Later that evening, the families of the victims of the massacre gathered in Derry's Guild Hall for a press conference. "For 26 years we have been campaigning to establish truth and justice in respect of the events of Bloody Sunday," said John Kelly, brother of one of the 14 dead. "We hope that the historic potential of today's developments will be fulfilled and we can finally heal the wounds left by Bloody Sunday."
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, the veteran civil rights campaigner and former MP, also gave cautious welcome to the Prime Minister's announcement. McAliskey had taken part in the ill-fated antiinternment march twenty six years ago. She was on the speaker's platform when soldiers from Britain's elite Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed civilians.
"I am pleased," said McAliskey," that the British government has finally afforded at least a measure of justice to the families the other Europe The Elf mafia
Prime Minister Leonel Jospin must regret his modest attempts to 'modernise' France's foreign aid programme. By imposing parliamentary control on funds previously administered by the president, he has opened the floodgates of investigation and protest against the dirty underside of French policy in its former colonies.
Five Green MPs have demanded a parliamentary enquiry into the country's third largest company, Elf Aquitaine Privatised in 1994, the oil company is the centrepiece of a web of corruption linking business and political elites in
France and her former colonies in Africa. These country's also receive half These country's also receive half
France's "aid."
A coalition of radical groups in France and Africa has launched a campaign to "stop Elf making the laws in Africa" and "for a different policy" towards Africa.
Contact: Campagne Elf, c/o Cedetim, 21-ter Rue Voltaire,
75001 Paris 6 International Viewpoint #298 of the men who were killed that day."
She was quick to add, however, that she didn't want to wait 26 years for justice for her daughter. Roisin McAliskey has been imprisoned in England without formal charges for over a year now. She spent six months in London's Holloway Prison, awaiting extradition to Germany in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British Army barracks.
Roisin's German lawyer, Elke Nill, believes the impetus for the extradition came from the RUC (Northern Irish police) and not from German federal police. Not surprisingly, the RUC have ignored the extensive evidence confirming Roisin's presence in Ireland on the dates when they allege she was spotted in Germany.
Human rights groups around the world argued that the British government's treatment of Roisin amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In May 1997, a High Court Judge released Roisin from prison on a limited form of bail. Three days later — under armed guard in a London hospital - Roisin gave birth to a baby girl.
She is now in a mother-and-baby unit at London's Maudsley psychiatric hospital. She is recovering from the trauma of her interrogation, detention and imprisonment and is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Hospital psychiatrists have already certified that extraditing the young woman could cause her permanent emotional and Conscientious objection
Ville Vuorjoki, vice-chairman of the Communist Youth of Finland and a city councillor in Rovaniemi, has been sentenced to 77 days in prison after refusing to continue his civil service after 240 days (the time that armed conscripts serve).
There are 13 conscientious objectors in Finnish prisons, but the number will probably increase when the armed conscription time is shortened to six months later this year. This will increasing the discrimination between military service and the alternative, civil service, which lasts 13 months.
Contact: The Conscientious Objectors' League,
Rauhanasema, Veturitori, 00530 Helsinki, Finland, Tel +3589-140427 Fax +358-9-147297 E-mail: <[email protected]> Web: www.kaapeli.fi/~akl psychological damage.
On 2 January, a British magistrate ordered that Roisin McAliskey be extradited to Germany. Now that the formal order to extradite has been issued, Roisin's fate lies in the hands of Jack Straw, the British Home Secretary.
Straw can order McAliskey's extradition at any time. If sent to Germany, Roisin is likely to spend the next two years in prison before even coming to trial. She will also be separated from her child.
In the interests of justice, the Home Secretary can also deny the extradition. Back in November of last year he was sent a complete file on Roisin's detailing the lack of any case against her. It is within his power to release the young Irish woman.
A decision one way or another was expected in the last week of January, but it never came. Roisin's mother has already expressed concerns that, in the wake of Tony Blair's Bloody Sunday announcement, the British government would not now move to release her daughter.
"We had expected to get the good or bad news by the end of January," she said. "I expect they'll drag their feet now until those who are upset by the Bloody Sunday move settle down."
Sadly, she is probably right. In the end, the Home Secretary's decision will be a political decision based upon progress, or the lack of it, in the "peace process" Dalej!
The Polish group Nurt Lewicy Rewolucyjnej (NLR-Revolutionary Left Current) has been recognised as a sympathising organisation of the Fourth International. The Warsaw-based group, which publishes the newspaper Dalej! (Forwards!) is a regular participant in the summer camp of European youth organisations identified with the Fourth International.
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