Promote Justice in Northern Ireland. – Congressional Action Required
Posted by Jim on May 15, 2014
When you contact your Representative (listed below), the email from Rep. Chris Smith’s office will be titled: Foreign Affairs: Dear Colleague: Promote Justice in Northern Ireland.
Using this reference will help your Representative’s staff locate the email.
Please do not pass up on this important opportunity to put pressure on the british government to honor their commitment for an independent inquiry into the state sponsored assassination of Pat Finucane. Pat’s murder is the only high profile case recommended for independent inquiry in the Cory Report that has not been fulfilled.
David Cameron has already admitted that there was collusion but refuses to allow the independent inquiry due to the fact that it will involve top level british govenment officials.
This case could potentially blow the lid off of over 30 years of collusion between the british government and loyalist death squads.
Your voice matters. Call today. All details are below.
Go raibh mile maith agaibh,
Gerry
Gerry McHale
PA AOH FFAI Committee
An Bhreatain amach as Éirinn
“Everyone Republican or otherwise has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small; no one is too old or too young to do something.” – Bobby Sands
I ask that after you read this, you take the appropriate action and pass on to your divisions and contact lists. It is imperative that we act and get this to as many people as possible.
A Chairde,
Immediately below is a Dear Colleague letter that was sent out today to US Representatives in PA, NJ and MA by Representative Chris Smith’s office. It is calling for co-signers to a letter to David Cameron to request that the british government honor their commitment made at the Weston Park Accord to a full independent inquiry into the assassination of Pat Finucane as called for in the Cory Report.
Immediately below the Dear Colleague letter is the letter to Cameron that your representative will be signing on to. Right below that is the list of PA US Representatives and contact information.
What do you need to do?
1) Find your Representative on the list, contact their office and ask for the Foreign Affairs Legislative Assistant, ask them if they have received the Dear Colleague letter from Representative Chris Smith’s office regarding the letter to Prime Minister Cameron (they should have, it will be going out a couple of times a day next week and should be in their inbox).
2) Ask them to have their Representative sign the letter
3) a few talking points:
– it will strengthen the Peace Process
– Congress has repeatedly called for the British government to conduct the promised inquiry most
recently H.Con.Res.20 (110th session)
– numerous Congressional inquiries have been held into British government collusion during the Troubles and this would solidify our government’s
commitment to justice for those who were wronged
– ask if you have a commitment to signing the letter
– thank the Legislative Assistant and ask that they extend your thanks to the Congressperson
for their commitment.
This should not take more than a minute or two on the phone. Remember, every call counts and time is of the essence. Don’t think that everyone else will call and you don’t have to. The more calls your representative receives, the more likely, they will sign.
Thanks for taking the time to act.
Gerry McHale
PA AOH FFAI Committee
Current Signers: Chris Smith, Joseph Crowley, Eliot Engel, Tim Murphy (Co-Chairs, Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs); Peter King, Richard Neal (Chair and Ranking Member, Friends of Ireland); Patrick Murphy; James P. McGovern; Brian Higgins; Tom Rooney; John Tierney; Donald M. Payne, Jr.; Tim Ryan; Ted Deutch; Jim McDermott; David Joyce; Louise Slaughter; Raul Grijalva; William Keating; Nita Lowey; Mike Michaud; Randy Weber; Stephen Lynch
Dear Colleague,
I invite you to join us in urging the British gov’t to move forward with the long-promised but never-delivered judicial inquiry into state involvement in the paramilitary killing of human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane. Over ten years ago, as part of the Good Friday Agreement/ peace process the British government formally committed to this inquiry, but since that time it has acted only to delay, prevent, or deny the inquiry. In 2011, PM Cameron admitted state involvement and apologized for it – while flatly announcing that his government would not hold the promised inquiry, thereby protecting those responsible. Recently PM Cameron’s intelligence advisor admitted that the Finucane case was ‘the big one’ in Northern Ireland and that if known responsibility for the murder would touch the British government “at a high level.”
The promised inquiry would lend needed credibility to British good faith in the peace process, and thus would strengthen the peace process itself. An inquiry is the only means available to provide accountability and justice.
Congress has repeatedly passed legislation urging the British government to conduct the promised inquiry – most recently H. Con. Res. 20 (110th Congress, 2007), and held a number of hearings on the Finucane case, most recently on May 15.
Please review the letter below. If you would like to join us, please contact Mark Milosch (mark.milosch@mail.house.gov; 225-1901.
Sincerely, CHRIS SMITH Member of Congress
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister Cameron:
Your apology to the Finucane family for the collusion between the state and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Patrick Finucane was historic and greatly welcome. We write to you today to urge you to take the next step, which follows from your admission and apology in the House of Commons in December 2012.
The British Government has an obligation to initiate the full, independent, public, judicial inquiry that was agreed as part of the overall peace settlement in Northern Ireland during the Weston Park negotiations in 2001. This obligation, which was undertaken by both governments as part of the Belfast Agreement – one of the outstanding diplomatic achievements of recent decades – was an extremely serious undertaking. We urge you to honor it.
We believe that your admission and apology does not substitute for proper scrutiny of this case or for a full exposition of the facts behind the British State’s involvement in the murder – which the British Government committed to at Weston Park. Rather the steady increase in the amount of evidence being revealed publicly that the British State colluded with the killers has made honoring that commitment more important than ever.
Mr. Prime Minister, the need for public judicial inquiries in certain cases was accepted by the British and Irish Governments because no other mechanism of investigation and exposition existed that had the capacity to deal with the issue of collusion in cases of exceptional public importance.
In this regard, we would respectfully remind you that the British Government committed to implement the recommendation of a judge of international standing on six inquiry cases; in 2004, Judge Peter Cory recommended a public inquiry in the case of Patrick Finucane. To date, it remains the only case investigated where the recommendation has not been honored, a situation that is deeply unsatisfactory for many reasons but not least because it is evidently the one where the British Government is most culpable. Conversely, it is also the case in which – until your announcement in December 2012 – there has been the greatest level of sustained official denial by various state agencies.
The many previous denials and time that has passed have drained public confidence in the peace process and diminished respect for the rule of law in Northern Ireland. It must be said that there are those who oppose the peace process and their opposition is dangerous. The failure to address the case of Patrick Finucane in the manner promised by the British Government provides a readily available propaganda tool for those who would abuse it to further their own ends. In our view, this represents yet another reason why a public, judicial inquiry must be established as soon as possible.
Perhaps most compelling of all the reasons for an inquiry is the years of suffering endured by Geraldine Finucane, Patrick’s widow, their three children and the entire Finucane family.
Mr. Prime Minister, to move forward with the promised inquiry would reflect great credit to your government and we look forward to the day when we can congratulate the British Government for fulfilling this commitment and with it providing a much need boost to public confidence in democracy and the rule of law in Northern Ireland.