CHARGES ON POLICE ARE SDLP ATTEMPT TO SAVE FACE, MP CLAIMS
Charges on police are SDLP attempt to save face, MP claims
RECENT utterances on policing by SDLP MLA Joe Byrne verge on the 'ludicrous,' West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty has charged. He accused Mr Byrne of attempting to disguise the growing realisation within the SDLP that they jumped too soon to endorse the policing set up.
They are doing so, said Mr Doherty, when "it is becoming abundantly clear that the present dispensation cannot hope to deal with the firm stranglehold" of Special Branch and British Intelligence Services on policing structures.
"Since the SDLP endorsed the policing structures and joined the policing board, Joe Byrne has continually been lambasting Sinn Fein for our refusal to engage with the PSNI," Mr Byrne pointed out. "Now Joe has changed tack and maliciously states that Sinn Fein has been engaging with PSNI.
"Why the about turn? Could it be that Joe is aware, as are the majority of the nationalist community that the game is up and as revelations keep coming, people are increasingly aware that Special Branch remains as an autonomous entity within PSNI, an entity that is directly controlled by British Military Intelligence and an entity that serves to implement the nefarious political agenda of its political masters."
The SDLP and Joe Byrne, in particular, are now involved in a rearguard action to limit the political damage done to the SDLP by their "serious error of judgment", the Sinn Fein MP said.
"Like a petulant child, Joe is now attempting to point the finger at others so as not to suffer the consequences alone.
"By some incredible stretch of the imagination, Joe tries to equate the fact that Sinn Fein councillors in Strabane and Omagh lobby the DRD Road Service for traffic calming measures to be introduced in both areas as evidence of Sinn Fein's 'low level' co-operation with and tacit support for the PSNI.
STATISTICS
"Joe bases his claim on the fact that DRD Roads Service use traffic accident statistics compiled by the PSNI Traffic Branch as a consideration when assessing whether or not to approve such traffic calming schemes. He then concludes that Sinn Fein are hypocrites because of this.
"If one was to follow the same warped logic then any nationalist or republican who does not support the present policing structures would be in Joe's terms 'a hypocrite' if they call the fire brigade because their house is on fire, or call an ambulance if a family member is ill, because the 999 number is linked into a centralised computer system which is shared by the PSNI.
"The fact is that Sinn Fein, as the largest electorally mandated nationalist party in the six counties, does not negate its responsibility to our electorate and works proactively on a daily basis with statutory bodies to improve the Jot of our communities.
"Sinn Fein has no control over the fact that many statutory bodies are obligated to liaise with the PSNI. However, unlike the SDLP, Sinn Fein will not buy into or endorse policing structures as until such times as we are sure that a democratically accountable policing service, free from the malevolent control of the British Securocrats and Special Branch is on offer."
Mr Doherty said that that was patently not the case at the moment. Yet Joe Byrne and other SDLP members of the Policing Board still clung onto the notion that they could use their limited influence on the Policing Board to deliver the structural changes that were so obviously needed.
He continued: "Already we have seen the ineffectiveness of the SDLP on the Policing Board.
They joined the Board in a blaze of glory promising to implement the Patten recommendations in full.
BADGE
"The design of a new police badge was the first test of the SDLP delivering on its promises. Patten decreed that any symbols on the new police badge should be 'free from association' from either the British or Irish states.
"The SDLP agreed to a badge that contained the very same symbols that were contained on the old RUC badge. The SDLP failed miserably in even this minor symbolic matter, so what hope have they of influencing issues that go to the very core of the present policing set up, like baleful relationship between the Special Branch and their relationship with the UDA."
The Sinn Fein MP said that in response to the latest revelation from Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan that a warning log book had mysteriously disappeared from Omagh RUC station after her investigators had begun their inquiries, Joe Byrne was quoted as saying: 'At worst it is further confirmation of inadequate management practices within the police.'
"This unbelievable response is indicative of the SDLP's present inability or reluctance to ask probing questions of the Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan about many aspects regarding events leading up to and following the Omagh bomb.
"This includes the leaking of the Ombudsman's report itself and the subsequent leaking, to a selected group of journalists, of the names of four people from the Omagh district who were maliciously alleged as being the same people mentioned in the Ombudsman's report in regards to the August 4th warning.
"In a meeting with Nuala O'Loan before Christmas, she confirmed that she had the same reports and she said that it was an extremely worrying and dangerous development given that these unfortunate people were completely innocent.
"I would therefore appeal to Joe Byrne to stop running away from the core issues that need to be addressed before we arrive at the new beginning to policing that the whole community demand and deserve," Mr Doherty added.
