MASSIVE MARCH FOR TRUTH ON COLLUSION

Up to ten thousand nationalists marched into Belfast city centre
on Sunday to hear calls for the truth on collusion to be unveiled.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has accused the Government of doing
nothing in response to revelations that members of the security
services colluded with unionist paramilitiaries to kill nationalists.

"Hundreds were killed and many more injured and maimed in a campaign of
state-sponsored murder," Mr Adams said, addressing the huge rally at
Belfast City Hall yesterday.

"The families of those who died as a result of a collusion policy have
a right to the truth and, in their pursuit of the truth, deserve the
support of the wider community."

He said the findings of the Stevens Report into the murder of Catholic
solicitor Pat Finucane was the first official recognition of a strategy
of state-sponsored killings.

"What happened? Was there an immediate inquiry? Did governments fall?
Were politicians, former Prime Ministers called to boot? Were those
running these services called to account? No."

He said republicans would continue to pressure Tony Blair to face down
dissidents within the British system who had colluded with unionist
paramilitaries and were now trying to wreck the peace process.

"For a long time this was presented as being spontaneous, a few bad
apples, something that was just a wee bit out of control. "It didn't
just happen under Thatcher, it happened under old Labour governments as
well. But we had an actual strategy of state-sponsored murder. It was
cleared at the very very highest level."

Over ten thousand republicans marched into the city centre yesterday to
hear Mr Adams call for the truth on collusion to be unveiled.

"Hundreds were killed and many more injured and maimed in a campaign of
state-sponsored murder," Mr Adams said.

"The families of those who died as a result of a collusion policy have
a right to the truth and, in their pursuit of the truth, deserve the
support of the wider community."

Mr Adams said that while some people would highlight the fact that the
IRA had killed innocent people during the Troubles, the British
government could not be allowed to escape the responsibility for its
involvement in the murder of its own citizens.

"This issue is not going to go away. We are going to ensure that it
doesn't go away. The hundreds of families whose loved ones were
murdered at the behest of the state deserve justice," he said.

Martin Mallon, whose aunt Roseanne Mallon was shot dead by the
paramilitary UVF at her County Tyrone home in 1994 while a British army
undercover unit hid in nearby bushes, asked why the soldiers were
ordered not to intervene to stop the killing or catch the gunmen.

"To her memory and to us, the bereaved family, we demand to know the
full truth as to why this was allowed to happen," he said.

"We want full accountability about this killing and all the facts to be
laid bare for the world and everyone to see.

"We are often told that the job of the so-called security forces is to
protect life and save life. Like so many others, we know this to be
false. In the murder of Roseanne, they oversaw the killing and let the
killers go."