RSF news - Republican Sinn Fein - Republican Sinn Fein - Ireland - Sinn Fein Poblachtach Irish Republican Information Service (no. 188)
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
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Date: 1ú Aibreán/April 2009

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In this issue:

1. Attacks on British forces are: “Acts of war”
2. Alerts cause widespread disruption
3. RSF Vice-President visits Italy
4. Easter lilies don't belong in Stormont
5. RSF support campaign for recognition of Hamas’ mandate
6. Google blot out Republican icon
7. 3,000 protest at planned AE cutbacks
8. Ender Bulhaz Akturk tortured in Turkish police station
9. British Army chief ready to send more UK troops to Afghanistan
10. 26-County Police question artist under caution



1. Attacks on British forces are: “Acts of war”
At a press conference in Belfast on March 26 Republican Sinn Féin described the recent attacks on British forces as “acts of war”.
Republican Sinn Fein said the killings were “regrettable” but “inevitable” due to the “British occupation of Ireland”.
Richard Walsh, the 27-year-old publicity director for RSF, chaired a press conference in west Belfast where he was joined by three young men from Craigavon, Co Armagh, who described the brute force employed by the British Colonial police while raiding homes their homes, one man saying all his clothes were taken away.
Richard Walsh, who said RSF did not have an armed wing, responded to Stormont Provo Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’s statement that the people who carried out the attacks were 2traitors”. Richard Walsh said: “Republican Sinn Féin are not sitting at Stormont. Republican Sinn Féin are not administering British rule in Ireland, nor are we supporting the armed forces of occupation in our country. He is a man who has been guilty of the most severe treachery to this country.”
This was a charge he also levelled against Provo leader Gerry Adams and his “fellow travellers”, adding that “the Provisionals indeed have become unionists, in that they seek to uphold the union. They can no longer be described as nationalists, and certainly cannot be described as republicans.”
Asked about the attacks on British forces, Richard Walsh said: “It is regrettable that anyone has to lose their life, but the reality is that when we have occupation within a country there is very deep resistance, including armed resistance.
“We have always upheld the right of the Irish people to use any level of controlled legitimate force to drive the British out of Ireland. We make no apologies for that. It is regrettable that loss of life occurred, but sadly it is an inevitable fact,” he added.
Asked what right Republican Sinn Féin had to speak for the people of Ireland when people on both sides of the British-imposed Border voted for the Stormont Agreement, Richard Walsh repeated that the “reality is that so long as British rule continues in Ireland, there will be resistance to it”.
Throughout the press conference an RUC/PSNI vehicle was positioned close to the Republican Sinn Féin offices on the Falls Road in west Belfast where the press conference was held, filming those who entered and exited the building.
Before addressing the Six-County section of the Confederation of British Industry’s annual dinner, the head of the 26-County administration Brian Cowen was forced to respond to the press conference when he said the killings of two British soldiers and of RUC/PSNI man Stephen Carroll were “acts of murder, pure and simple”.

2. Alerts cause widespread disruption
REPUBLICANS were suspected of being behind a number of security alerts in nationalist parts of Belfast and Lurgan on March 30 where there was intense repression by the British Colonial police.
Armed men hijacked a number of vehicles which were then set alight. The British Colonial police barracks at Tennant Street in north Belfast was also closed because of a bomb alert. A number of city roads were closed because of the alerts, causing widespread traffic disruption.
Earlier, in the Stormont Assembly, Provo Stormont Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness had to acknowledge that republicans would continue to threaten the British occupied Six-County state, but insisted that they would not succeed.

3. RSF Vice-President visits Italy

ADDRESSING a conference in Italy entitled Ireland and the struggle against imperialism Republican Sinn Féin Vice President Des Dalton said: “It is not enough to oppose imperialism abroad unless you are prepared to oppose it at home, you must be prepared to oppose it wherever it is found”.

The conference was held in the Italian town of Fermo on March 21 and was hosted by a local group of young political activists called ARIES Officina Nazional Popolare.

