Family Seeks To Enlist Political Support For Their Campaign
May 25th, 2009
At a public meeting in Lurgan on Wednesday May 6th, it was announced that, as part of the campaign to highlight and expose the injustice surrounding Colin's imprisonment, the family would be formally writing to those candidates in the EU election who will be seeking votes from within the nationalist and republican community, asking them to formally and fully endorse the campaign for Colin’s immediate and unconditional release and to state their unequivocal opposition to prolonged detentions.
On May 21st, the family wrote to both the two SDLP and Sinn Féin candidates in the EU election and have included a statement which they are asking those candidates to issue publicly.
Colin's family have also asked both candidates to respond to them by May 30th indicating if they will endorse the family's campaign for justice.
It was also announced at the May 6th meeting that the family would be contacting all councillors who represent nationalist and republican communities across the North asking them to support our family’s campaign and to support the following motion in each one of their councils.
Subsequently, over 220 letters have been sent to individual councillors who represent nationalist and republican communities. Included in those letters is the text of a motion which the family has requested to be introduced and adopted in local councils.
The wording of that motion which the family have asked those councillors to support reads:
This council fully shares the concerns expressed by the family of Colin Duffy that his arrest and present imprisonment is unjust;
This council views Colin Duffy’s arrest and imprisonment to be part of a continuing and extensive campaign of persecution by British state forces which has previously included the use of murder, proven collusion between those same forces with unionist death-squads and the proven use by state forces of fabricated false evidence against Colin Duffy;
This council calls for Colin Duffy’s immediate and unconditional release; and,
This council condemns the use of legislation which permits the use of prolonged detention for periods of up to 28 and which is the most draconian of its type anywhere in the EU and other western democracies.