A delegation of international human right activists arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday to study claims that members of the security forces colluded with a loyalist gang in a series of murders during the 1970s.
The investigators immediately began meeting families of people allegedly killed by the gang.
They were invited to the North by the Pat Finucane Centre and will be examining allegations of collusion with the loyalist Glenanne gang during the next fortnight. The gang has been linked to four car bombs planted by the UVF in the Republic, which killed 33 people in Dublin and Monaghan. The gang has also been accused of murders in Armagh, Tyrone and other Border counties.
The investigation team is led by Prof Douglas Cassel, president of the Justice Studies Centre of the Americas and director of the Centre for Human Rights in Chicago. Other members include: Mr Piers Pigou, who worked with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Ms Susie Kemp, who was the legal director of the Centre for Human Rights/ Legal Rights Action in Guatemala; and Mr Steve Sawyer, a former prosecutor and legal counsel to the Centre for International Human Rights at North-Western University in Chicago.
Mr Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, who accompanied the delegation to their first round of meetings yesterday, said they hoped to meet PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde. The delegation has also requested a meeting with Judge Henry Barron, who reported on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings last December.
Arrangements have been made for the group to talk to former RUC officer John Weir, who has made collusion allegations against former colleagues.
Mr O'Connor said a dossier will be completed later this year and the British and Irish governments will be given time to respond.
"We want to give the families of those murdered a chance to tell an international delegation what they believe and the panel to judge from the testimonies what case there is to answer. We also want to see if the panel can uncover through meetings with the police, the DPP, the courts service, the coroners what we have not been able to discover."
Mr Alan Brecknell of the Pat Finucane Centre said they had been researching the activities of the squad for some time. "The full extent of the links, both ballistically and through personnel, is shocking beyond belief." - (PA)