Des Dalton spoke about the events in Ireland and explained that the recent attacks in the Occupied Six Counties were the result of the continued British occupation. “Republican Sinn Féin believe that the dynamic required to end the war in Ireland is a public British declaration of intent to withdraw from Ireland. This would allow all of the Irish people to negotiate a New Ireland free of British interference. We believe the proposals in EIRE NUA provide the basis for creating a New Ireland based on real All-Ireland democracy.” Des Dalton said.

Des Dalton concluded by stating that the cause of Irish Republicanism is the cause of international resistance to imperialism. “We will not be content to establish in Ireland a 32-County Democratic Socialist Republic, but also in the words of James Connolly to set about the building of a community of free nations.”

RSF representative in Italy and freelance journalist Massimiliano Vitelli gave an outline in Italian of the history of the struggle for Irish freedom. He also read an extract in Italian of the diary of Bobby Sands. The conference was attended by the assistant Mayor of Fermo as well as a number of local university academics and political activists.

On March 21 Des Dalton was welcomed to Fermo by the Mayor Saturnino Di Ruscio who made a presentation to the RSF Vice President. In turn Des presented the Mayor with a signed copy of the biography of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

Des Dalton also gave an extensive interview to the Italian daily newspaper Ilgiornale.

4. Easter lilies don't belong in Stormont
The launch on March 24 of a campaign encouraging people to wear an Easter Lily by Conor Murphy in the Provos' Stormont offices is an insult to Ireland's dead whom they claim to honour, a spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin has said.
“The Easter Lily (which the Provos have referred to as a 'Lilly' throughout) is the creation of the Cumann na mBan organisation, which always remained loyal to the ideals of true Republicanism.
“Ireland's patriot dead did not give their lives for the resurrection of Stormont. Indeed, those who will claim to honour them in Stormont tomorrow are the very same people who have recently described their actions as treason against Ireland. Their announcement of a drive to sell Easter Lilies comes on the same day that a councillor in Lurgan left the Provo party owing to their pro-British ideology.” The spokesman said.

5. RSF support campaign for recognition of Hamas’ mandate
IN support of the Palestinian right to national freedom, the call for the withdrawal of Hamas from the European list of terrorist organisations, launched on February 1, 2009 in Brussels, received the support of 1,200 signatories. Among them, 275 prominent people from the academic, literary, artistic and Palestinian independence fields. The signatories emanate from 22 of 27 countries of the European Union and from 40 countries outside the European Union, representing all the continents. Signatories include President of Republican Sinn Féin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Vice President Des Dalton, General Secretary Josephine Hayden and Director of Publicity Richard Walsh have a

The call is sent to the candidates in June’s European elections. Other signatories include: Till the European elections which are held on June 7th, 2009.
The first goal of the Recognise the Resistance website is to go on collecting endorsements on a wide scale. It also allows the signatories to express their motivation and to consult articles dedicated to the Palestinian resistance.

The call will be officially communicated to the top candidates for the European elections at the beginning of May and their answers will be published on the website.

6. Google blot out Republican icon
GOOGLE has blanked out West Belfast’s most famous landmark from its new Street View service following complaints.
The internet street-mapping facility was launched to a fanfare of publicity in March, but the firm has been forced to distort some images because of complaints.
Among the images blurred is the iconic Bobby Sands mural on the corner of the Falls Road and Sevastapol Street which draws hordes of tourists.
However, murals of loyalist death-squads, including UDA man Jackie Coulter on Shankill Parade, have been left intact.
A Google spokeswoman defended its editing, saying anyone could have an image removed if asked.
We’ve got millions of images, so the percentage removed was very small, she said.
“We want this to be a useful tool and it’s people's right to have their image removed. The fact there are now gaps shows how responsive we are.”
Faces and car registration plates have been blurred, as have offending images. However, many can still be viewed by moving up or down a notch on the street.
The Street View images have also caught a number of people in embarrassing situations including West Belfast women going about their everyday business while dressed in pyjamas.
Two teenagers dressed in pyjamas were photographed playing with a dog on McDonnell Street, while a third pyjama-wearing woman was pictured walking along the Ballymurphy Road carrying a shopping bag.
Google says it has gone to great lengths to ensure privacy, insisting that the service only shows imagery already visible from public thoroughfares.
The British Information Commissioner's Office ruled in 2008 that the blurring on Street View is sufficient to ensure that privacy is maintained.

