Former Police Chief Issues Warning on Dissidents
Governments Warned to Take Threat More Seriously
Nov 12, 2009
The British and Irish governments must take the threat from dissident republicans more seriously, and increase their co-operation, if an attack comparable to the 1998 Omagh bombing is to be avoided in future, according to senior former RUC and PSNI officer Norman Baxter.
He made his comments while addressing the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in the House of Commons.
BBC News reported that, according to Mr Baxter, the two governments were not addressing the threat with sufficient seriousness and were leaving the border areas "exposed".
Omagh Bomb
He also referred to intelligence failures prior to the Omagh bombing of 1998 by the Real IRA but stopped short of saying the attack could have been prevented.
He said intelligence relating to earlier Real IRA attacks was not acted on in a way that could have led to the Omagh bombers being caught prior to the attack on the Tyrone town on Aug. 15, 1998.
"Omagh was the last in a series of incidents dating into the middle of the 1990s, the middle of 1997, and so there was a long lead-in to the Omagh explosion," he argued.
"At each one of those terrorist incidents there was a point of intervention which could have disrupted this terror gang," he added.
This is a reference to earlier bomb attacks on Markethill, Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Lisburn and Banbridge.
Free Reign
According to BBC News, Mr Baxter said,
"These bombers had free reign from the middle of 1997 (when the Real IRA was formed following a split within the Provisional IRA) and the authorities allowed that to continue."
No Convictions
Nobody has as yet been convicted in connection to the Omagh bomb.
The Real IRA, along with other dissident groups the Continuity IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann, remains active and is not on ceasefire. A report by the Independent Monitoring Commission last week said the threat from such groups was at its highest level in over six years.
Trial
In December 1997 the only man to be charged in relation to the Omagh bomb was acquitted at Belfast Crown Court.
The judge at the trial was extremely critical of the police handling of the investigation.
Increased Threat
2009 has seen a marked increase in the threat from the Real IRA. In March they killed two British soldiers in Antrim. August saw an armed Real IRA unit effectively take temporary control of the South Armagh village of Meigh while in September a 600lb bomb was defused prior to detonation at Forkhill in South Armagh.
Sources: BBC News
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