‘MI5 link’ to delayed massacre report
Margaret Ritchie raises issue of ‘collusion and political interference’ concerning 1994 Loughinisland murders
An MP campaigning on behalf of families of gun-attack victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles, has raised questions about MI5‘s alleged role in delaying a controversial report on an atrocity.
Margaret Ritchie, the MP for South Down, is demanding the publication of a police ombudsman inquiry into the six Loughinisland murders of 1994.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) shot the six men dead while they were gathered in a pub. Among those who died in the shooting, at The Heights bar in Loughinisland, County Down, was 87-year-old Barney Green, the oldest victim to lose his life during the Troubles.
Some of the relatives allege that among the loyalist leaders who organised the attack were agents of the security forces. No one has ever been charged in connection with the murders.
Ritchie, who is also leader of the nationalist SDLP, said delays to the report raised serious questions.
She said: “I have received confirmation from the police ombudsman stating that he ‘simply cannot provide a publication date’. In June 2008 the police ombudsman advised that the report should be ready by September 2008. Then we had delay after delay with no answers … and, [now in] 2011, we have a situation where all ‘issues’ have been dealt with by outside authorities such as the PPS (public prosecution service), yet we have no date for the publication of the report.
“I ask the question again, what is the real reason for the delay? And I caution the ombudsman that further delay in the publication of this report could put into question the independence of his office.
“Questions have to be asked if there is political interference at the highest levels. Are the British government and MI5 playing a role in trying to prevent the publications of this report?”
She added: “The families and relatives of the victims of Loughinisland deserve truth and justice. The police ombudsman must step up to the mark and not allow political forces to dominate.”
Five people were also injured in the gun attack in June 1994 after masked men burst into the rural pub and sprayed the bar with automatic weapons. Those attacked were, at the time, watching live coverage from the US of the Republic of Ireland’s 1-0 victory over Italy in the country’s opening game of the World Cup.
The multiple murders took place just a few days after two UVF members and a local loyalist were gunned down by the Irish National Liberation Army, on Belfast’s Shankill Road.
Relatives of the Loughinisland dead have since raised concerns over allegations that some of those who organised the sectarian revenge attack were working for various branches of the security forces at the time. The families’ suspicions about alleged collusion were later heightened after it emerged that police had destroyed the Triumph Acclaim car the UVF killers had used to get to Louginisland three years after the atrocity. Reportedly, no forensic evidence was ever taken from the car.
Al Hutchinson, a spokesman for Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman, said the report would be published early this year; the investigation was now complete. He stressed that the police ombudsman’s office was independent. “It is for the police ombudsman alone to determine the content and timing of any report he publishes,” he added.
