Calls for FRU activities to be investigated

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has called for a full public enquiry into the activities of the Force Research Unit (FRU).

Mr Durkan made the call following this week's Stakeknife agent allegations in which a well-known republican, Freddie Scappaticci, was accused of being an IRA informer. A claim strenuously denied by Mr Scappaticci.

Commenting on the latest turn of events, Mr Durkan said: “People will be deeply confused at this latest turn of events. However the issue is not so much who Stakeknife is, but who his victims were and what he did. This week's events in no way detract from the need for a full public inquiry in the activities of the FRU."

The latest revelations to come out of the Stakeknife allegations saw Mr Scappaticci speaking to the BBC at his solicitor's office in Belfast on Wednesday despite media reports that he had fled the country.

Denying the allegations against him, Mr Scappaticci told the BBC he had not received any advance warning of the allegations made against him in several Sunday newspapers.

"I am sitting here today with my solicitor and I am telling you I am not guilty of any of these allegations. I have not left Northern Ireland since I was challenged by reporters on Saturday night.

"Nobody has had the decency to ask me if any of these allegations were true and why the police had not come to question me about these allegations."

Mr Scappaticci said he did not know why the allegations had been made and claimed he had not been actively involved in the republican movement for the past 13 years."

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty has claimed that the British army is still engaged in a war with republicans. He said: "These allegations, speculation and disinformation come on the back of the Stevens Inquiry and revelations from the UVF and Michael Stone that loyalist death squads were manipulated and directed by FRU and the Special Branch.

"The activities of these faceless securocrats must be subjected to full scrutiny. We need to see a full independent judicial inquiry into the activities of the Special Branch and British Military Intelligence. Clearly the war is not over for British Intelligence Agencies. Their activities continue unchanged."

(MB)