Galway Advertiser 2002/2002_11_14/GA_14112002_E1_022.pdf 

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The Morris Tribunal, Something rum in Donegal

Letters Did planes carrying Afghan prisoners refuel at S h a n n o n ?
Dear Editor, Press reports and pictures have been issued during the past week showing hooded and blindfolded Afghans strapped to the bare metal floor of an aircraft with legs chained and an elab orate network of straps preventing them from sliding. They are prisoners (with no protec tion from either US law or the Geneva Convention) who are still being con veyed by the US military to the world's most secretive and sinister internment camp at Guantanamo, Cuba. Are these planes landing at Shannon for refuelling while carrying their inde scribable cargo of human misery? We beg, as a matter of urgency, for an allparty Dai I delegation to go to Shannon and investigate the situation forthwith. If there is any question of the air borne prison hulks touching down in Ireland or overflying Irish territory, all US military flights here must be embargoed without negotiation. We are constantly being reminded in the media of the Nazi concentration camps and how trains of captives were brought unquestioned through German railway stations, and how afterwards people blandly said they "didn't know". Today we have a chance to know, we have a democracy, we have demo cratic legislators, they must face up to their responsibility to protect human rights. Yours, Margaretta D'Arcy & John Arden (Galway Against War), 10 St Bridget's Place Lower, Galway.

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ast month's Labour Party Conference heard Brendan Howlin T D , former Labour spokesperson for Justice, call for the appointment of an independent ombudsman for the Garda Siochana. It is not the first time such a call has been made. Two years ago, Michael Farrell, addressing a conference organised by the Garda Siochana Human Rights Initiative, made the point that "Openness and accounta bility are essential aspects of the role of the police in a democratic society", adding that it was vital that complaints and controversial incidents affecting the gardai be immediately investigated, with the results made known as soon as possible. Farrell said "that the bulk of solicitors and their clients simply do not have confidence in the Garda Siochana Complaints Board. The most fundamental problem is that complaints against members of the Garda are investigated by other gardai, some times even from the same area." Anticipating Howlin, Farrell, said there should be a system of "independent investigation by non-police personnel", in other words, an ombudsman, a position recommended in the Patten Report on Northern Ireland policing.

Dumping of pizza menus driving me daft
Dear Editor, I saw the other day that towns in the county such as Milltown, Monivea, and Mountbellew (all Ms coincidentally) are picking up Tidy Town awards and fret that where I live in the city will probably never have such an honour bestowed upon i t However what has made it worse last week has been the dumping of bundles of menus for pizza parlours in my garden. Now in the past I have had the odd junk mail Uttered in my garden, but to receive such a bundle of hundreds of these held together by elastic bands was a new low in dumping. Thankfully, I got them while they were still dry and they worked well as an impromptu briquette. However, I would like to ask promoters of such estab lishments to make sure in future that the menus are not dumped in such a manner. 1 am of advanced years and the last thing I need to be doing is clearing my small garden of other people's commercial junk. And yes, I am contacting the corpora tion about this for all the good it will do. Yours, Annoyed elderly reader (Name and address with editor)

RELEASE O F CARTY REPORT LONG OVERDUE
Two years on, and no movement has been made by the current Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell TD, on establishing an ombudsman, while the conclu sions of a major internal investigation, the Carry Report, into extremely serious allegations relating to members of the Garda Siochana in Donegal, only became public because yet another tribunal, headed by Mr Justice Frederick Morris, is investigating these and other allegations about members of the Garda Siochana in Donegal. Liam Herrick, of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said "The seriousness of the reports about Garda corruption in Donegal cannot be underestimated. They have been investigated by an assistant commissioner and his report is with both the Commissioner and the Minister for Justice and the DPP ... It is long past time for the Carry Report to be published."

