SF calls for inquiry into security breach

The British government faced demands for an inquiry today into the passing on of information about 400 republicans in Belfast, including Gerry Adams, to loyalist paramilitaries.

Sinn Féin policing spokesman Gerry Kelly also demanded meetings with British and Irish ministers after more republicans in the north and south of the city were told last night that their details were in a stolen Army document.

Party leader Mr Adams was warned yesterday that his life is in danger after it emerged his personal details were in the document.

Mr Kelly said: “Overnight, a number of republicans in the Lower Ormeau area and in north Belfast were visited and informed that their lives were in danger from loyalist paramilitaries who had obtained their personal details.

“We assume that this information comes from the Castlereagh collusion file passed to unionist paramilitaries by the RIR (Royal Irish Regiment) and covered up by British Ministers, the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and British Army over the past 16 months.

“I have requested urgent meetings with both the British and Irish governments to discuss this matter.”

Police first went this week to homes in Belfast’s Short Strand, a staunchly Catholic district in the east of the city, to inform people there.

Among those believed to be warned in the area was former Belfast deputy mayor Joe O’Donnell.

The document was stolen during a breach of internal security at Castlereagh security complex in east Belfast in July last year.

More than 20 soldiers were moved to less sensitive duties after an investigation was launched into the missing document.

Mr Kelly said former Northern Ireland Office (NIO) Security Minister Ian Pearson had been proved wrong when he claimed at the time details of the theft emerged that there was no evidence that it had fallen into the hands of paramilitaries.

The North Belfast Assembly member said that since the former NIO minister’s denial, 400 people and their families had been living under threat without being informed and without any protection.

“This situation is a scandal and, as the British government through the NIO are complicit in the cover-up, a separate inquiry is required to get to the truth,” he said.