Human Rights – Page 33 – Slugger O'Toole

“just a terribly good history lesson..”

Pete Baker on July 27, 2008, 7:47 pm

| Readers 14

Tonight at 7pm Channel 4 are broadcasting the first of a two-part documentary, Car Bomb. As Euan Ferguson puts it in the Observer’s TV guide [not online], “Ostensibly, it’s the history of the eponymous terror weapon – how the car bomb was invented, tweaked, inherited, forgotten, revived.” That history has been published before. There’s a short online article by the presenter, Robert Baer, a former CIA spy. Ferguson isn’t impressed by Baer’s script, btw, but.. “But, Baer and his team …

“In common with the Republic of Ireland’s approach to travel within the CTA..”

Pete Baker on July 25, 2008, 3:50 pm

| Readers 9

Fair Deal got there first, but the actual proposals – “Strengthening the Common Travel Area” [direct pdf link here] – are worth noting. The proposals on the Common Travel Area follow from the Cabinet Office report in November last year and are expected to be implemented via the the draft Immigration and Citizenship Bill. As Mick noted a week ago it’s presented as a reciprocal move to what’s already in place in the Republic of Ireland. Not that there was …

“It is a small element who were involved..”

Pete Baker on July 24, 2008, 5:40 pm

| Readers 20

An interesting convergence of stories in west Belfast where we had been told previously that “volunteers” had been “working in their communities on the streets” and “patrolling” Belfast neighbourhoods. A matter of days after Fr Aidan Troy highlighted a “suspected INLA extortion campaign” three men were reported to have been arrested in Poleglass and UTV noted that “Police say community representatives in the area had also reported a number of extortion attempts in recent days.” Meanwhile the Irish News front-page …

“he has wasted 23 years of our lives waiting for this moment..”

Pete Baker on July 23, 2008, 2:27 am

| Readers 3

Nothing yet on the information provided to the family of Gerry Evans, but the family of Seamus Ruddy, another of those adbucted, murdered and secretly buried – “human rights violation[s]” for which immunity was sought, and granted, during The Process™ – have responded to the failed follow-up searches by representatives from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains to information they had received. Ms Morgan said the team had been investigating a site next to one they searched …

“and practising alternative medicine..”

Pete Baker on July 22, 2008, 7:47 pm

| Readers 2

Mick’s somewhat more serious-minded reaction to the news of Radovan Karadzic’s arrest in Belgrade is on Brassneck but I just can’t get past the intriguing factoid revealed in this Guardian report. Whilst RTÉ merely describes “Karadzic [as having] been working in a medical clinic”, the Guardian report provides a link to the alternative medicine involved. Karadzic had been using a “very persuasive” false identity and was practising alternative medicine at a private GP’s surgery in the city. That Un-Enlightenment is …

“They let a female civil servant take the heat..”

Pete Baker on July 17, 2008, 4:17 pm

| Readers 4

The Assembly having rejected, in October last year, the previously proposed Department of Health draft guidelines on termination of pregnancy, the Health Minister Department of Health have now re-drafted those guidelines – guidelines which took 3 years to draft and which the Department, after a lengthy court battle, had to be instructed by a High Court ruling to produce. The newly proposed draft guidelines are available at the Department’s website [direct pdf link here]. As the “spokesperson for the DHSSPS” …

“Lines of communication have been opened..”

Pete Baker on July 16, 2008, 7:50 pm

| Readers 4

How much of a problem is there in the “Wild West”? This BBC report suggests we should ask the Probation Service.. The quote is from the Derry Journal report ..defence solicitor Maoliosa Barr said the youth is “currently living at a secret address in Donegal. A republican paramilitary organisation has threatened him. His mother is anxious about bringing him back to Derry. Lines of communication have been opened between those who made the threat and the Probation Service but, as …

“‘peace and justice’ template has become a ‘peace versus justice’ dichotomy..”

Pete Baker on July 15, 2008, 6:45 pm

| Readers 2

Freelance journalist Simon Roughneen has a very interesting assessment of the situation in Sudan, and Chad, following the IIC filing of charges against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir yesterday. And he starts by echoing something we’ve mentioned on Slugger previously. From the Irish Times The “peace and justice” template has become a “peace versus justice” dichotomy, as immediate-term political realities prompt less idealistic observers to question the efficacy of courts and tribunals intervening in real-time conflicts. Simon Roughneen goes on to …

“The genocide is ongoing”

Pete Baker on July 14, 2008, 5:23 pm

| Readers 1

The Republic of Ireland’s Minister of Defence, Willie O’Dea, has described the current situation in Chad as “highly volatile” and the most challenging mission ever undertaken by the Defence Forces. It won’t have been made any less volatile after the decision by the International Criminal Court to file 10 charges of war crimes against Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir. The New York Times reported that thousands of his supporters had protested in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, ahead of the announcement. The Guardian …

“measured, justifiable and proportionate..”

