Only an overview of the Stevens report will be made available this afternoon, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Sir John Stevens, head of the investigation into alleged collusion between the North's security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, releases his much-delayed report this afternoon amid criticism from human rights activists.
According to a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police which Sir John heads, only a 20-page "overview" will be made available, while a complete, more detailed and legally-sensitive report is given to the Policing Board and to Mr Hugh Orde. He had day-to-day leadership of the Stevens team for more than two years before he became Chief Constable of the PSNI last September. Speaking to The Irish Times before he took up his current position, Mr Orde vowed the report would "pull no punches".
"Of that I am absolutely clear," he said. "But it does cover a number of things, and it's a big leap to say that it will put collusion to bed once and for all."
Mr Orde said he was confident a number of files would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and that the report would not make what he called "a happy read". He said he expected Sir John to report what he had found in relation to the murder of the Belfast solicitor, Mr Pat Finucane, in relation to the issues around collusion and the role of army and intelligence handling.
"I don't anticipate 300 recommendations," Mr Orde said. "I anticipate a small number of very strategic, very important recommendations that move the organisation on." The Chief Constable is understood to accept the importance of "closure" on past controversies, but he is more anxious to establish mechanisms to prevent fresh allegations.
"I don't want to be told [the RUC] was crap in 1989," he said. "But I'll live with it. The [police force] doesn't need it, but that's its own damn fault for getting into that mess in the first place." He vowed that decisions on a new way forward would be adhered to, "and God help anyone who stands in the way of it".
In a joint statement last night Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights Watch and the US-based Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights all criticised the publication of just the shortened version of the full report, which is said to run to some 3,000 pages.
They also renewed their call for a full, public, international, independent and impartial judicial inquiry into the murder. "The five international and domestic human rights non-governmental organisations believe that only [such an inquiry], adequately resourced and with full powers to subpoena witnesses and compel the disclosure of documents, can reveal the full truth surrounding the killing of Patrick Finucane," the statement said.
"It will be essential to consider all the circumstances surrounding the killing of Patrick Finucane, including evidence of other killings resulting from the same policies and practices which led to his death."
Mr Michael Finucane, the late Mr Finucane's son, said yesterday: "The latest Stevens report is an embodiment of broken promises and dishonoured commitments. It carries the hallmark of all of Stevens's work in Northern Ireland: secrecy and repression."
He claimed the report cost some £4 million and involved 15,000 interviews, 4,000 catalogued exhibits, 5,640 statements and 6,000 documents. "None of this is available for public scrutiny," he said.
"This report is widely believed to be some sort of 'systems analysis'; an examination of what went wrong . . . and how that can be prevented in the future.
"Nothing went wrong," Mr Finucane claimed. "The system worked perfectly. The policy in Northern Ireland was to harness the killing potential of loyalist paramilitaries, to increase that potential through additional resources in the shape of weapons and information and to direct those resources against selected targets so that the government could be rid of its enemies."