Res. No. 904 Title Resolution expressing shock, sadness and dismay at the recent report that officers from British Army Intelligence helped Protestant guerillas kill Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland in the late 1980's, and expressing hope for an end to terrorism and our support and hope for a lasting peace there. Body By Council Members Gioia, Comrie, Koppell, Liu, Lopez, McMahon, Quinn, Sanders, Vann, Jackson and Brewer Whereas, As reported in a New York Times article on April 18th, 2003, a recent report by Sir John Stevens, commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police and Britain's senior police official, claims that British Army intelligence and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland actively helped Protestant guerillas kill Roman Catholics in the late 1980's; and Whereas, Commissioner Stevens said that his 14 year investigation into allegations of official collusion had found that members of the army's covert Force Research Unit (which handled informants) and the police Special Branch espionage arm "were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in terrorist crimes"; and Whereas, The report claims that officers helped Protestant paramilitary fighters single out Catholics for attack, and that they failed to warn Catholics of intelligence they had which cast them in danger. Commissioner Stevens said that innocent people died because of the collusion, and that the "Troubles," as the three decades of violence that cost the lives of more than 3,600 people are known, had been prolonged as a result; and Whereas, The original investigation was set up to examine the 1989 murder of Patrick Finucane (pronounced Fin-OOO-kin), a 39 year old high-profile Catholic civil rights lawyer who defended several Irish Republican Army suspects and who was shot dead by the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defense Association in front of his family at his home in 1989; and Whereas, The Finucane murder became a rallying cry for international human rights organizations and convinced Catholic politicians in Northern Ireland that it pointed to widespread official collusion between Protestant assassinations and government security agents; and Whereas, If true, these explosive allegations can do nothing but undermine the already fragile peace that that exists between Protestants and Catholics, two groups in Northern Ireland who differ in political allegiance, religious practice and cultural values; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York expresses shock, sadness and dismay at the recent report that officers from British Army Intelligence helped Protestant guerillas kill Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland in the late 1980's, and expresses hope for an end to terrorism and our support and hope for a lasting peace there. WA:bg D-Res. 2415 LS#1725 5/9/03 |1013|