RECENT utterances on policing by SDLP MLA Joe Byrne verge on the 'ludicrous,' West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty has charged. He accused Mr Byrne of attempting to disguise the growing realisation within the SDLP that they jumped too soon to endorse the policing set up.
They are doing so, said Mr Doherty, when "it is becoming abundantly clear that the present dispensation cannot hope to deal with the firm stranglehold" of Special Branch and British Intelligence Services on policing structures.
"Since the SDLP endorsed the policing structures and joined the policing board, Joe Byrne has continually been lambasting Sinn Fein for our refusal to engage with the PSNI," Mr Byrne pointed out. "Now Joe has changed tack and maliciously states that Sinn Fein has been engaging with PSNI.
"Why the about turn? Could it be that Joe is aware, as are the majority of the nationalist community that the game is up and as revelations keep coming, people are increasingly aware that Special Branch remains as an autonomous entity within PSNI, an entity that is directly controlled by British Military Intelligence and an entity that serves to implement the nefarious political agenda of its political masters."
The SDLP and Joe Byrne, in particular, are now involved in a rearguard action to limit the political damage done to the SDLP by their "serious error of judgment", the Sinn Fein MP said.
"Like a petulant child, Joe is now attempting to point the finger at others so as not to suffer the consequences alone.
"By some incredible stretch of the imagination, Joe tries to equate the fact that Sinn Fein councillors in Strabane and Omagh lobby the DRD Road Service for traffic calming measures to be introduced in both areas as evidence of Sinn Fein's 'low level' co-operation with and tacit support for the PSNI.
STATISTICS
"Joe bases his claim on the fact that DRD Roads Service use traffic accident statistics compiled by the PSNI Traffic Branch as a consideration when assessing whether or not to approve such traffic calming schemes. He then concludes that Sinn Fein are hypocrites because of this.
"If one was to follow the same warped logic then any nationalist or republican who does not support the present policing structures would be in Joe's terms 'a hypocrite' if they call the fire brigade because their house is on fire, or call an ambulance if a family member is ill, because the 999 number is linked into a centralised computer system which is shared by the PSNI.
"The fact is that Sinn Fein, as the largest electorally mandated nationalist party in the six counties, does not negate its responsibility to our electorate and works proactively on a daily basis with statutory bodies to improve the Jot of our communities.
"Sinn Fein has no control over the fact that many statutory bodies are obligated to liaise with the PSNI. However, unlike the SDLP, Sinn Fein will not buy into or endorse policing structures as until such times as we are sure that a democratically accountable policing service, free from the malevolent control of the British Securocrats and Special Branch is on offer."
Mr Doherty said that that was patently not the case at the moment. Yet Joe Byrne and other SDLP members of the Policing Board still clung onto the notion that they could use their limited influence on the Policing Board to deliver the structural changes that were so obviously needed.
He continued: "Already we have seen the ineffectiveness of the SDLP on the Policing Board.
They joined the Board in a blaze of glory promising to implement the Patten recommendations in full.
BADGE
"The design of a new police badge was the first test of the SDLP delivering on its promises. Patten decreed that any symbols on the new police badge should be 'free from association' from either the British or Irish states.
"The SDLP agreed to a badge that contained the very same symbols that were contained on the old RUC badge. The SDLP failed miserably in even this minor symbolic matter, so what hope have they of influencing issues that go to the very core of the present policing set up, like baleful relationship between the Special Branch and their relationship with the UDA."
The Sinn Fein MP said that in response to the latest revelation from Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan that a warning log book had mysteriously disappeared from Omagh RUC station after her investigators had begun their inquiries, Joe Byrne was quoted as saying: 'At worst it is further confirmation of inadequate management practices within the police.'
"This unbelievable response is indicative of the SDLP's present inability or reluctance to ask probing questions of the Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan about many aspects regarding events leading up to and following the Omagh bomb.
"This includes the leaking of the Ombudsman's report itself and the subsequent leaking, to a selected group of journalists, of the names of four people from the Omagh district who were maliciously alleged as being the same people mentioned in the Ombudsman's report in regards to the August 4th warning.
"In a meeting with Nuala O'Loan before Christmas, she confirmed that she had the same reports and she said that it was an extremely worrying and dangerous development given that these unfortunate people were completely innocent.
"I would therefore appeal to Joe Byrne to stop running away from the core issues that need to be addressed before we arrive at the new beginning to policing that the whole community demand and deserve," Mr Doherty added.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0936
Published Date: 24-Jan-02
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