Donna Carton, Sunday Mirror 14 September 2003
German politicians have said the soldier killers of teenager Peter McBride are not welcome in their country.
They plan to contact the British government to object to the presence of convicted murderers Mark Wright and James Fisher who are with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards based in Munster.
The former Scots Guards were convicted in 1995 for shooting Peter McBride, 18, twice in the back near his home in the nationalist New Lodge area of north Belfast.
While they were chasing the teenager the officer in charge was heard to order "don't shoot". The pair told the court they opened fire because they believed that McBride was carrying a bomb. But witnesses said the teenager had already been searched.
Fisher and Wright were released from prison in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and were admitted back into the army.
The family of the dead man, the broader nationalist community and politicians in Northern Ireland were furious and a campaign to have the men thrown out of the army has been gaining momentum.
Now the two squaddies will come under the spotlight in Germany, as they return to Munster following leave this week.
Mp for the area Winni Nachtwei, of the Green Party, has told campaigners he supports their bid to have the pair dismissed from the army. Mr Nachtwei said other politicians in the region back his stance.
The Socialist Democratic party (SPD) are also backing campaigners here and will join the Greens in lobbying the government and Ministry of Defence.
Paul O'Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre, which campaigns for the dismissal of the soldiers, said: "We met Mr Nachtwei last year and he was very concerned about the presence of these convicted killers who are in the armed forces based in Germany.
"If they were over there on holiday that would be different but they are armed soldiers with murder convictions. He and others expressed their concerns and, following the recent High Court ruling, they will make those concerns public within the next few weeks. This will add to the pressure on the MoD to get rid of these men from the British army."
Mo Mowlam, secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 1998, promised the McBride family that Fisher and Wright would not be among the first wave of prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement.
However, just two months later the two soldiers were released without warning.
A number of prominent politicians campaigned for their reinstatement and in 1998 a British army review board ruled that Wright and Fisher could continue as soldiers because of "exceptional circumstances".
Peter's sister Kelly is to stand in a London by-election to publicise her family's campaign.