Pete Baker on July 11, 2008, 8:36 pm

| Readers 20

With one eye on the recent Holylands blogger trial and the other on the DUP’s Iris Robinson’s comments, or rather the ongoing reaction to those comments, in the Irish News Newton Emerson is rightly concerned about references to freedom of expression in the Bill of Rights Forum’s final report in March this year. The common point running through all these arguments is that speech should be restricted if it might lead to harm. This sweeping concept is enshrined in the …

“We never ignore anything that would place someone at risk.”

Pete Baker on July 10, 2008, 7:56 pm

| Readers 3

And back to Londonderry, where the Irish News has learned [subs req] The family of two men questioned following the murder of pizza delivery man Emmett Shiels in Derry have been granted emergency re-housing by the Housing Executive after being intimidated and threatened. Police have warned a number of other people questioned following the murder of threats on their lives while an elderly relative of one of the men is in the process of being rehoused, The Irish News has …

“undermines public confidence in the administration of justice..”

Pete Baker on July 10, 2008, 6:28 pm

| Readers 14

I can’t find it online, not even behind a subscription wall, but the Irish News today has a response from the PPS, in the form of a letter to the editor, to the criticism from Newton Emerson noted by Mick here. The paper also has a short report on the response. “The Public Prosecution Service recognises that the willingness of witnesses to give evidence underpins the prosecution of offences in Northern Ireland,” deputy director of Prosecution for the PPS Roy …

“I hope greater thought will be given to this..”

Pete Baker on July 10, 2008, 1:56 am

| Readers 2

An interesting intervention from UUP leader Reg Empey, as reported in the NewsLetter, on the timing of any devolution of policing and justice powers – having previously called for all party discussions on those unresolved issues.. He makes the not unreasonable point, PPS failures aside, that the apparent inability of the Executive to reach decisions on less “significant and controversial” matters does not suggest that the decision-making mechanisms provided by that “indigenous deal” are “sufficiently mature” to cope with policing …

“I think he’s a false teacher..”

Pete Baker on July 9, 2008, 4:26 am

| Readers 3

Whilst a lot of the coverage might be concentrated on the issue of women bishops, Will Crawley points out that there may be civil war among the Anglican clergy. My own view of the Un-Enlightenment, the influence of Emperor Constantine, and today’s battles, is already available online. Pete Baker

On the abject failure of the Public Prosecutions Service..

Mick Fealty on July 6, 2008, 2:46 pm

| Readers 4

Earlier in the week, Newton Emerson asked some searching questions about the conduct of the PPS in relation to the McCartney murder trial. It amplifies the argument of Davy Adams in the Irish Times on the same day. The burden of proof in a criminal trial is “beyond a reasonable doubt” and witness C only served to introduce reasonable doubt. It beggars belief that a murder case was brought on this basis. If the PPS needed more witnesses it should …

“sheer cold-hearted logic..”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2008, 1:42 am

| Readers 9

It would be interesting to see comparable figures for previous years but, despite the unlikely allies they face and apparently lacking the required mandate, threats from dissenting republican paramilitary groups forced 11 serving and former police officers to leave their homes in the last year. According to the BBC report, based on a Parliamentary written answer to DUP Upper Bann MP David Simpson [Hansard link here], “Another police officer moved after being targeted by loyalists. Two prison officers were also …

Holylands blogger cleared of harassment charges

Pete Baker on July 4, 2008, 9:20 pm

| Readers 40

The case of the harassed Holylands blogger caused a bit of a stir when Mick noted it recently. Now Slugger hears that within the last hour a Belfast judge has cleared blogger Alan Murray of Holylands Warzone of three charges of criminal harassment. Adds Alan gives his account of the trial here. Pete Baker

“they see it as an awkward subject, best avoided.”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2008, 2:52 pm

| Readers 10

Via Newshound. The Newry Democrat reports from one of the Victims Commission’s public meetings. The report carries the response from Mike Nesbitt to comments by Anne Morgan, the sister of Seamus Ruddy who was murdered by the INLA in France in May 1985, on her concerns about the recently introduced Presumption of Death Bill. From the Newry Democrat report THE families of The Disappeared have suffered from a conspiracy of silence at the hands of churches, paramilitaries and the Government. …

“or happen to give a damn about the kind of society we live in..”

Pete Baker on July 3, 2008, 5:58 pm

| Readers 11

An 18-year-old woman has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the murder of Emmett Shiels in Londonderry and the court was also told that “tensions were running high [in the city] and the homes of other people arrested in connection with the murder have been attacked.” Meanwhile, in the Irish Times today, Davy Adams draws a sharp comparison between the reaction to this murder and the reactions to the murders of Robert McCartney …

“That will be a decision to be taken by the Government..”

Pete Baker on July 3, 2008, 12:02 am

| Readers 1

As Mick noted previously, on the difficulties facing the Irish troops deployed in Chad, “It looks like the Minister of Defence may have some tough choices ahead.” Ahead of March 2009 that is – the date at which the UN Security Council mandate, empowering the current EUfor deployment, runs out, as Mick also noted here. Today the Republic of Ireland’s Defence Minister, Willie O’Dea, indicated to the Dáil that March 2009 might not be the end of the matter for …