A Labour MP expressed fears yesterday that the British government was trying to "edit" reports on four controversial killings in Northern Ireland.
During Northern Ireland Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Kevin McNamara asked the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy: "The Irish Government has published their reports. When is the British government going to do the same?" The British government has yet to release reports by Judge Peter Cory into the murders of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright.
Judge Cory was appointed by the British and Irish governments after the Weston Park talks in 2001 to investigate the deaths of eight people.
The Irish Government published two reports before Christmas and announced an inquiry into allegations of Garda collusion in the IRA murder of Royal Ulster Constabulary Chief Supt Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan in March 1989.
The British government has angered nationalists by failing to release its four reports covering allegations of security force collusion in the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane in his north Belfast home in February 1989; claims that police failed to intervene in the murder of Catholic Robert Hamill by a loyalist mob in Portadown town centre in May 1997; the murder of loyalist leader Billy Wright in suspicious circumstances by the INLA in the Maze Prison in December 1997; and police threats against solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was blown up in a car-bomb outside her Lurgan home in March 1999.
Judge Cory contacted the four families this week to tell them he had recommended inquiries into all four cases, prompting the family of Pat Finucane to initiate a High Court action in Belfast against the Northern Ireland Office.
The British government came under further pressure yesterday in the House of Commons to release the reports.
Mr Murphy told Mr McNamara there were legal and security reasons for the delay and once the government was satisfied these had been dealt with the reports would be published. The minister said the four cases affecting the British government were "more complex, more detailed and longer" than the reports Judge Cory gave to the Irish government.
"We have to deal with \ national security issues and we have to give absolute appropriate attention to Articles 2 and 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which deal with the right to life and effective investigations," he explained.
"I can assure my honourable friend that as soon as we have that legal advice sorted out, we will publish the reports."
The SDLP's Mr Séamus Mallon also urged the minister to publish them, reminding the government it had committed itself after Weston Park to implement Judge Cory's findings.
Mr Mallon said it would be wrong for either the British or Irish governments to "renege on their commitments" when they were pressing for others in the peace process to honour theirs. (PA)