Sir, - As Irish citizens with an absolute right not only to good government but to take part in government we make the following points:
1. Any investigation into the death of Ms Rosemary Nelson and into other atrocities committed by those who oppose the creation of good government will be useless unless the investigators have these two priorities:
To break the wall of silence which has been part of the RUC ethos since before the military conflict started in the early 1970s;
To find and go to the heart of a conspiracy which has cost the lives, homes and happiness of so many people - a conspiracy that will not be broken by the arrest and imprisonment of a few scapegoats from the miserable corners where the operators work, but only when it is admitted that some people are involved who have a veneer of respectability and enough money and status to enable them to work effectively, secretly and destructively.
2. The book entitled The Committee is deeply disturbing. That the accusations contained in it should have been left uninvestigated by the two governments is shameful. Unless and until a competent investigation examines these accusations, as well as the still unsolved acts of destruction in Dublin, Monaghan and elsewhere and goes to the heart of groups and organisations responsible, any investigation into the RUC will be worse than useless because it will give the impression that something useful is being done when in fact what is being done could not possibly have any real effect. We are not interested in seeing a few scapegoats put in prison. We are interested in removing once and for all a political and moral cancer that has been not only allowed but encouraged to grow. - Yours, etc., Noelle Ryan, Desmond Wilson, Elsie Best, for a group of concerned citizens,
Springhill Close, Belfast 12.