Madam, - Gerry Adams said at last weekend's ardfheis that Sinn Féin supported the McCartney family's campaign for justice.
If this is so:
1. Why did Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey attack the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell for saying that IRA men were responsible for the murder the day after it happened? Everybody in the Short Strand and Markets knew that they were responsible - so why did Alex Maskey deny it?
2. Why did Mr Maskey, quoted in the Irish News of February 1st, try to dismiss this murder as "knife culture", as if it was some ordinary bar fight and not the brutal murder of an innocent man?
3. Why did Mr Maskey rush to condemn police searches of suspects' houses?
4. Why did he refuse to condemn orchestrated rioting by children while the police searches were under way?
5. Why did the IRA and Sinn Féin people on the ground tell people not to go to the police?
6. Why did Gerry Adams wait for over two weeks until after the family had spoken out before he said a thing about the murder?
7. Why will Sinn Féin not tell people to go to the police? Sinn Féin people don't hesitate to go to the police if they have a car crash. They quietly negotiate with them over parades.
8. Why have only three people been expelled from the IRA when 12 IRA people were involved in the attack?
If this is Sinn Féin's notion of supporting a campaign for justice, then what would a cover-up look like? The truth is that Sinn Féin, far from supporting a campaign for justice, has been up to its neck in covering the truth up. It has moved only under pressure - and when it absolutely had to. And still, to this day, nobody has been charged with this appalling murder. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr PAT McCARTHY
(SDLP),
Belfast 7.