Finucane Inquiry Stonewalled
“I do not want to have to campaign forever.”
These were heartfelt words of Geraldine Finucane to the media shortly after she discovered that the British government had decided 18 months ago to cease all preparations for a public inquiry into the brutal murder of her husband, Pat, shot dead at their Belfast home in 1989.
Such has been the disregard and disdain with which the British have treated the Finucanes that the family were not even informed of the decision at the time when it was made.
In the 19 years which have passed since Pat’s murder, Geraldine Finucane, who was also injured in the gun attack, and her family have been steadfast in their search for truth and justice. In that period, they have witnessed the British government delay and thwart each opportunity which arose that may have had the potential to allow the truth to be told.
In 2003, former British Metropolitan Police chief Sir John Stevens reported his investigative team had uncovered evidence that sections of British Army intelligence and the RUC colluded with a unionist death squad in the murder of Mr Finucane and a student, Adam Lambert, two years earlier. However, the British Government ensured that the full Stevens Report was never published.
In 2004, Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended a public inquiry be held into the allegations of collusion in the murders of Mr Finucane, fellow solicitor Rosemary Nelson, catholic father-of-two Robert Hamill and LVF leader Billy Wright.
In the aftermath of the Cory recommendations, the British again moved to prevent the truth surrounding Pat Finucane’s murder from being exposed by introducing what was known as the Inquiries Act.
Such is the draconian and secretive nature of the Inquiries Act that Judge Cory himself, at the time of its introduction into law, stated:
“... it seems to me that the proposed new Act would make a meaningful inquiry impossible. The commissions would be working in an impossible situation. For example, the Minister, the actions of whose ministry was to be reviewed by the public inquiry would have the authority to thwart the efforts of the inquiry at every step. It really creates an intolerable Alice in Wonderland situation… I cannot contemplate any self respecting Canadian judge accepting an appointment to an inquiry constituted under the new proposed act.”
Commenting on the restrictive nature of the Inquiries Act, Lord Saville, who chairs the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, wrote:
“I take the view that this provision makes a very serious inroad into the independence of any inquiry and is likely to damage or destroy public confidence in the inquiry and its findings, especially in cases where the conduct of the authorities may be in question.”
He further stated that neither he nor his fellow judges on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry would be prepared to be appointed as a member of an inquiry that was subject to a provision of that kind.
On Thursday April 24, 2008, prior to a planned meeting with Bertie Ahern, the Finucane family revealed details of the latest British attempt to block attempts at resolving the many issues surrounding Pat's murder. It was only after the family had contacted the NIO a few weeks ago to check on progress towards a public inquiry into Pat’s death that the family discovered the British decision, which came in the form of a letter on April 7.
Geraldine Finucane said, “The letter stated that the decision was taken because my family refused to accept ministerial control of an inquiry under the notorious Inquiries Act (2005).”
“They appear to be saying that unless we agree that British Government ministers should be allowed to control what information the inquiry is permitted to examine in public, there will be no inquiry at all.”
Judge Cory and Lord Saville agree that the terms of the inquiry which the British want the Finucanes to accept would be unlikely to ensure total public scrutiny of the full circumstances of Pat Finucane’s killing and its aftermath.
That view is shared by a wide range of organisations including Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights First, the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, INQUEST, JUSTICE, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Pat Finucane Centre and the Scottish Human Rights Centre.
Brian Lesson, Éirígí chairperson, expressed solidarity with the Finucane family and all of the families of the victims of collusion:
“Britain’s policy in the Six Counties was – and could yet again be – to harness and sponsor the killing potential of unionist paramilitaries, to increase their killing potential by providing resources in the shape of weapons and information, and to unleash those death-squads against selected targets so that Britain could be rid of its enemies. It is a policy that Britain has operated ruthlessly in many different countries.
“That policy included two Irish lawyers amongst its many victims. One was Pat Finucane, the other was Rosemary Nelson. Their murders are but examples of what the British Government has been prepared to do in Ireland in order to further its own ends. And the constant goalpost moving of inquiry parameters is an act of compounding these heinous human rights abuses, by a British government guilty of many.
“Geraldine Finucane is right. She and her family should not have to campaign forever. The British government has shattered these families by aiding the assassination of their loved ones and consistently thwarting attempts to uncover the truth, to this day. Like the relatives of so many victims of Britain’s death-squads, they deserve and are entitled to nothing less than the truth. We in Éirígí support their campaign and condemn the ongoing cover up of the circumstances of Pat Finucane’s murder.”