7. 3,000 protest at planned AE cutbacks
THERE WILL be chaos when the 26-County Health Service Executive (HSE) plan to end 24-hour AE services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals is introduced from April 6, according to Clare GP Dr Michael Harty.
Dr Harty addressed a crowd of 3,000 at O’Connell Square in Ennis on March 28 to protest at the HSE plan.
Clare’s two Fianna Fáil TDs, Tony Killeen and Timmy Dooley, did not attend the rally.
In his address, the chairman of the Clare branch of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr Harty, said that “what is being proposed by the HSE is to cut safety to the bone”.
He said: “Over the years, Ennis and Nenagh have been systematically downgraded and undermined by the failure to develop the hospital. The development at Ennis general has been promised so many times and still not been delivered that it has attained the status of a fairy tale with a very bad ending.”
After 24-hour AE services are withdrawn next week, the HSE plans to withdraw acute surgical services in July.
Dr Harty said: “The closure of casualty and surgery is the start of the long goodbye for Ennis as an acute hospital. We don’t believe that Limerick Regional Hospital has the capacity to cope with the extra workload. Last Monday, there were 18 patients on trolleys in Limerick and yesterday 17 patients on trolleys. How many more will there be when the 24-hour services are closed in Ennis and Nenagh?”
Dr Harty added: “There is clear evidence that Limerick is completely unprepared to cope with the transformation process in terms of bed numbers, staff and resources.”
Consultant geriatrician at Nenagh general Dr Christine O’Malley told the protesters that Ennis and Nenagh hospitals will be reduced to nursing homes and clinics through the HSE proposals next year. Dr O’Malley said that from April 6, the HSE “is going to lock” Ennis hospital by night. She said that the public has been deliberately deceived by the HSE, pointing out that the real night-time attendance of patients at Ennis hospital is 5,500 and at Nenagh hospital 4,000.
Dr O’Malley said: “I know it is not going to work, it can’t work. They haven’t got the ambulances; they don’t have the beds in Limerick. They are going to take your doctors away and leave nothing behind here and they don’t want you in Limerick. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say to you. It can’t work, it is not going to work, they are going to do it anyway.”


8. Ender Bulhaz Akturk tortured in Turkish police station.
THE communist Ender Bulhaz Akturk, who was arrested in Bursa on March 18 accused of killing a policeman, and who is also accused of being involved in the Marxist Leninist Communist Party. Turkey /Kurdistan (MLCP), was tortured for two days at the anti-terror unit at Bursa Police Station and taken from there to the Bursa E type prison.

Because of having been heavily tortured, Akturk had to be taken to hospital on March 21. Although he was in a serious condition, he was handcuffed and when he protested and refused treatment because he was handcuffed, he was taken back to prison in the night of March 23 and put into an isolation cell.

Akturk told his lawyer that he had suffered different types of torture, among them brutally punching, bastinado, ( a form of torture wherein the human feet are beaten with an object such as a cane or rod, a club, a piece of wood, or a whip), Strappado ( a form of torture in which a victim is suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to his hands which are tied behind his back), pressurized water and ice-torture and water boarding by the police, which is a way of torture applied by the US at Guantanamo.

When Ender Bulhaz Akturk was taken to the court in Bursa, he was chanting slogans on resistance and revolution. Although his ribs were broken and he was wounded Akturk entered the court building by shouting the slogans "Long live our party MLCP" and "Long live the revolution, long live socialism".

In a statement the MLCP said: “The torture of Ender Bulhaz Akturk shows that the Turkish state continues to systematically apply torture. The torture exposed the lie "zero tolerance towards torture" of the Turkish state that it said to become a member of the EU. Our party calls on the communist, revolutionary and progressive forces all over the world to defend the resistance of the communist fighter Ender Bulhaz Akturk and to protest against the torture by the Turkish state.
Let us inform the working class and labourers in every country of the world and the international public that the Turkish state's fascist, torturing and colonial character has not changed at all.”

