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BAN THEM
By TOM KELLY

Omagh's dad's plea on 32 County group
THE father of a boy murdered in the Omagh bombing yesterday urged Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson to ban the political wing of the Real IRA.
Victor Barker, whose 12-year-old son, James, died in the atrocity, said members of the Irish 32 County Sovereignty Movement were inextricably linked to the dissident Republican group.
Following a meeting with Mr Mandelson in London, he said: "This organisation ought to be on the list of known terrorists and action taken to ban it in the US, the UK and Eire.
"This would make it illegal to raise funds to support them and help stop the cash they receive from supporters in the United States.
"The Irish government seems to have taken the position that a ban would be counterproductive because it would make martyrs of these people amongst their supporters.
"Mr Mandelson has to look carefully at this but I still feel that on balance he will support our view." Mr Barker also said he discussed with Mr Mandelson his plan for a civil suit against the four suspects of the Omagh bombing named in a recent BBC Panorama programme.
He said: "Whilst he cannot support the civil suit, his only comment to me was that on the other hand he did not discourage it.
"It would be inappropriate for a minister to become involved in the judicial system but he understands the reasons why the action would be brought."
Mr Barker believes that a civil case is one way of forcing suspects to account for their movements on the day of the attack.
An appeal had been launched to raise the estimated £1 million needed to bring the case to court.
And Mr Barker also asked Mr Mandelson to urge the Irish government to use its Criminal Assets Bureau to seize the assets of people linked to the Real IRA before any trial.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement has always denied links with the Real IRA but security sources on both sides of the Irish border say that it is the organisation's political wing.
Earlier this year, Mr and Mrs Barker had James' remains exhumed from a grave in the Irish Republic and re-buried in their home town of Ottershaw, Surrey, because they did not want him in a cemetery that contained graves of IRA members.
The Omagh bomb killed 29 people and unborn twins when it exploded in the packed centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15, 1998.