THE Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, told the High Court yesterday that he burned documents connected with the Workers' Party in a bonfire in his back garden around Christmas, 1992.
Mr De Rossa, now leader of Democratic Left, wanted to end the association he had had with the WP and make a "fresh start" with Democratic Left, he said during cross-examination by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for Independent Newspapers plc.
Yesterday was the fourth day of Mr De Rossa'a libel action arising from an article by Eamon Dunphy in the Sunday Independent on December 13th, 1992. The hearing is before Mr Justice McCracken and a jury.
When the hearing began, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, for Mr De Rossa, said that the newspaper had published material which associated his client with truly horrible activities such as subversion, armed robbery, drugs, prostitution and protection rackets.
The defence admits publishing the words, but denies that they were published falsely or maliciously, as alleged.
Yesterday, during cross-examination, Mr De Rossa was referred to a WP political document. He said that this was a report of a political committee meeting, probably to the ard comhairle. It was the only document which survived the bonfire he lit after resigning from the WP in February 1992. He felt that it was an interesting document, as it referred to the first time he had ever visited a socialist state.
The following Christmas he had some weeks off from the Dail and went through everything in his house connected with the WP. He brought the material out into the back garden in bags and burnt it.
Asked by Mr MacEntee if that was all that survived from 30 years with the WP, Mr De Rossa said that it was the only thing of any relevance to the case.
Mr MacEntee said that the case really arose in many ways out of an article which Mr Dunphy had written. Mr De Rossa: "I was wondering when you would get to that."
Mr MacEntee said that the article related to a letter which bore his name - whether it was his signature or not was a matter in dispute.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for Mr De Rossa, objected to what Mr MacEntee had said and asked to make an application in the absence of the jury.
When the jury returned Mr MacEntee said he wanted to make it clear that there was no question. They (the defence) were not saying that Mr De Rossa signed what he (counsel) would call the "Russian letter". He (counsel) accepted that there was no issue in that regard. If he had said something which suggested otherwise, he unreservedly withdrew it. He did not mean to say it.
Mr Justice McCracken said it was unfortunate Mr MacEntee had used those words - it was not part of this case.
Earlier, Mr MacEntee referred Mr De Rossa to a political committee report dated July 19th, 1986. The report referred to the serious financial position of the WP. Members of the CEC were to be urged to take responsibility for ensuring areas they represented paid outstanding accounts to the party and to the Repsol company.
Mr MacEntee asked why the party was concerning itself about the financial affairs of Repsol.
Mr De Rossa said he presumed it was because Repsol had been presenting bills to the party in 1986 for work done and "we" had been urging branches to make sure that the debts they had incurred for the printing of campaign literature were paid.
Mr De Rossa said his recollection was that he had visited the
Soviet Union twice - in 1986 and 1989. Asked how many times he had visited other communist countries, he said that he had visited Korea once and East Berlin once. He did not recall the date he visited East Berlin.
The visit to Berlin was similar to the visit in 1986 to Korea in connection with a conference of nuclear weapons. He had accompanied Mr Des O'Hagan, education officer of the party.
There was a stopover at Moscow on the way out and on the way back from Korea. He had departed from Shannon. He stayed overnight in a Moscow hotel and departed the following morning for Korea. The journey was extraordinarily long and took the best part of 24 hours.
On the way back from Korea they had stayed probably two days in Moscow. It was a stopover. His understanding was that there was no other way of getting to Korea except through Moscow.
Asked what he did over the two days in Moscow, he said that one evening he went to the ballet. The other was spent in a hotel.
Mr De Rossa and the general secretary met the editor of a magazine which had carried some articles in support of the Provisional IRA. Some angry words had been exchanged - they had explained that the Provisional IRA was murdering people in Northern Ireland and had said it was not proper for a socialist government to support that kind of thing. He had nothing to do with the arrangements for the trip.
The primary purpose of the trip was the decision of the political committee to go to the peace conference in Korea. At the time "Star Wars" was a phenomenon being pursued by the US.
The conference drew about 500 people from all over the world. They were from all kinds of political parties and included a British Labour MP. There were people from the Irish Labour Party not TDs.
Asked how he would characterise the government of North Korea, Mr De Rossa said it was then and still was a communist state. It was very much a Stalinist state. He agreed that it was an extremely repressive state.
The hearing resumes today.