9. British Army chief ready to send more UK troops to Afghanistan
THE head of the British Army announced at the end of March that he stood ready to send 2,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, while the British government made clear its intent to pursue the war into Pakistan.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the General Staff, told the Times of London that part of the British army’s12th Mechanised Brigade, which had been training for deployment to Iraq but were later stood down, had now been "earmarked for Afghanistan."
The report came as US President Barack Obama announced a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan and its further extension into Pakistan. Echoing the Bush administration's military "surge" in Iraq, Obama outlined plans to send 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan on top of the 17,000 additional forces already committed, and signalled Washington's intent to aggressively expand the war across the border into Pakistan.
Currently Britiain has some 8,000 troops in Afghanistan. Although Dannatt said that there were no plans to send a whole brigade of 4,000 troops, and British defence sources described the 2,000 as "the uppermost ceiling," the statements were couched in vague terms.
A British Ministry of Defence source said later that any decision would be based on advice from the military. "If the clear advice...is that we need more people to keep our troops safe, we will make a judgment based on this," he said.
The equivocation is due to concern among the high command of "military overstretch." In the same Times interview, Dannatt made it clear that although a number of military options were being considered to boost Britain's presence in Afghanistan, sending an extra brigade would put too much strain on British forces. "If we were to send another 4,000...there would be a risk of replicating the pressures on the Army that we are trying to avoid," he said.
He agreed with Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the British chief of the Defence Staff, who said recently that he could not support any plan to engage in "a one-for-one" movement to Afghanistan, under which the 4,000 troops being withdrawn from Iraq by July 31 would be transferred to Helmand Province.
"Improving security in Afghanistan will be dictated by having more boots on the ground," said Dannatt. "I don't mind whether the boots will be American, British or Afghan." He added that Afghanistan was going to be "a marathon campaign, not a sprint."
Despite the cautious language, Dannatt's statement and other comments make clear that the British government is fully committed to a significant stepping up of the US-led intervention in South and Central Asia and is attempting to pressure its European counterparts to do the same.
The Observer newspaper reported March 29 on the British government's declaration of full backing for a US-led military offensive inside Pakistan, as British ministers confirmed the country was now "part of a single campaign" alongside Afghanistan.
British Defence Secretary John Hutton said Britain supported targeting Pakistan-based Taliban and Al Qaeda positions and urged Europe to begin offering assistance to eradicate insurgents in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Making clear Britain's readiness to participate in the widening regional conflict, Hutton said military objectives in the region must now have "an equal focus on both countries."
"We remain, as we have been on many occasions in this past century, grateful to the United States for the leadership that she has shown time and again since 2001 in rooting out extremism and terrorism in Afghanistan," he continued. "But Europe must do more, and it is in our interest to do more."
"In Europe," he said, "we can no longer offload the tough questions about how we deal effectively with AQ [Al Qaeda] and the Taliban in Pakistan to the US. The political burden of dealing with the Pakistan side of the border must be shared. And there are many European countries with strong ties to Pakistan that can more effectively share that burden with America."
Hutton condemned "the massive leadership imbalance" between Europe and the US in NATO, adding, "It's an imbalance set to grow in the coming months as America commits vastly more resources of every kind to the mission in Afghanistan."
Britain's targeting of Pakistan was further underscored last week when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined his government's renewed national security strategy. Citing Al Qaeda in Pakistan as the greatest security threat facing the UK, it claimed that two-thirds of terror plots uncovered by British intelligence agencies have a Pakistani connection.
The implications of British military involvement in Pakistan are major. As the former colonial power in the region, Britain has long historical ties with Pakistan and is home to the second largest Pakistani diaspora of over 900,000 people.
More broadly, US actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, supported by Britain, represent a threat to the entire region. It is difficult to imagine how a military conflict on Pakistani territory proper would not entangle India—the other nuclear power in the region. Under conditions of spiralling regional tensions, the short border that Afghanistan shares with China may also become a flash point, drawing in the Beijing regime, while Russia, as a regional power, would be compelled to intervene, raising the prospect of a far wider war.
