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Fresh Bid to Catch Kingsmill Killers Aug 4 2003
By Steven Moore
FRESH investigations into two of the most blatantly sectarian attacks by the IRA are to be launched.
The files on the Kingsmill and Tullyvallen massacres are being reopened in the hope that modern forensic methods will provide new evidence.
Ten Protestant workmen were murdered by the Provos at Kingsmill in January, 1976.
Their bus was stopped at the Whitecross/Bessbrook road junction and the occupants ordered out. After identifying the one Catholic onboard, the gunmen up the Protestants and opened fire. Ten were left dead on the road, though one man did survive the slaughter.
The shooting, which was claimed to be in retaliation for loyalist killings in the area, followed the Tullyvallen shooting the previous year in which five Orangemen died and others were wounded after gunmen burst into a meeting.
Among the victims when two IRA gunmen opened fire on the members of the Guiding Star Temperance Orange Lodge were a father and son.
The police are expected to confirm the opening of fresh investigations later this week, following sustained political pressure over recent years.
Willie Frazer, of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, met police last week to discuss a dossier prepared by the group on murders in south Armagh, including Kingsmill and Tullyvallen.
He said afterwards police had acknowledged the depth of information included and confirmed a number of those accused in the paper were known terrorists.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson welcomed the renewed investigation.
"Now the IRA's barbarity is to be scrutinised again, with some aspects of cases subjected to new forensic analyses," he said.
"It's a small step by the Chief Constable to redress the imbalance in the selection of cases to be reinvestigated and it puts IRA terrorists and Sinn Fein in the dock for a change."
s.moore@newsletter.co.uk
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Fresh Bid to Catch Kingsmill Killers
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Pain of Knowing Killers Walk Free Aug 6 2003
By Ross Smith
GRIEVING relatives spoke yesterday of the pain of knowing that the IRA killers who terrorised south Armagh and murdered their loved ones are today walking free.
Bea Worton and Jane Lemmon, who both lost family members in the Kingsmill massacre, are praying new probes into the 1976 killings will bring the murderers to justice.
They told of their hope as campaign group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives threatened to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. The group, backed by Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, claims it has a dossier of evidence on republican murders.
And it says police have agreed to look again at cases where new techniques, such as the use of DNA evidence, could help secure convictions.
Mrs Lemmon, whose husband Joseph was one of 10 men shot dead by Provos who stopped a minibus returning to Bessbrook from a textile factory at Glenanne, recalled: "We had his dinner ready, and my granddaughters were getting their dresses for their aunt's wedding. He never saw them.
"It's 27 years and there hasn't been a word about it. "I know it won't bring my husband back, but they're going about, walking free and easy and haven't a care in the world.
"They should be punished in some way. After 27 years, it's near time there's something done."
Mrs Worton's son Kenneth was 24 when he was killed in the ambush. She said: "I'm glad something is starting to happen. Twenty-seven years ago nothing happened at all. "It's affected people all round Bessbrook. Nearly everyone lost a relative, or a friend, or a neighbour.
"I remember it flashed on a television that a minibus had been ambushed. I never thought anything of it until a lady from across in the new houses said 'you'd better get up the road to see if your son is all right'.
"That's when I realised it was the works minibus. It just seems like yesterday.
"When you lose a loved one, there's an emptiness there all the time. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't forget.''
r.smith@newsletter.co.uk
It's Time to Put IRA in Dock for Atrocities, Says MP Aug 6 2003
CAMPAIGNERS will push for an urgent meeting with Chief Constable Hugh Orde to insist he devotes resources to new investigations into IRA killings in south Armagh.
They say 92 per cent of murders in the area during the Troubles have not been solved, and believe the unit which carried out the Kingsmill atrocity was responsible for at least 60 more deaths.
They also want to meet Irish government representatives to present them with evidence of rogue gardai colluding with the Provos.
UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, whose cousin was the first police officer to be murdered by the IRA in south Armagh, said: "It's time to put the IRA in the dock. It's time for them to be brought to account for what they have done in this part of the UK.
