| Culzie | Date: Thursday, 2012-02-16, 6:44 PM | Message # 1 |
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| La Mon bomb massacre files 'lost' to protect IRA, say relatives
By Michael McHugh
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Gordon and June Crothers both killed in the La Mon House bombing
Northern Ireland police documents about an IRA bombing that killed 12 people at La Mon House Hotel have disappeared, victims' relatives claimed today.
The hotel, located outside Belfast, was targeted in one of the most horrific attacks of the Troubles, with many of those killed in February 1978 burned beyond recognition by a fireball.
Interviews with IRA men, original papers from up to 100 detectives and notes about a warning call and a car used by the bombers have not been recovered by independent investigators reviewing the case, families said.
They have now renewed calls for a full public inquiry into the bombing.
In a statement today, they claimed: "It would appear to the victims that key documents were removed from the files with the view to protecting IRA members who today may be involved in the peace process at the highest level.
"This case, in common with other major investigations, appears to show that the will to uncover the truth has been curtailed for fear of destabilising the current political process."
The victims, all Protestants, had been attending the annual dinner dance of the Irish Collie Club, and included three married couples.
Most of the dead were seated close to the restaurant window where the device was placed.
West Belfast man Robert Murphy was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter in 1981. He was released in 1995 and died in 2006. A second man was acquitted.
A waitress told a coroner's court inquest: "People were on fire, actually burning alive. I watched men pulling long curtains off the rails and wrapping people up in them to try to put out the flames. I could smell the burning flesh."
The call for an new inquiry followed a review of the police investigation by the independent Historical Enquiries Team (HET) which delivered a report to the families.
On the 34th anniversary of the attack, relatives said they had been left scarred physically and emotionally.
"It is most disturbing that the investigation of an attack described by the RUC as horrific and indiscriminate mass murder has been hampered because key documentation has been mislaid," they said.
Their statement added: "Considering the circumstances of this horrendous crime and the certainty of the involvement of the IRA, the victims are appalled by the absence of diligence shown by the Royal Ulster Constabulary/Police Service of Northern Ireland in ensuring the preservation of all information related to this investigation and also calls into question the integrity and thoroughness of the whole historical inquiry process."
According to the families, the HET did not explain the disappearance of major incident documentation used by the RUC. Nor has there been any attempt to show why original material, recorded by up to 100 investigating detectives following the atrocity, including details of interviews with IRA men, was missing.
They asked Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson to establish a public inquiry, claiming the 81-page HET report revealed nothing new except forensic details about the incendiary device.
Adhesive tape recovered from the bomb was investigated but not enough DNA was found to create a profile, a campaign group working with the families said.
An alarm clock used to trigger the bomb had been modified to allow a maximum delay of 58 minutes. Two fingerprints and two palmprints found in the Fiat car used to transfer the device remain unidentified.
The names of 69 people were mentioned in intelligence documents or featured during the initial investigation but the HET did not know who authorised or sanctioned the attack, according to Ulster Human Rights Watch lobbyists.
A total of 35 people were arrested but the campaigners said that, without original documentation, the details of the interviews are unknown, adding that records were not automatically updated.
Ulster Human Rights Watch said: "It would therefore appear that not all lines of inquiry were reviewed by the HET, but only the main ones, since it is admitted that the review was carried out using prosecution papers only."
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news....ZEfBCxy
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Friday, 2012-02-17, 2:13 AM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
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| It is said Gerry Adams himself had a hand in the planning of this atrocity. This is something like Kingsmills that the Government wants to have forgotten about, they don’t want anything that could rock the boat or remind the people of the scum that Sinn Fein/IRA really are.
As for the police investigation it is a total farce, that such evidence including a glove found in the getaway car has supposedly went missing, there seems to be more questions than answers, so a full public inquiry is more than justified, but then the victims were Protestants so they may be aren’t high enough up the pecking order, unlike those at the anti-internment march in Londonderry who proceeded to riot and fire at British soldiers.
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| Culzie | Date: Friday, 2012-02-17, 8:37 AM | Message # 3 |
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| I watched a piece about it on the Ulster news last night. I know that fella who was speaking and who lost his wife in that ira bombing. Michael Copeland also spoke but I thought what he said was a bit disappointing (though he might have been right)when he said words like ''we should get an enqiry but I think there is very little chance of that happening''. Towel well and truly threw in. Of course its saves the politicans any further bother and politicans don't like being associated with what they see as a lost cause. A good example of this was when the UWC strike was began. They urged it to be called off. It was only when they saw that it was going to take off that they jumped on board.
I think Westminster's attitude to the loyal Ullish people is 'thank your lucky stars that we are still here and if you continue to ask for anything then we are off out of it'
On the other hand they continue to give all they want to nationalists/republicans maybe hoping that like the prodigal son they will give up their ways and come into the fold. No chance of that happening. Westminster still doesn't seem to have learned that they take all they can and then ask for more. I'm sure I read somewhere that it was the British who built Maynooth for the training of priests. The old song 'When will they ever learn' comes to mind.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Friday, 2012-02-17, 8:33 PM | Message # 4 |
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Colonel general
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| Very true, you can never satisfy them, something you would have through the ones on our side would have realised by now, but oh no they just keep appeasing and bending over backwards and selling their own principles down the river.
You are right to take issue with what Copeland has said, at the end of the day he may be right, but politics is a game. If we’re fighting for a public Enquiry into the murder, then you don’t admit and publicly announce defeat before any decision is given.
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| Culzie | Date: Monday, 2012-02-27, 11:34 PM | Message # 5 |
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| Is it any wonder that some people don't vote anymore. People are not daft and get fed up being strung along. I think some are coming to realise that its a gravy train for these guys and not a cause. So some realise the time to vote is in a referundum. As you pointed out in another post they don't seem to care about loyalist areas and the votes lost there through re-development, So if they don't care...why the hell should we.
I think that is the attitude of a lot of people now. But come election time the puppet-masters will maybe be able to get them whipped up again with all sorts of promises and ''the enemy is at the gate'' scare tactics. Its worked before so why not again.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Tuesday, 2012-02-28, 5:00 AM | Message # 6 |
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Colonel general
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| Indeed, at the last election the DUP vote really held up because a lot of people were scared of Sinn Fein getting the First Minister seat, yet it's became clear that regardless of the title they both have the same level of power.
I think that is the only good thing about loyalism, we have so many people not voting and still hold up to have a slight majority, if we can really start to win these people over, and get a few percent extra back out and registered to vote and using their vote, then we may be able to hold up against the increasing Republican vote, which will increase just down to sheer demographics.
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