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Justice
Minister's Negative Response to Inquiry Call We sent the report to the Minister in July last year but did not receive a reply until early January. The Minister heatedly rejected what he called "particularly offensive" allegations that the former Taoiseach and Justice Minister gave the gardai carte blanche to 'take the gloves off' in this investigation. He also waxed indignant at suggestions that the Special Criminal Court was the gardai's court, which did what they told it. But Minister O'Donohue missed the point. What the report says is that the gardai made these claims themselves - according to the people that they interrogated. Our concern was whether some gardai had this attitude - that they could do what they like and that they though they had an implied licence from the Government to get away with it. And our other concern, of course, was whether they did ill-treat people in custody. The Minister enclosed in his reply a totally unsatisfactory response from the gardai, which dealt with none of the substantive complaints but tried to smear our report as part of a Provisional IRA campaign. It was like a response from the RUC in the old days before they learnt to at least look as if they were addressing the concerns of human rights organisations. We are printing the Minister's letter and our reply in full because we believe that this is an issue which raises the whole question of an accountable police force and the rule of law in our society. And we still want an independent inquiry into the whole affair. |