"I remain to be convinced the Government has the will to deal with the unsolved murders committed by the Provisional IRA - in fact I doubt it has. "Yet, in international law they have an obligation to their citizens to ensure justice is done.
"We will have to consider, if the Government is failing in its obligation, taking our case through the Human Rights Court."
Willie Frazer, of FAIR, added: "I can assure the IRA in south Armagh, before I finish we will expose every one of them involved in atrocities in south Armagh."
Murders being investigated by the group include the Tullyvallen Orange Hall massacre, in which five people were shot dead by the IRA in 1975.
Paul Berry, DUP former MLA for Newry and Armagh, said: "The full rigours of the law should have been unleashed on these republican murderers at the time and, when one considers the amount of money poured into the Bloody Sunday trial and other republican cases, the imbalance, noted by the unionist community, is a long way off being redressed.''
Pain of Knowing Killers Walk Free Aug 6 2003
By Ross Smith
GRIEVING relatives spoke yesterday of the pain of knowing that the IRA killers who terrorised south Armagh and murdered their loved ones are today walking free.
Bea Worton and Jane Lemmon, who both lost family members in the Kingsmill massacre, are praying new probes into the 1976 killings will bring the murderers to justice.
They told of their hope as campaign group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives threatened to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. The group, backed by Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, claims it has a dossier of evidence on republican murders.
And it says police have agreed to look again at cases where new techniques, such as the use of DNA evidence, could help secure convictions.
Mrs Lemmon, whose husband Joseph was one of 10 men shot dead by Provos who stopped a minibus returning to Bessbrook from a textile factory at Glenanne, recalled: "We had his dinner ready, and my granddaughters were getting their dresses for their aunt's wedding. He never saw them.
"It's 27 years and there hasn't been a word about it. "I know it won't bring my husband back, but they're going about, walking free and easy and haven't a care in the world.
"They should be punished in some way. After 27 years, it's near time there's something done."
Mrs Worton's son Kenneth was 24 when he was killed in the ambush. She said: "I'm glad something is starting to happen. Twenty-seven years ago nothing happened at all. "It's affected people all round Bessbrook. Nearly everyone lost a relative, or a friend, or a neighbour.
"I remember it flashed on a television that a minibus had been ambushed. I never thought anything of it until a lady from across in the new houses said 'you'd better get up the road to see if your son is all right'.
"That's when I realised it was the works minibus. It just seems like yesterday.
"When you lose a loved one, there's an emptiness there all the time. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't forget.''
r.smith@newsletter.co.uk
It's Time to Put IRA in Dock for Atrocities, Says MP Aug 6 2003
CAMPAIGNERS will push for an urgent meeting with Chief Constable Hugh Orde to insist he devotes resources to new investigations into IRA killings in south Armagh.
They say 92 per cent of murders in the area during the Troubles have not been solved, and believe the unit which carried out the Kingsmill atrocity was responsible for at least 60 more deaths.
They also want to meet Irish government representatives to present them with evidence of rogue gardai colluding with the Provos.
UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, whose cousin was the first police officer to be murdered by the IRA in south Armagh, said: "It's time to put the IRA in the dock. It's time for them to be brought to account for what they have done in this part of the UK.
"I remain to be convinced the Government has the will to deal with the unsolved murders committed by the Provisional IRA - in fact I doubt it has. "Yet, in international law they have an obligation to their citizens to ensure justice is done.
"We will have to consider, if the Government is failing in its obligation, taking our case through the Human Rights Court."
Willie Frazer, of FAIR, added: "I can assure the IRA in south Armagh, before I finish we will expose every one of them involved in atrocities in south Armagh."
Murders being investigated by the group include the Tullyvallen Orange Hall massacre, in which five people were shot dead by the IRA in 1975.
Paul Berry, DUP former MLA for Newry and Armagh, said: "The full rigours of the law should have been unleashed on these republican murderers at the time and, when one considers the amount of money poured into the Bloody Sunday trial and other republican cases, the imbalance, noted by the unionist community, is a long way off being redressed.''
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