Daily Dispatch 12th July 2006

MAGINNESS: ADAMS HAS HUMAN RIGHTS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

SDLP Justice Spokesperson Alban Maginness said Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has many questions to answer concerning the human rights of the Disappeared.

He said: “Ordinary people who have never had the power of life and death over another human being will find it very hard to work out how there can be human rights more important or deserving of attention than the right to life.

“Gerry Adams has finally conceded that hiding the bodies of the people the Provisional IRA murdered was an offence against human rights. People will rightly ask: What about blowing their heads off? Where does that fit into the Provo scale of human rights abuses? Why will Gerry Adams not answer any questions about it?

“Everyone with a shred of decency will hope that efforts by the Irish government to find the bodies of the Disappeared will bring results. But why is the Provisional movement still dragging its heels? Gerry Adams has been in the leadership of that movement since before Jean McConville was murdered. He must know who it was that first ordered that bodies should be hidden and murders lied about to families and to the public. He should disclose just who that person was.”

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