AMEN disassociates itself from letter
Dear Editor, In an ongoing debate in your paper recently relating to the issue of domestic violence, a letter published on October 10 purports to represent the views of Amen. I would like to point out to your readers that Amen does not approve of some of the language and views con tained in this letter. Any letters purporting to represent the views of Amen should be sent to head office for clearance. This did not happen in this case. Since setting up Amen it has always been our inten tion to try to get recognition and adequate support serv ices for male victims of domestic abuse and their chil dren. While this, of necessity, involves a certain degree of challenge and public debate on the issue, we do not use, or approve of, offensive or inflammatory language. Resorting to such tactics does not serve the best inter ests of men, women, or children. Five years after setting up Amen we can justifiably claim that there is now a widespread acceptance of the reality that men and women are both victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse and that mutual abuse is more common than either male only or female only perpetrated abuse. This accept ance of the truth has been achieved, against considerable resistance, by presenting reasoned argument, supported by factual evidence, and not by resorting to offensive or inflammatory language. We are confident that in the near future organisations providing services for male victims of domestic abuse will also receive recognition and support from statutory bodies. As stated in our letter published in your paper on November 7 there is no branch of Amen currently in existence in Galway. Anyone from the Galway region who wishes to contact Amen should ring our head office in Navan (tel. no. 046 -23718) or write to us at 9/10 Academy Street, Navan, Co Meath. Yours sincerely Mary T Cleary, National co-ordinator AMEN 41 -42 Eyre Square, Galway. Tel: 091 -530900. Fax (General) (rfl 567079 Fax: (Advertising) 091 - 567150 Fax: (Newsdesk) 091 - 565627 Internet Address: http://www.garwaYadvertiser.ie news@galwayadvertiser.ie

ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION O N VAST SCALE
What is currently unfolding in the Morris Tribunal almost defies belief. Peter Charlton, senior counsel for the Morris tribunal, has outlined a chronicle of cor ruption of unprecedented proportions. Among the allegations are that gardai in the county had themselves planted hoax explosives, then hailed their 'discovery' as a victory in the anti-terrorist campaign; that local people had been harassed and intimidated; while others were accused of covering up crimes -- the most serious being the alleged involvement of two gardai in the killing of Richie Barron, a cat tle dealer. Kevin Carry, an assistant garda commissioner, and Austin McNally, a garda chief superintendent, interviewed more than 1,100 people. But the findings of the Carty Report, finally released last week at the Morris Tribunal, concluded: "Despite the intensity of the investigation a number of matters remain unresolved. Two gardai have continued to refuse to give account of their respective activities on the night Richard Barron was killed. This coupled with a pronounced economy of truth from some witnesses and a distinct untruthfulness and obstruction from others leaves the investigation short of its overall objective, which is the establish ment of the truth." All of this surely is enough to persuade the Minister for Justice of the urgent necessity of considering the appointment of an omsbudman for the Garda Siochana. The reputation of the Irish police is at stake here, and in an increasingly dangerous world, our law enforcement officers must be seen to maintain the very highest standards of integrity and honesty. There have been a number of disturbing cases involving the Garda in the last few years. There are many who are starting to ask if events such as those the Morris Tribunal is investigating in Donegal are merely the tip of the iceberg. The ICCL's Liam Herrick makes a valid point: "Successive governments have failed to establish a fully independent garda complaints mechanism to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and as long as this situation continuesxuntil we have a Garda Ombudsman, we will have to rely on tribunals of inquiry to perform this function instead, with the expense and delays that this entails." The majority of the members of the Garda Siochana are doing an excellent job under often very difficult and dangerous circumstances. Perhaps the strongest argument for the establishment of an ombudsman is that it would demonstrate that there exists no closed cabal in this country, and that everyone - especially those who uphold it - is accountable under the law. The police cannot police themselves; an independent third party is absolutely necessary to ensure that the Garda Siochana is, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion.

Connemara cruelty horrified Welsh visitor
Dear Editor, A s a visitor from Wales w h o l o v e s to visit Connemara. I would like to describe what I saw on the evening of October 27 at the Connemara Pony auction in Clifden. While attending to the needs of two fillies 1 had pur chased, I was horrified to see countless gentle mares being crammed into a cattle lorry by men beating them with sticks and ropes. They shoved them in so tightly they couldn't move and the ones at the back were pressed in even tighter by men pushing them in with the side gate. It made me want to weep and I felt so helpless being a stranger in your beautiful country As I could do was take the registration number of the lorry. I hope that someone who will read this letter who will know what action to take to improve the lot of these poor docile creatures who do not deserve to be treated like this. Yours, Valerie Kirby, Blaen
Wales

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