Conflict north-Irish

the conflict north-Irish is the history of tensions in Northern Ireland.

Historical backgrounds

An old wound

It is at the 12th century that the king of England Henri II conquers the Ireland. This conquest is very badly accepted by the Irishmen who set up a homogeneous group from an ethnic point of view, historical, linguistic, but so cultural and political. Indeed, the Irishmen are Celte S, speak Irish and did not know the Roman occupation.

Starting from the reign of Henri VIII of England, the Protestant Réforme is extended to Ireland in 1541 thus giving to the English occupation a religious dimension, the Irishmen massively remaining faithful to Rome.

In 1649, the English and republican troops of Oliver Cromwell invade Ireland remained faithful to the Dynastie of Stuart. Half of the population is massacred or off-set in the the Antilles. 170.000 Protestant colonists settle on the island and confiscate most of the grounds.

At the time of the Glorious Revolution, taking the party of the catholic king Jacques II Stuart at the end of the 17th century against the Protestant applicant William of Orange (William III), the Irishmen is raised, but is beaten with the Bataille of Boyne the July 12th 1690. The Irish nobility is pursued and its confiscated goods. The grounds are also confiscated, 97% of the Irish ground pertaining from now on to the Protestant colonists. Lastly, the Irishmen see themselves withdrawing all civil laws and monk. In 1782 however, the legislation anti-catholic is softened and an Irish Parliament, however largely controlled by the Protestants, is instituted.

The political alarm clock

But, in 1798, the unloading of a small French task force charged “to export the Revolution” involves a new Irish rising. After a Franco-Irish victory over the British troops (Battle of Castlebar August 27th, 1798) and the proclamation of the Republic of Connaught (August 31st, 1798), the insurrectionists are finally overcome and constrained with the capitulation (September 9th, 1798).

The Union Act, adopted in 1800, devotes the union of the United Kingdom and Ireland with like consequence the suppression of the Irish Parliament and the incipient political autonomy.

In addition to a series of fallen through military risings, the Irish history at the 19th century is marked by three great political initiatives and a great tragedy.

In 1823, Daniel O' Connell founds the Catholic Association which obtains in 1829 the lifting of last anti-catholics measurements and in 1869 the end of the privileges granted hitherto to the Church Anglican of Ireland.

In 1849, O' Mahoney founds the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB - Republican Fraternity Irish), ancestor of WILL GO, and first modern organization to fight, including by violence, in favor of independence.

Of 1846 with 1850, Ireland undergoes the most dramatic famine of its history, due to a disease of potato and the land mode (the clauses of the Home Rule will contain an agrarian reform proposal), involving between 700.000 and 1.500.000 dead and a massive emigration from 800.000 to 1.300.000 people.

In 1870 appears finally the movement of the Rule Home, in favor of autonomy, soon directed by the liberal Protestant Charles Stewart Parnell. The project of autonomy is finally voted by the House of Commons in 1912, but is rejected by the House of Lords. This vote precipitates the toughening of the Protestants of the north (Ulster) which, under the slogan “Rule Home, Rome Rule” create a paramilitary organization, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF - Force of the Volunteers of Ulster) to defend their unionistic opinions (maintenance of the union with the United Kingdom).

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1905, a new political party, promised with a bright future, is founded by Arthur Griffith: the Sinn Féin (SF - Us Only).

Walk towards independence

In 1914, nearly 20.000 Irishmen, Catholics and Protestants, engage like volunteers to fight during the First World War.

The passage to the Rule Home having been deferred sine die because of the conflict, the extremists of the Irish cause remained with the country is impatientent and obtains, on the model of the Protestant UVF, groups of engagements. The IRB becomes the armed wing of Sinn Féin, the League Gaelic founds the Irish Volunteers and the Socialist Républicain small part creates Irish Citizen Army (ICA).

The Easter Monday 1916 (April 24th), these three groups which, after orders and counter-orders, finally joined together only a one small thousand of combatants, proclaim the Irish République and launch an insurrection to Dublin, the bloody Easter. Victims of the indifference even of the hostility of the population which does not include/understand their action, often comparable with a treason since the war continues on the continent of Europe, crushed by higher British forces as men and materials, the insurrectionists capitulate at the end of one week (Assessment: 300 killed civilians, 132 soldiers and 76 insurgent).

