Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990 TAG: 9005180108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
The report was issued in Belfast by John Stevens, deputy chief constable of Cambridgeshire, England.
He and a team of English detectives spent eight months investigating assertions that Protestant terrorists had links with members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the army, and the Ulster Defense Regiment, a largely Protestant organization similar to the National Guard in the United States.
"I have been able to draw a firm conclusion that members of the security forces have passed information to paramilitaries," the Press Association, Britain's domestic news agency, quoted Stevens as saying at a news conference. "However, I must make it clear, it is restricted to a small number of individuals, who have gravely abused their positions of trust. This abuse is not widespread or institutionalized."
Reaction to the report was mainly critical.
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, called it a "whitewash and coverup." The group claimed there was clear evidence that a "significant group" of Royal Ulster Constabulary members had been consistently passing information to "loyalist death squads."
Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, called the report a "cynical political exercise brought out to appease nationalists."
Stevens said that it was clear that official information produced by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the army had been passed illegally to Protestant paramilitary groups. The groups used the documents and other information to enhance their own intelligence systems and as an aid in targeting people suspected of being IRA terrorists.
by CNB