28 March 2012
The Stevens' Interim Report on collusion - leading to murder and injury - between loyalist para-military groups, the Special Branch and the British Army's Force Research Unit
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The Interim Report by Sir John Stevens into collusion between the RUC's Special Branch, the British Army's Force Research Unit and loyalist paramilitaries was published on 17 April. It finds that there was collusion over a long period of time which led to the murder and serious injury of people targeted in the Catholic community.
Stevens concludes that the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in February 1989 and of others could "have been prevented" if the security forces had not been involved in the plots. Stevens, whose work was obstructed by those trying to conceal the truth, has presented a voluminous report (the 20 page summary is below) to the head of the North Ireland police force.
The Finucane family called: "upon the British Government once again to establish a full independent judicial public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane and the policy of collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries".
Documentation from the Pat Finucane Centre (link)
1. Full text of the public version of John Stevens interim report: Stevens' Interim report (pdf) Interim report (html from cryptome.org)
2. Stevens' Report: Finucane family statement
3. Stevens' Report: Press statement from NGOs (Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights)
4. Northern Ireland: special Statewatch analysis (June 2002) on the state of policing, the role of the Special Branch and of British army intelligence agencies like the Force Research Unit (FRU, now renamed the Joint Support Group, JSG): Statewatch analysis
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