But the awkward repression which follows will turn over the Irish opinion in their favor. The British authorities proceed to more than 2.500 often arbitrary arrests and pronounce 90 death sentences of which that of the poet Padraig Pearse and the socialist leader James Connolly carried out on his wheelchair.

In December 1918, Sinn Féin, become the political federator of the Irish cause obtains 73 seats out of 105 with the elections, the remaining seats being distributed between a handle of independent and a compact mass the unionistic ones of Ulster. Éamon de Valera proclaims the independence of the island in January 1919 against the opinion of the British authorities which prohibit Sinn Féin and dissolve the Irish Parliament, the Dail Eireann.

At this point in time under the control of Michael Collins is created the Irish Republican Army (- Irish Republican Army WILL GO), fusion of the IRB, the ICA and the IVF. A war of fatal independence is held until in 1921, date on which the British government proposes to divide the island in two: six counties of the North-East, mainly Protestants and unionistic, remainder linked with the British crown, 26 counties of the south and the west forming an independent state on the Canadian or Australian model. The reconstituted Irish Parliament approves the terms of the treaty by 64 votes against 57, while new elections, in 1922, give 92 seats to the partisans of the treaty against 36 with the intransigent republicans anti-treaty.

The germ of the future problems

The ratification of the treaty involves a civil war between the moderate ones of WILL GO, in favor of the treaty and thus of the partition of the island, to which belongbelong Michael Collins, the military hero of the war of independence, and Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Féin, and them until - boutists of WILL GO directed by Éamon de Valera, the political leader of independence.

After 9 months of civil war and nearly 4.000 died, Eamon de Valera, overcome, deposits the weapons. Ireland is officially cut into two. The free State of Ireland will abolish the oath of allegiance to the British Crown in 1933 and will leave the the Commonwealth in 1949. Ulster will be directed by a governor imposed by the British government until in 1972 before profiting from a direct administration (Parliament of Northern Ireland) under the supervision of a Secretary of State.

The return of violence

Ulster in the storm

The conflict north-Irish will start in an alleviating way. At the end of the years 1960, a peaceful movement in favor of the equality and the civic rights for the catholics is born within the young catholics resulting from the middle-class. Carried out in particular by Bernadette Devlin, they organize steps and sit-ins. In August 1968, one of their peaceful gathering with Londonderry (" Derry" for the Republicans) is violently attacked by the Irish northern police force, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), composed to 90% of Protestants. During all of autumn 1968, the catholic demonstrators are thus victims of violence and of attacks on behalf of the police force, but also of Protestant groups like Orange Order (OO - Orange Order) or the UVF.

In the current of spring 1969, burst the first attacks, mainly work of the Protestant paramilitaries of the UVF which intends to terrorize the catholic population which continues her demonstrations for the civic rights. During the summer, and in front of the deterioration of the situation, the Prime Minister of Ulster calls upon the special units of the RUC, the B. Specials, of which many members are related to the Protestant paramilitaries. The August 12th 1969, a catholic demonstration is repressed hard with Londonderry. Cut off in the district from Bogside, the catholics undergo the attack of B. Specials of the RUC which is pushed back: but one counts 8 dead and several hundreds of casualties. The catholic districts are raised while the Protestants pass to the attack catholic districts: the August 16th in Belfast, 150 houses are set fire to, 8 catholics are killed and 300 others wounded. The August 20th 1969, the British government decides to send the army to restore the calm one. The tension however remains sharp and WILL SUIT it, in sleep since years, makes its reappearance. The January 30th 1972, the British army opens fire on a catholic demonstration. There is 14 died in this Bloody Sunday. July 21st, WILL SUIT it counterpart by a Bloody Friday: 22 bombs explode in Belfast making 16 dead. Northern Ireland is inserted in the war.

The August 27th 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin of the queen and last viceroy of the Indies is killed in the explosion of its boat, trapped by the WILL GO.

The period will be in particular marked in 1981 by the hunger strikes of catholic prisoners wishing to obtain the statute of political prisoners; ten of them will die about it in front of the intransigence of Margaret Thatcher, whose Bobby Sands, member of WILL GO and elected appointed Sinn Féin of Belfast-West since its prison. Besides this election marks a turning in the north-Irish political life since Sinn Féin, hitherto absent from the elections, proves its representativeness thus.

In October 1984, a bomb posed by WILL GO explodes with the Large Hotel of Brighton, where annual convention is held of the conservative party not far from the " ram fer" and several members of his government.

