THE FATHER of a Belfast man murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997 took his campaign to bring the killers to justice to Capitol Hill yesterday.
Raymond McCord (55) told a House of Representatives subcommittee that he believed there was collusion between the security forces and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in the killing of his son, Raymond Jr.
Mr McCord alleges that a leading loyalist, who is said to have worked as an informer for the RUC’s Special Branch during the Troubles, ordered the killing.
Mr McCord has consistently demanded to know why no one has been charged with the murder of his son.
In his testimony to the House Subcommittee on International Organisations, Human Rights and Oversight, he claimed: “The British government – my government – and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – my police – have blocked and stonewalled me. They have colluded and are still colluding with the killers of my son and many other victims.”
The PSNI press office said they had no statement to make on Mr McCord’s testimony.
Mr McCord expressed the hope that “the US Congress will hear my voice and take up my cause”.
After the hearing, he said: “It’s imperative that pressure is put on the British government, when they are trying to sweep this under the carpet.” He added that he was very happy with how his testimony had been received. “The members gave me a lot of confidence in the way they spoke,” he said.
Fr Seán McManus, the president of the US-based Irish National Caucus and a key supporter of Mr McCord, said Democratic congressman Richie Neal would send a letter to British prime minister Gordon Brown asking him to meet Mr McCord.
Mr Neal had committed to asking his fellow members of Congress to co-sign the letter, Fr McManus added.
Among the subcommittee’s members are Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican who made a quixotic bid for his party’s presidential nomination last year, and Congressman Donald Payne, a New Jersey Democrat who has long displayed a high level of interest in the North.
At the opening of the hearing, Mr Payne said, “We are not here today to reopen old wounds but rather to support Raymond McCord in his search for justice.” Finding out the truth about the killing, he said, was “an important step towards moving forward.”
Mr McCord’s son was beaten to death in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast. Mr McCord, a Protestant, has been increasingly vocal about the lack of support he feels he has received from unionist politicians.
“Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, and Mark Durkan, SDLP leader, were the only two political leaders who helped,” his written testimony to the subcommittee stated. “The Unionist politicians were in denial, refusing to admit collusion, and they simply wanted me to go away.”
Fr McManus asserted that Mr McCord was the first Northern Protestant to testify before the US Congress in support of collusion allegations.