A coalition of leading human rights organizations today expressed abhorrence and profound shock at the brutal murder of Rosemary Nelson, one of Northern Ireland's most prominent human rights lawyers.
The groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, British/Irish Rights Watch, and the Irish Council on Civil Liberties, are calling for an outside police force to conduct the murder investigation. A spokesperson for the group said, "In making this call, we are particularly conscious that complaints of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) intimidation and death threats against Rosemary Nelson are currently under investigation by the London Metropolitan police." Northern Ireland's Independent Commission for Police Complaints had called on the Metropolitan police to investigate Rosemary Nelson's complaints, because of concerns about the inadequacy of the RUC investigation.
The London police investigation comes on the heels of a 1998 United Nations report concerning the ongoing harassment and intimidation of defense lawyers in Northern Ireland which concluded that allegations of RUC threats against defense lawyers were well founded. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers last year called on the UK government to conduct a broad inquiry into general allegations of RUC harassment of defense lawyers, including police intimidation and death threats against Ms. Nelson. Her death also comes within a matter of weeks of the submission of a report to the British and Irish governments which contains new evidence of police collusion in the 1989 loyalist paramilitary murder of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane.
The groups expect to meet with Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mo Mowlam tomorrow to discuss the case and to urge the immediate establishment of these independent inquiries. The groups will hold a press conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Governor's Room, in Washington, D.C. tomorrow, Tuesday March 16, 1999 at 10:15am.
