N. Ireland Police Seek Help

Northern Ireland's police chief called for help from England and the United States on Tuesday to investigate Monday's killing of a Catholic attorney who had alleged she was threatened by local officers.

In Washington, Irish and British political leaders condemned the murder of Rosemary Nelson, the latest threat to Northern Ireland's tenuous peace accord. The politicians are in town for a series of St. Patrick's Day meetings Wednesday between President Clinton and representatives of all eight parties who agreed to the Northern Ireland peace accord last April.

Mrs. Nelson, 40, died Monday, two hours after a bomb blew apart her car as she drove away from her home in Lurgan, 30 miles southwest of Belfast. An anti-Catholic terror group calling itself the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility.

Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews said the car bomb was "very clearly designed to sabotage the peace process at this very critical time."

"Those who killed Rosemary Nelson did so because they thought it would destroy the Good Friday agreement," said British Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, who called Mrs. Nelson "a brave woman who stood up for what she believed in."

White House press secretary Joe Lockhart read a statement from Clinton, calling the bombing "a despicable and cowardly act by the enemies of peace.''

The funeral for Mrs. Nelson, who had three young children, was scheduled for Thursday in Lurgan.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the chief of police in Northern Ireland, asked David Phillips, the chief constable in England's Kent County, to head the investigation. Flanagan also sought help from the FBI.

"It is important that we give this investigation a totally independent direction and that it is given an international dimension as well," Flanagan said.

A senior Scotland Yard officer recently completed an investigation into Mrs. Nelson's complaint that officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police force, had threatened her. She said some officers had accused her of being a terrorist and of being sexually involved with her clients.

The results of the investigation have not been disclosed.

Mrs. Nelson represented a Catholic man, Colin Duffy, in his successful appeal after he was convicted of murdering a soldier. She represented Duffy again when he was charged with murdering two police officers in Lurgan in 1997, but those charges were dropped.

She served as the attorney for the family of Robert Hamill, a Catholic who was beaten to death by Protestant loyalists in 1997. The family was considering legal action against the police, alleging they failed to come to Hamill's assistance.

Mrs. Nelson also advised Catholic residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, the focus of a long-running and bitter confrontation with the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organization that has insisted on marching down the rod.

David Trimble, the Protestant politician who has been designated to head the new Northern Ireland government, said the use of a sophisticated booby-trap bomb suggested the involvement of mainstream paramilitary groups, which are officially observing a cease-fire.

Trimble is among those coming to the White House, as well as Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Seamus Mallon, the Catholic deputy of the new government.

"The president will use the St. Patrick's Day celebration and the gathering of Northern Ireland leaders here in Washington on Wednesday to reiterate the importance of moving forward," Lockhart, said.