Collusion is no Illusion

By AM Saturday, March 15, 2014

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Guest writer Sean Bresnahan with a piece on Rosemary Nelson fifteen years after her death.

15 years ago today human rights solicitor and mother of three Rosemary Nelson was brutally murdered by an under-car booby-trap device outside her Lurgan home in an attack bearing the full imprimatur of the British state and its intelligence apparatus. Their fingerprints and those of RUC Special Branch were all over her death despite subsequent denials and the cover-up of the truth. The idea that the paramilitary group styling itself the Red Hand Defenders had the capacity to carry out this type of attack without state direction and assistance beggars belief and carries little to no weight in the nationalist community.

From the death threats at the hands of serving RUC officers, to the warnings of the United Nations' Param Cumaraswamy, to the role of the Security Services in subverting the 2005 inquiry into her assassination, this case cries collusion and cover-up from start to finish. And like the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, the murder of Pat Finucane and the killings at Boyle's Bar in Cappagh, March 1991 (among many, many others, it must be said but which can be considered as viable test cases) indicates the heinous, depraved involvement of the British state in war crime and plain murder.

I recall at the time Unionist leader David Trimble describing the sophistication of the device as being beyond the capabilities of loyalist paramilitaries and believe he was unwittingly acknowledging the involvement of a higher power in a feeble attempt to blame republicans. His words should be seen for what they were, an unconscious admission of what the PSNI-RUC and the state which they serve have to offer us: an admission that this is what the continued presence of British military structures in our society means even still today. Murder. They weren't acceptable then and are not now. Truth is they will never be acceptable.

Those willing to murder a human rights lawyer in order to prevent exposure of Britain's dirty war in Ireland and silence others who might delve further into Britain's criminal, terrorist attack on the Irish people can have no place in this society. They are capable of doing the same again if and when required and the fact of the matter is their influence and control continues to reach into the highest echelons of state power and policing structures with little to no accountability to keep them in check.

The PSNI and their MI5 handlers should continue to be rejected by the people of the six-counties despite their charm offensive around our children's schools and our community groups, despite the willingness of those in the likes of the SDLP and Sinn Fein who will cheer-lead on their behalf and in the process legitimise their criminal past - and present. If they killed Rosemary Nelson, a non-combatant human rights worker, then they'll kill anyone who gets in their way and we should never forget that or lose sight of it.

15 years on, the killers of Rosemary Nelson have yet to be exposed. The web of deceit surrounding Britain's dirty war in Ireland is still firmly in place. But like a spider's web when we push and prod at it then it comes away in our hand. The all-powerful position of the British state and its secrets are weaker than a spider's web when set against the truth and so we must fight on for that truth - and for justice. Without it any pretence that things have moved on or that we somehow live in a normal society is farce and fabrication.

The victims of collusion and their families are entitled to full disclosure. Their precious lives, taken too soon by killers empowered by a state that claims it was somehow there to protect them, demand it. We must continue to work towards an independent investigatory inquiry into Britain's war crimes in Ireland, for Rosemary's sake and for them all. Truth and justice are non-negotiable and no-one should have the power to prevent their realisation. Collusion is no illusion and needs exposed before the world no matter the consequences. To build a future on such lies only condemns another generation to a repeat of the past if and when the state feels compelled to murder all over again.