Hugh Orde Appointed as Northern
Ireland Chief Constable;
Promises to Make Stevens III
Report Public
The Northern Ireland Policing Board announced last night that it had
selected Hugh Orde, a Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police in London, to be the new Chief Constable of the Police Service
of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Mr. Orde currently leads the Stevens III
investigation into the 1989 murder of Belfast human rights lawyer
Patrick Finucane.
The Stevens III investigation was established in 1999
in the wake of a growing body of evidence suggesting that members
of the UK security forces had colluded with loyalist paramilitaries
in Patrick Finucane's murder. The UK government had established
two previous Stevens investigations into collusion in Northern Ireland,
but the findings of these investigations have remained almost entirely
classified.
As the new Chief Constable of the PSNI, Mr. Orde is
now in the remarkable position of deciding whether his own report
on the investigation will be made public. According to media reports,
Mr. Orde has already announced that the Stevens III report will
be made public in full and that it will not "pull any punches."
The report is due to be completed in the next several months.
In response to Mr. Orde's statement, Elisa Massimino,
Director of Human Rights First's Washington, D.C. Office, said,
"Human Rights First welcomes the announcement that the Stevens
III report will be made public. Rigorous and transparent investigation
of the allegations of official collusion in Patrick Finucane's murder
would be an important signal that the Patten Commission's recommendations
on policing reform are starting to take root."
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