COPS ‘ARE WAITING FOR MINERS TO DIE’
Strike battle files still concealed
A POLICE force is being accused of “waiting for miners to die” before releasing their files about one of the bloodiest days of the 1984-85 strike.
Campaigners hope South Yorkshire Police’s archives for the Battle of Orgreave could help them in their fight for an inquiry into the clash that led to 93 arrests and 123 people injured.
Many miners believe the force planned a violent confrontation at Orgreave in a bid to break the strike caused by national plans to close 20 pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs.
Six years ago, SYP said it intended to make some 82,000 pages relating to the strike available after a £340,000 project to digitise the files.
It says this process will take another 18 months.
But campaigners including Kevin Horne, 75, of Mexborough, South Yorks, a miner who was arrested at Orgreave, are accusing police of CAMPAIGN Ex-miner Kevin Horne still fights for justice “dragging their heels”. The case against him, like other miners, was dropped because the police evidence was deemed unreliable. He said: “During the trials there were so many lies told by the police. It was a farce.
“I want to see the police files. What were their orders on the day? That document has never been seen, so these police files may reveal that. But I think they are just waiting for us to die.”
Many picketing miners think SYP orchestrated the violence at the coking plant near Rotherham on June 18, 1984.
Mr Horne said: “It was a red-hot day and the police all had overcoats on. “We’d walked straight into a
trap that had been set by the police. We knew we had police dressed up as pickets amongst us.
“The [police] horses charged us. There’s not been many times in my life when I’ve been as scared as that.”
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation found the force had employed similar tactics at Orgreave to those used after the Hillsborough disaster five years later.
It said some officers fabricated and altered their witness statements after arresting picketing miners.
Kate Flannery, of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, told the Mirror: “We do think South Yorkshire Police are dragging their heels but our emphasis is on getting an inquiry. Our argument is with the government and the way they instructed the police to conduct themselves.
“The operational order for the 18th June, 1984, is nowhere to be found. We were told that it was missing. It could be in this paperwork, who knows?
“We want an inquiry because we want people to have the power to get the information.”
Ms Flannery said her group had been told a lot of police papers are under embargo until 2066, which are understood to relate to the Miners’ Strike.
An SYP spokesman said: “It is absolutely our intention to open our archive to the public.
“A small team of people are working to prepare the 1,474 files of material which amount to 82,913 pages. They have archived the materials and are now cataloguing these and ensuring they are aligned with the requirements of GDPR as they will, in some circumstances, include personal information.
“This work is expected to take a further eighteen months.”