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(Andrea McKernon, Irelandclick.com)

The sister of the first case of the British "shoot-to-kill" policy has rubbished a £30 million pledge from the British government to investigate "cold case" murders.

The money is to go to the PSNI's Serious Crime Review team with a "small" number of police to be seconded from outside police forces.

Geraldine Keenan's brother Dinny Brown was one of three men shot dead by the SAS and Special Branch while on active service at Ballysillan in June 1978.

And despite claims that 300 state murders would be investigated she said the families had "no hope" of getting any acknowledgement their loved ones were murdered if the PSNI is involved.

Dinny Brown, 28, Jackie Mailey, 30, and Jim Mulvenna, 28, were engaged in bombing Ballysillan telecommunications base when they were ambushed by the security forces who had been given information that the attack was going to happen.

Papers that were kept from their original inquests revealed that all three IRA volunteers could have been arrested.

They were unarmed, surrounded, had their hands behind their backs and were lying face down when they were shot and killed.

Reports at the time said they had been killed during a shoot out, but in 2003, the families began legal action to have documents that were not disclosed at any of the IRA men's inquests disclosed.

"Those papers revealed the men had been shot whilst lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

"They were unarmed and had 180 bullets pumped into their bodies.

"For the last two years since we got these documents my mother, who is 76, has said that all she ever, ever wanted was the people who killed Dinny to admit it was murder," she said.

"These men were unarmed, they had no guns, they were there to bomb a communications post," she said.

William Hanna, a protestant passer by, was killed in the hail of fire that killed the three men.

"William Hanna was killed by three bullets, compared to the 180 that killed Dinny, Jim and Jackie. That shows it was cold blooded murder."

The victim's sister who was the eldest of five children said the families had "been blocked at every turn", to find out the truth of what happened the night their loved ones were shot.

"There's no hope, not if the PSNI is involved in anything to do with these so-called cold cases.

"Families in our situation won't get any satisfaction when we've been blocked in every direction to get the truth and disclosure of documents.

"They could have been taken prisoner that night.

"We want the British government to admit that this was cold blooded murder, but they'll never stand up and admit what they did in Ireland."

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on 11, 2005.