Updates on Ireland from Derry's Pat Finucane Centre

from the Syracuse Newspapers, Syracuse, NY

Friday, March 16, 2001

Justice in Peter McBride's death is still being denied

By Stuart Ross

"This [issue] is not about the early release of Guardsmen Fisher and Wright but [about] their reinstatement into the British Army after shooting dead18-year-old Peter McBride ... . It is about justice, democracy, the worth and value of a young Catholic man's life in the eyes of the British Army and the British government."

These were the words of Cecilia Keaveney, who represents Donegal North East in Dail Eireann - the Irish Parliament. Keaveney was speaking in favor of a motion condemning a controversial British Army Board decision in late November. The motion was debated in the Dail on December 13th and was passed unanimously.

Peter McBride was shot dead Sept. 4, 1992 as he ran from a British Army foot patrol. The soldiers, members of the Army's Scots Guards regiment, had already stopped, questioned and searched the young Belfast teen. They already knew his name, where he lived and - most importantly - that he was unarmed. Still, they shot him.

Months later, Syracuse's 11th annual St. Patrick's Day was dedicated to the memory of Peter McBride. He was a Project Children alum who had spent two summers with the Sopchak family in Liverpool.

"He was a great, great kid," said Rita Sopchak. "He really was."

Peter's killers were sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder, but were freed after serving only six years. Their reinstatement into the British Army is in breach of the Army's own rules, which state it is mandatory to discharge soldiers imprisoned by a civil court, unless there are "exceptional circumstances"; a British Army Board claims such "exceptional circumstances" exist.

"The only occasions whereby soldiers convicted of murder have benefited from the 'exceptional circumstances' clause have been where the victim was Irish," said a spokesperson for the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre. "This demonstrates the underlying racism behind this decision."

(Since Guardsmen Fisher and Wright were convicted in 1995, more than 1,400 British soldiers have been dismissed from the Army for minor drug charges.)

The McBride family has mounted a second legal challenge to the Army Board's decision. Nearly two years ago, a landmark victory in the Belfast High Court forced the Army to reconsider the future of Guardsmen Fisher and Wright because the basis of its finding - that there were "exceptional circumstances" - contradicted Justice Kelly's original judgment that there weren't any mitigating circumstances to Peter's murder.

"If they think I'm going to give up they have another thing coming," said Peter's mother, Jean. "We will fight on until these two murderers are kicked out of the British Army."

On March 29 and 30, a full hearing of the judicial review of the Army Board's decision is scheduled. There will also be a third international day of action in support of the McBride campaign on May 24, coinciding with the anniversary of the United Nation's adoption of the Principles on the Effective Protection and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

For more information on the case, see the Pat Finucane Centre's web site at:
http://www.serve.com/pfc.

Stuart Ross, a Syracuse native now based in Philadelphia, is the North American representative for the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry, Northern Ireland; he has worked with the center since 1996.