BY TONY HUNT
LONDON- Police here cold-bloodedly murdered a young Irish worker September 23. The cops admitted late the next day that Diarmuid O'Neill, 27, had been unarmed. O'Neill was hit in the stomach by 10 bullets at a boarding house in west London during a 4:30 a.m. raid by cops armed with machine guns.
This was one of several raids that morning. The cops said their goal was to prevent further military operations by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). No arms were found in O'Neill's room. Police say they seized explosives and guns from a warehouse in another location.
Several big-business newspapers gloated over O'Neill's execution, with color photographs showing the trail of blood left after cops dragged the fatally wounded man down steps and into the street. "Don't shed too many tears" was how the Daily Mirror, which supports the Labour Party, began it coverage.
The Sun newspaper reported that an ambulance crew was prevented by cops from attending O'Neill for 30 minutes. O'Neill, who was born in Britain to Irish immigrants, died later in hospital. Police used so much CS tear gas in the raid that it took four hours for it to clear out of the boarding house, where several Irish workers lodged. Two other men who lived there were forced by police to sprawl on the street at gun-point and stripped naked before being stuffed into boiler suits, according to The Sun.
Having earlier suggested that O'Neill had been armed, the press rapidly changed their tune. "Police ready for backlash after unarmed terrorist is killed - Why we had to shoot bomber," read one headline in the right-wing Daily Mail. The newspaper drew a parallel with the British army execution of three IRA volunteers in Gibraltar in 1988, an incident that prompted worldwide outrage. In this case the media have made a special effort to demonize O'Neill to justify his execution. "He was going to blow up the channel tunnel today," claimed the Mirror on the day of the killing. Press photographs showed the young man holding a copy of An Phoblacht/Republican News, the newspaper published by Sinn Fein, the leading Irish republican party.
O'Neill's brother and four others, including an airport worker, were also arrested. All five were held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, first enacted by a Labour government in the 1970s. The law allows police to hold suspects for up to seven days without access to a lawyer.
In an action organized by Fuascailt, which campaigns on behalf of Irish political prisoners, protesters gathered outside Paddington Green police station September 24 to condemn the killing and call for the scrapping of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Peter Middleton, speaking on behalf of the campaign, attacked the "trial by media" of the arrested men, none of whom had been charged with any crime. He compared it to the frame-ups of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four in the 1970s.
In Belfast, there have been few developments reported in the talks on the future of Ireland being carried out under the chairmanship of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. Sinn Fein has been excluded from the talks, which began June 10, in face of London's demand that the IRA restore a cease-fire before republicans will be included at the table.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams expressed "regret" at the killing of O'Neill. "The onus is on the British government to build confidence in a new reconstructed peace process." he said.
British Prime Minister John Major declared that he was "absolutely delighted" at the police actions.
As the early celebrations by cops and ruling-class politicians died down, the London Evening Standard commented September 24, "The war goes on."
Meanwhile, republican activist Colin Duffy, 28, who had been framed for the murder of an ex-soldier in 1993, was released in Belfast September 24 after his conviction was quashed on appeal. "I spent three years and three months in jail and today proves the lack of justice here." Duffy said.
Two key witnesses in his original trial were ruled to have been unreliable. Lindsay Robb, who claimed to identify Duffy as the killer, has since been convicted in a Scottish court of gun-running for the Ulster Volunteer Force, a pro-British paramilitary group. The judge in Duffy's trial had described Robb as a man of "obvious honesty."