Ford sounds like Campbell on Bloody Sunday: RNU

ANTI-PSNI republicans in Londonderry say prospective policing and justice minister, the Alliance party's David Ford, sounds just like DUP stalwart Gregory Campbell in his analysis of Bloody Sunday.

Spokesperson for the Republican Network for Unity (RNU) - a dissident republican group opposed to Sinn Fin's acceptance of the PSNI - Danny McBrearty, made the comparison when commenting on David Ford's controversial "pointless" remarks about the Saville Inquiry.

He charged that "such revealing words about such a widely felt and important matter of justice as Bloody Sunday, go beyond apologies or withdrawals and make this crown minister for justice-in-waiting unfit for the post."

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He said there were few issues so deeply felt across the nationalist nad republican spectrum as the events of January 1972 when 13 people were shot dead by British paratroopers on the streets of the city.

Said Mr McBrearty: "Most Republicans and nationalists hold that civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday were murdered by the British crown, which then set up the Widgery Tribunal to cover-up and whitewash these murders by British troopers and slander their innocent victims.

"Since 1998 the Bloody Sunday families have waited in hopes that the Saville Inquiry would yield the small comfort of truth about the murder of their loved ones."

He said that in "rubbishing Saville s pointless and a waste of money" David Ford "let slip" his settled view on Bloody Sunday justice.

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"He sounds like Gregory Campbell," said Mr McBrearty. "Ford's shocking remarks on an issue of such importance disqualify him from heading the compromised Stormont justice ministry.

"He is unfit for the post despite any contrived or belated apology. It is 'pointless' to claim otherwise."

The RNU spokesman also referred to the indefinite retention of non-jury courts and the fact that the secret intelligence service MI5 will not be controlled by the new Stormont policing and justice ministry if and when it is eventually devolved.

"Republicans have been told repeatedly that the establishment of a compromised Stormont ministry over crown courts and the constabulary would somehow be major step away from British rule," he commented.

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"Will a watered down Stormont ministry headed by an unfit minister who terms Bloody Sunday justice pointless, without control over MI5,and with pre-set Diplock Courts make the British constabulary and courts accountable, or will it make Sinn Fin accomplices in imposing British rule and law?" he asked.

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