guarantee that these people will not have another day like yesterday," she said.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0026
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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