OMAGH FAMILIES CALL FOR FRESH INQUIRY INTO ALLEGATIONS MADE AGAINST GARDAI
Omagh families call for fresh inquiry into allegations made against Gardai
THE announcement this week by the Southern Irish Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, that there was no evidence of impropriety on the part of the Gardai in relation to the Omagh bombing has been met locally with a call for a new, independent inquiry.
Members of the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group, made up of some of the relatives of those killed in the atrocity, said that they rejected the findings of the Nally Report into the role of the Gardai in connection with events leading to the bombing.
They allege that the Gardai withheld information from their counterparts in Northern Ireland prior to the Real IRA attack on the town on August 15, 1998.
A spokesman for the Omagh families group, Mr. Stanley McCombe, said that he was very disappointed, but not surprised, by the Southern Irish Minister's statement.
Mr. McCombe, whose wife perished in the bomb blast along with 28 other people and unborn twins, said that relatives of the dead would only be satisfied with the findings of an investigation team that was independent of the Irish State.
"We need to take this to Europe. The State was basically investigating itself. There was never going to be a satisfactory answer. We have no faith in the Justice Minister or any minister in the Republic. It is a closed shop," he said.
Meanwhile, Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, who has supported the Omagh bereaved's fight for transparency and justice, said that the Justice Minister's decision not to publish the report would cause great distress and anxiety to the Omagh families.
He went on to call on the Irish government to lend support to the relatives' civil action against the bomb suspects.
"The Minister and the government must make up their minds on a fundamental question: Are they willing to lend their full support to the civil case?
"What assistance can the government offer to the Omagh victims and their families in the circumstances where all right-thinking citizens want to support and assist them as has already been done to some extent by. the British government?" Mr. Rabbitte said.
Meanwhile, in a statement to the Dail following publication of the Nally Report, the Justice Minister said that the Nally Report would not be made public.
An investigation by a three man team, headed by senior civil servant, Dermot Nally, was ordered after it was claimed that days before the bombing of Omagh an informant in the Garda Special Branch had passed on information about a car stolen by dissident republicans to his handler, a Dublin based policeman.
A suspended officer also told the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Mrs. Nuala O'Loan, that Gardai failed to relay the intelligence to the RUC, even though the informer had stolen cars previously used in dissident republican operations.
THE announcement this week by the Southern Irish Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, that there was no evidence of impropriety on the part of the Gardai in relation to the Omagh bombing has been met locally with a call for a new, independent inquiry.
Members of the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group, made up of some of the relatives of those killed in the atrocity, said that they rejected the findings of the Nally Report into the role of the Gardai in connection with events leading to the bombing.
They allege that the Gardai withheld information from their counterparts in Northern Ireland prior to the Real IRA attack on the town on August 15, 1998.
A spokesman for the Omagh families group, Mr. Stanley McCombe, said that he was very disappointed, but not surprised, by the Southern Irish Minister's statement.
Mr. McCombe, whose wife perished in the bomb blast along with 28 other people and unborn twins, said that relatives of the dead would only be satisfied with the findings of an investigation team that was independent of the Irish State.
"We need to take this to Europe. The State was basically investigating itself. There was never going to be a satisfactory answer. We have no faith in the Justice Minister or any minister in the Republic. It is a closed shop," he said.
Meanwhile, Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, who has supported the Omagh bereaved's fight for transparency and justice, said that the Justice Minister's decision not to publish the report would cause great distress and anxiety to the Omagh families.
He went on to call on the Irish government to lend support to the relatives' civil action against the bomb suspects.
"The Minister and the government must make up their minds on a fundamental question: Are they willing to lend their full support to the civil case?
"What assistance can the government offer to the Omagh victims and their families in the circumstances where all right-thinking citizens want to support and assist them as has already been done to some extent by. the British government?" Mr. Rabbitte said.
Meanwhile, in a statement to the Dail following publication of the Nally Report, the Justice Minister said that the Nally Report would not be made public.
An investigation by a three man team, headed by senior civil servant, Dermot Nally, was ordered after it was claimed that days before the bombing of Omagh an informant in the Garda Special Branch had passed on information about a car stolen by dissident republicans to his handler, a Dublin based policeman.
A suspended officer also told the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Mrs. Nuala O'Loan, that Gardai failed to relay the intelligence to the RUC, even though the informer had stolen cars previously used in dissident republican operations.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/1679
Published Date: 18-Dec-03
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