Official
British crimes in
Northern Ireland mean it's
difficult to close the book
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
August 10, 2005
LONDON - Didn't somebody once say
that it's not over until the fat lady sings? Never was
this more apposite than when applied to Northern Ireland.
Despite their recent pledge to renounce the armed
struggle the IRA is not going to just fade away. Neither
will the protestant militias. And certainly not, despite
ill health, will the rabid, protestant preacher, Ian
Paisley, of whom it was recently said, "He is no more
representative of Christianity than Osama bin Laden is of
Islam". He has his son in waiting, just as the IRA will
still have access to fertiliser, just as soon as they
feel they are not getting their due. The extremists are
doing better than they have ever done at the polls, and
the province, once the safest place in Europe to bring up
a teenage daughter, now appears to have an unfailing
ability to produce a steady supply of street
thugs.
Most serious of all, perhaps, are
the skeletons that are slowly but steadily walking out of
the British government's closet. This summer was supposed
to see the publication of long judicial inquiry into the
events of 33 years ago when British paratroopers opened
fire on a crowd of non-violent catholic protestors,
killing thirteen. Known as the events of "Bloody Sunday",
the truth, by all accounts, is going to be devastating.
But the report has been delayed.
Then there is to be another
recently announced inquiry, arguably with an even more
explosive content than the 'Bloody Sunday' one. It
concerns the murder of the catholic civil rights lawyer,
Patrick Finucane. A loyalist, armed group, killed him in
February 1989. The evidence to be considered by the
judges seems damning- that army intelligence worked had
in hand with protestant militias to murder suspected
members and sympathisers of catholic armed groups.
However, the family of Finucane and human rights
organizations are now saying they will not cooperate with
this inquiry as it is not going to be truly independent-
under new legislation, governing official inquiries,
state actions can be shielded from scrutiny.
This is consistent with previous
government attitudes. In 1984 John Stalker, a senior
British police officer, was officially appointed to
investigate a series of supposed cover-ups. Stalker
alleged he was obstructed from carrying out a full
investigation. Before he could complete his work he was
moved from duty. He was later to state that that he had
uncovered new evidence of unlawful killings by the
police. However because of 'national security' and
'public interest' considerations no officers were
prosecuted.
There were many subsequent such
killings. In 1988 soldiers publicly killed three unarmed
people in Gibralter. When Amnesty International called
for an inquiry Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher accused
the organization of being 'IRA apologists'. Finally in
1995 the European Court of European Rights declared that
the killings by the British army were
unlawful.
In February 1985, three IRA men
were killed by the Special Air Services (SAS- the army's
elite regiment) while returning weapons to a cache. At
the inquest it was stated than an army patrol had
encountered the armed men in a field and had only opened
fire after the men had pointed guns at them. Yet a
pathologist testified that one of them had been hit by 28
bullets, most of them fired whilst they lay on the
ground. Moreover, all three had a single gunshot wound to
the head, suggesting they had been cold-bloodily
'finished off'.
The torture, brutality and other
subterranean practices carried out by the army, police
and secret services cannot be compared with that
inflicted by their counterparts in, say, Chile or
Guatemala. Nevertheless, by the self-imposed standards of
a long-standing mature state, it has been a serious
falling short. Human rights standards are not meant for
periods of harmony in a society, but for situations of
conflict and stress in a body politic. In this light,
successive British governments ignored the gospel they
regularly preach to the outside world. How could a
country that prided itself on its notions of liberality
subvert the law and undermine the worldwide raising of
standards it is always intent on promoting?
One chapter closes. Another opens.
Now Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has done much to bring
peace to Northern Ireland, is talking about amending
British adherence to European human rights law in the
light of the recent bombings in London by Islamic
militants. Will the British government now go down the
road of provoking and feeding the paranoia of Islamists
just as it did the catholics of Northern Ireland for so
long? Are no lessons being learnt? No wonder the fat lady
daren't sing.
Copyright © 2005 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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