The new focus on Pakistan is set to dominate NATO's 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg later this week, in which Britain and the US will again attempt to pressure the other NATO members—particularly Germany, France and Spain—for additional military forces. But senior NATO diplomatic sources leaking to the press said that no meaningful offers were expected from any alliance member apart from Britain. Italy and Poland are planning to send small reinforcements, but only during the campaign for the Afghan presidential election, due to be held on August 20.
NATO has so far committed 32,000 troops to Afghanistan, with Germany deploying 3,640, France 2,780 and Spain 780.
The killing of Pakistani civilians by air-strikes carried out by unmanned CIA aircraft is increasing popular anger in Pakistan against the US and the Pakistani government's collaboration with Washington's war. However, US officials made clear at the end of March that attacks along Pakistan's western frontier will continue, amid speculation that coalition ground units may begin crossing into Pakistan's borderlands at some point. A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright, told the Observer that the US had already offered to launch "joint military operations" with Pakistan's Frontier Corps in the tribal areas.
10. 26-County Police question artist under caution
THE ARTIST responsible for the nude portraits of the head of the 26-County administration Brian Cowen which were found hanging in two Dublin art galleries was questioned under caution by the 26-County police on March 24.
Thirty-five-year-old Dubliner Conor Casby voluntarily accompanied investigators to Pearse Street Garda station. While a file is being prepared for the 26-County DPP, it is not thought likely that any charges will be brought.
In a statement issued on March 25, Conor Casby confirmed he had painted the pictures and said they were intended to be an anonymous and non-profit comment on the use of modern media “rather than an attempt to use the media to comment”. He said that he wished to bring the project to an end “by offering the portraits to the highest bidder and donating the proceeds to charity”.
The Garda investigation has established that Conor Casby has painted similar nudes of other high-profile politicians, including Bertie Ahern and Michael McDowell.
On Tuesday, a Garda detective visited the offices of Today FM looking for all e-mails and phone messages which had been sent to the Ray D’Arcy Show by the artist.
In an act of self-censorship the 26-County state broadcaster RTÉ apologised for a television news report concerning the nude portraits of Cowen. It said it had received a number of complaints about the item the television Nine O’Clock News on March 23, including one from Cowen’s office. The report did not run on subsequent television bulletins and was taken down from the RTÉ website.
On March 25, Today FM presenter Ray D’Arcy said the show’s producer, Will Hanafin, had spoken to a garda who had told him “the powers that be want action taken”.
Will Hanafin said he was told gardaí wanted the name and contact details of the artist so they could caution him. The detective said the artist was being investigated in connection with three charges: incitement to hatred, indecency, and criminal damage for hammering a nail into a wall of the National Gallery.
When Will Hanafin declined to pass the contact information on, he was told a warrant would have to be sought to get access to the show’s e-mails.
The paintings of Brian Cowen appeared in the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) gallery and the National Gallery almost three weeks ago. He was shown holding his underpants in one painting and a toilet roll in the other.
A researcher on the Today FM show has been in phone and e-mail contact with the artist since the middle of January. Earlier this week, the artist confirmed to the show that the paintings were his, but denied hanging them in the galleries.
Will Hanafin told The Irish Times he was “totally shocked” to be confronted by a garda. He said in “no circumstances could this be considered an appropriate use of Garda resources. It seems to me that the powers that be have lost their sense of humour.”
The Garda press office said it had no information on any contacts with the Ray D’Arcy Show.
In a statement read on Tuesday’s Nine O’Clock News, the 26-County state broadcaster apologised “for any personal offence caused to Mr Cowen or his family and for any disrespect shown to the office of the Taoiseach”.
Blogs have been hopping with news of the controversy. Most web-users condemned what they described as the censorship of RTÉ and expressed amazement at the broadcaster’s apology.

Ends.

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"I hereby declare that the Continuity Executive and the Continuity Army Council are the lawful Executive and Army Council respectively of the Irish Republican Army, and that the governmental authority, delegated in the Proclamation of 1938, now resides in the Continuity Army Council, and its lawful successors."

Comdt. General Thomas Maguire