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Ulster Human Rights Watch is calling for a Public Inquiry into the La Mon terrorist atrocity which killed twelve people and injured twenty-three more in the resulting inferno.

In 2014, the then Secretary of State rejected calls for a Public Inquiry on grounds of insufficient evidence. Since then, new information about the PIRA bomb team has come to light, which the human rights body says justifies its fresh demand for a Public Inquiry.

Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW) Advocacy Manager, Axel Schmidt, said: “This was an appalling crime and even thought it happened forty-two years ago, we should never give up our search for truth and justice.

“We are aware of the existence of official documents that identify some of the other PIRA terrorists involved in the incendiary attack.

“There was an investigation conducted by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET), and we know that documents held by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland bear redacted names and nicknames which more than justify a Public Inquiry.

“We have now submitted a request to the Secretary of State for a Public Inquiry which would give survivors and relatives some closure. The request is made on behalf of fifteen victims of La Mon who live in Canada, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“This is one case that won’t go away and we believe there is sufficient new material now available to warrant such an inquiry.”

UHRW says the purpose of the inquiry will be to find out the identities of all IRA terrorists involved in ordering, planning and executing the bombing and provide a full account of their involvement.

Secondly, it wants to know why IRA suspects identified by the only person convicted of the bombing were not arrested and questioned by RUC CID and why the PSNI HET, in its Review Summary Report, took the decision to conceal the names of suspects including the identity of the man who planted the bomb when they were known to the police.

The UHRW Submission states: “This Public Inquiry would require full access to all documentation and relevant exhibits of the original criminal investigation as well as to all original intelligence material and government papers gathered by the Security Service, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office or the Northern Ireland Office, in relation to the attack.”

Please click here for Newsletter 10/10/2020 article

Pleas are being made today for the 30^th anniversary of the killing of IRA terrorists Martin McCaughey and Dessie Grew on 9^th October, not to be celebrated with a display of apparently un decommissioned weaponry.

Ahead of this event, the family of a UDR soldier, assert that weapons displayed for this anniversary in previous years are a match to those used as detailed during the inquest, and suggest that both McCaughey and Grew, along with others, may have been involved in the ambush.

They state, “Calls we made for police to seize these weapons while on display in 2010 and 2011 were simply ignored. We have good reason to believe that these are the guns used by the East Tyrone terror gang in this murder and represent potentially valuable forensic and ballistic evidence. They must be also taken off the streets if police intend to keep people safe”.

The arsenal, consisting of at least 15 weapons ranging from assault rifles to pistols, has been displayed in the past by the Cappagh-Galbally 1916 Society with apparent impunity, with videos of the arms haul posted openly on YouTube.

Human rights organisation, Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW), representing the family of Sgt. Jamison say that to display murder weapons is not only an outrage, but  is also massively painful for families.

Ulster Human Rights Watch Advocacy Support worker, Jonathan Larner, said: “Every time these weapons are put on show they cause the bereaved families great distress.

“To put an arsenal of guns on display to glory in the terrorist killings they were used for is secondary victimisation and causes severe pain and distress to the IRA victims’ families. Such exhibitions should not take place in a democratic society, and the 1916 Society must be prevented from doing this”.

He added, “We appreciate the fact that the new Head of Legacy Investigation Branch, Det. Chief Superintendent Rowan Moore, has given the family a specific assurance that if these weapons are put on display again they will be seized. The family expects the PSNI to honour and uphold this commitment”.

Published in Belfast Telegraph – click here to read

Terror victims fear weapons formerly used by the Provisional IRA in east Tyrone, and believed to still be in circulation, may find their way into the hands of dissidents, it has been claimed.

Weapons were displayed previously on the anniversaries of the deaths of two Provisionals and a loyalist bar attack, and there is no evidence they were destroyed, according to Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW).

Jonathan Larner, an advocacy worker with UHRW, claims the PSNI has not made any effort to find or seize the weapons or ammunition, which were displayed at a memorial for PIRA members Martin McCaughey and Dessie Grew, shot dead by undercover soldiers in Co Armagh in 1990.

Guns, including AKM assault rifles, were also reportedly displayed in 2011 on the 20th anniversary of the UVF attack on Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh, in which four people died.

Larner believes the weapons may reappear at a gathering to mark the 30th anniversary in October of the deaths of McCaughey and Grew.

He noted recent reports suggesting that in MI5 recordings, alleged members of the New IRA had revealed their frustration at not being able to access weapons once under the control of the Provisionals.

This, he added, suggests there is “un-decommissioned weaponry out there”.

The recording was made as part of an MI5 surveillance operation that has seen a number of people charged with terror offences.

Larner said: “Ten years of effort by the family of one victim to see these weapons removed from circulation has been ignored by the PSNI, with the initial request to seize the weapons made while they were still on open display in Galbally.”

The PSNI could not immediately respond to the allegations yesterday.

Following the display of the weapons, the family of one PIRA victim complained to the Police Ombudsman, who carried out an investigation.

“Shockingly, the Police Ombudsman reported to the family in 2016 that police had made contact with the owner of the weapons only to confirm that they were ‘deactivated’ and ‘certified’,” Larner said.

“Police had described the terror arsenal as ‘items’ in a ‘virtual museum’, with officers suggesting to the family that images of guns in the display were ‘photoshopped’.”

Larner claims that police, in a letter to him, denied making any contact with those believed to be holding the weapons, which “leaves them having actively ignored an openly displayed haul of terror weapons and paraphernalia”.

“Police inconsistency and inaction is hardly ‘keeping people safe’.

“As well as demanding action from the police, Ulster Human Rights Watch are calling upon those in possession of these guns not to bring them out on October 9 for the 30th anniversary of the McCaughey and Grew killing, and to contemplate the continued suffering inflicted on victims’ families by such a horrific event,” Larner added.

“Given police inaction, we also call on the Secretary of State to consider reconstituting the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), in line with provisions made in Paragraph 51 of the IICD Final Report of 2011, in order to ensure that all terrorist weapons, including those of the East Tyrone PIRA arsenal, are properly decommissioned.”