This report, the latest compiled by RFJ, focuses on the killings of three men by the British state in Tyrone in August 1988. Brothers Gerard and Martin Harte and Brian Mullin, were shot to death in a pre-ordained and coordinated exercise with the SAS at its core. It is clear the three men were killed as part of a shoot-to-kill policy concentrated in the Tyrone area in what was a targeted ambush. The ambush was not, as the state claimed, “to try and effect an arrest”.
It is also clear this strategy of shoot-to-kill was authorised at the highest level involving the British prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher. The pain felt by those close to the three men was accentuated by the RUC’s behaviour – particularly by the manner in which they conducted themselves at the subsequent funerals.
This report lays out in some detail the historical and contemporary context in which the killings occurred. It provides available details from a variety of sources as to what happened on 30th August 1988. It describes how the funerals were policed by the RUC at the time causing physical injury and offence to members of the families and local communities. It also raises a series of fundamental questions that have yet to be answered by the British state.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this report records the esteem Gerard, Martin and Brian were, and are held by members of their respective families and their local communities. As the report concludes, “There are many questions that need answers, but ultimately this is a testimony to three people who can be defined by all they did, personally, socially and politically in their relatively short lives.
