Gang

Fianna Fail was exposed yet again by their rejection of the O' Briain Report on safeguards for people in Garda custody.

Only a Fianna Fail hack like | Gerry Collins would have the hard-nosed effrontery to call for a public enquiry into Amnesty's charges of Garda brutality when he was in oppos-ition thenywhen he became a :Minister,set up a private en_guiry and when it reported react all its major recommendat{lash against the Coalition's | collaborationist and police state voiicies but it hasn't taken long for the real face of Fianna =)

fail to show itseif.

When Fianna Fail got back to cower Collins, as Minister |ror Justice, established the |C' Briain Committee, not to investigate the allegations of 'Garda brutality, but to recommend on future safeguards for people jin Garda custody — and for the iGardai themselves. Civil libert‘ies groups and TUCAR denounced the fact that the enquiry was | private and its restricted terms ‘or reference as a sell-out and -eritiecised Ruardhi Roberts of -the ICTU for sitting on a white/washing committee. t é Even this committee, including 'a former Garda Commissioner, made some useful recommendations lhowever. They called for an ‘Garda Technical Bureau. In September, after sparking a wave of hysteria about an increase ‘in ordinary crime, he announced that the Government mendations outright and would ed at the creation of an elite armed unit within the Gardai ana there have been two cases ing at robbers. There has also Dublin with one teenager Aidan White, dying after a spell in Garda custody.

If they're not stopped now it After the last election the State of Emergency and 7-day opportunity was missed to step ion, to get rid of the Special Against the State Act.

International, the ICCL, ICRA, had rejected most of the recom"consider" the others. In practice they're moving in the opposite direction. Collins has hintrecently of armed Gardai shootbeen an increase in Garda beatings of working class youths in Fianna Fail's record on civil liberties in the past has been just as bad as Fine Gael's.

looks as if the Garda Heavy Gang will soon be back in full swing.

detention were scrapped but the up the campaign against repressCriminal Court and the Offences It is essential that Amnesty and especially TUCAR and the trade union movement in general, all of whom originally called for a public enquiry into Garda brutality now campaign actively to get the O'Briain Committee's recommendations implemented and get rid of repressive legislation. The re-opening shortly of the IRSP 4 trial where the state’ case relies heavily on forced "confessions" should provide a focal point for the campaign.

There is one other importar point. Collin's private enquiry which didn't investigate the actual Amnesty allegations of Garda brutality gave Roy Mason ' the idea for his similar private committee on safeguards for people in RUC custody in the North. Torture is an even more’* crucial instrument of government policy in the North than in the 26-counties. Mason must not be allowed to use the example of the South as an excuse for refusing to implement any safeguards in the 6-counties. It is a glaring indictment of the real nature of Fianna Fail that they have provided Mason with such an excuse. ~

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i fons. Fianna Fail won the last | election by exploiting the back-

The case of It is s only a few W a few weeks since