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GIBRALTAR
The only investigative local newspaper
olive press Vol. 1 Issue 9
www.gibraltarolivepress.com
January 6th - January 19th 2016
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Flashback! 2015 Round-up Pages 15 - 18 ROLL-CALL: (From left) Leon de Roeck, Jonathan Lutwyche, Elisha Lang, Kaiser Chief’s Ricky Wilson, CM Fabian Picardo and Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill
Flying high LONDON and Gibraltar have been brought closer together after Monarch announced its new Gatwick-Gibraltar route. Starting in May this year, there will be four flights with a total of 1,392 seats between the two airports every week. The new link is expected to bring another 30,000 visitors to the Rock next year. Monarch already flies to three other destinations from Gibraltar - Luton, Manchester and Birmingham. Tourism Minister Samantha Sacramento: “This is exciting news. It serves to strengthen the very strong ties and commitment that Monarch has to the Rock. “All in all, the new services represent an approximate 25% growth for next year.” Flights of fancy. Page 7
Is this the coolest man to ever get a New Year’s honour? Rock stars. Page 11
Controversy after UK government withholds vital 1988 IRA ‘Death on the Rock’ files By Tom Powell
In the dark
CRUCIAL government files on the controversial shooting of three suspected IRA terrorists in Gibraltar in 1988 have been withheld. The files should have been made public through the UK National Archives this week under the recently amended 20 year rule. However, a cabinet spokesman blamed ‘administrative changes’ as a result of decreasing the classified period from 30 to 20 years for a continuing nondisclosure of some documents.
This includes those concerning the operation in which the SAS was deployed to the Rock to prevent an alleged IRA plot to plant a bomb outside the Convent. Three IRA volunteers, Sean Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairead Farrell were shot at the petrol station on Winston Churchill Avenue. Their deaths made major headlines after an ITV documentary titled Death on the Rock suggested they were shot unlawfully without warning.
The documentary, aired a month after the shootings, was slammed by Margaret Thatcher’s government as inaccurate sensationalism at the time. Then Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe had attempted to postpone the airing of the programme twice to no avail. A year ago, the UK Cabinet Office released 500 files from 1985 and 1986. This year, just 58 files covering the period 1986-88 have been made
Death on the Rock THE SAS shootings provoked huge controversy at the time. The IRA volunteers were reported to have planted a 500 pound bomb in a car near No6 Convent Place, ready to detonate during the changing of the guard ceremony. All three were shot as they walked towards Spain on Winston Churchill Avenue, with officers claiming they were acting suspiciously and thus believed their lives were in danger. However, within 24 hours it was revealed there had been no car bomb and that all three had been unarmed when shot. A car apparently connected to them was found two days later in Marbella, containing explosives. But despite an inquest ruling all three had been lawfully killed, the European Court of Justice ruled in 1995 that the SAS soldiers had violated their fundamental right to life.
KILLED: IRA members McCann, Farrell and Savage (from left)
public by the National Archives. Another significant omission is the Lockerbie bombing, a terrorist attack on a plane above Scotland in which 270 people were killed. Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover described the holding back of government files as ‘profoundly unsatisfactory’. “We are not told how many files have been held back, or why, and are given no timetable as to when they will be published,” he said. “Instead of greater transparency, there is confusion and apparent obfuscation. It is very difficult to believe this is not deliberate,” he added. It comes as a UK government commission is investigating changing the Freedom of Information Act. The legislation, introduced by Tony Blair although later described as his ‘biggest regret’, allows journalists or any member of the public access to information held by public authorities. The commision has been widely criticised in the press as an attack on transparency. Meanwhile, government files which were declassified have revealed that Thatcher feared Spain would invade Gibraltar during the Falklands War and even sent RAF back-up to the Rock. Thatcher feared Gib invasion. Page 4
CONTROVERSIAL: The SAS shot the trio on Winston Churchill Avenue
Opinion. Page 6