The slow resolution of the conflict

The March 20th 1993, WILL SUIT it is responsible for an bomb attack with Warrington, the Mother's Day day before, whereas tens of children are in the streets in the search of a gift. Two children are killed, Jonathan Ball (3ans) and Tim Parry (12ans). As from this moment the Republican army loses its statute of defender of oppressed (that it had acquired after Bloody Sunday) and becomes for the public opinion (catholics like the Protestants) a cruel terrorist organization. Consequently it loses a great number of its supports and its legitimacy. Under the pressure of the President Clinton, declares a first cease-fire in 1994 WILL SUIT it, which makes it possible to the various political actors to engage of the discussions. But this trève had not been followed of a disarmament, and in 1996 an attack occurs with Docklands (London) slowing down the political process.

It is necessary to wait the year 1998 to see to start a durable peace process although fragile. The April 10th, a agreement known as “of the Good Friday” (Good Friday Agreement) is signed by eight political parties whose principal party unionistic extremist Democratic Ulster Party (DUP) and the political branches of WILL GO, Sinn Féin, thanks to the American mediation of George Mitchell. The agreement relates in particular to the election of an local assembly and one cease fire, follow-up of a disarmament of the majority of the paramilitary organizations. The Irish people massively approved the signature of the agreement by referendum (74% of YES in and 94% Northern Ireland in Irish Republic). This agreement was however denounced by a dissenting fraction of Sinn Féin appeared in 1986, Republican Sinn Féin, as by certain extremists of WILL GO who continue the armed struggle under the initials WAXED (Continuity WILL GO). Protesting side, the paramilitaries of Loyalist Volunteer Forces (LVF - Force of the Volunteers Loyal supporters) or of Red Hand Defenders (RHD - Defenders of the Red Hand) they also refused to disarm, just like the majority of the other Protestant paramilitary small groups.

These efforts were encouraged by the International community through the attribution of the Nobel Prize of peace 1998 to the two leaders of the democratic parties north-Irish opposite signatories: John Hume for Social Democratic and Ploughing Party (Republican) and David Trimble for Ulster Unonist Party (Unionistic).

The February 11th 2000 mark the first suspension of the institutions. The Protestants ask for the disarmament of WILL GO.

But this agreement remains fragile, as show it the elections with the Parliament North-Irish the November 27th 2003 of which the winners are on the one hand the DUP (25,6%) and on the other hand Sinn Féin (23,5%), i.e. the respective spokespersons of the parties more the extremists of each community. Generally violence remains larval and the main actors of the conflict remain on the defensive. The peace process is at the thank you of the least political or military skid.

Nevertheless, the July 28th 2005, WILL SUIT it demounting the weapons and gives up the armed struggle. In an official press release, the organization informs that she asked her members to fight for the reunification of Ireland and the end of the British supervision on Northern Ireland by average policies. However, since WILL SUIT it was a secret organization, the process of disarmament is announced precarious because in spite of measurements of amnesty, it never will be certain that all the weapons will have been returned. Only the time and the maintenance of the will to solve the conflict peacefully will be able to put a final term at violence.

The Prime Ministers British and Irish start again the peace process at Saint Andrews (Scotland), the October 13rd 2006.

The January 28th 2007, Sinn Féin, after a vote of its militants with 90%, announced to recognize the legitimacy of the police force and the north-Irish Justice. This decision could make it possible to conclude the peace process launched by the agreements of the Good Friday from 1998. The application of these agreements, which envisaged a division of the capacity between the two communities, is suspended since 2002. Great Britain dissolved Tuesday January 30th 2007, the Parliament of Northern Ireland, thus opening the way with new elections to arrive to a division of the capacity in the province. Those took place the March 7th 2007, and were again gained by DUP and the Sinn Fein. The democratic unionistic Party of Ian Paisley gained 36 of the 108 seats of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (+ 6 seats compared to 2003). Sinn Fein de Gerry Adams holds 28 seats (+4). The moderate formations of each camp dropped: 18 elected officials among Protestants and to 16 among catholics. The Great Britain and the Ireland exhorted each camp to be agreed on a division of the capacity. " the message of the electorate is clear " , declared in a joint communiqué British the Prime Minister, Irish Tony Blair, and his counterpart, Bertie Ahern. That also added: " We made jumps of giant in the past, today one needs that the DUP makes some another, in particular while joining to the nationalists within the government ". Monday March 26th 2007, the leaders of the two majority parties got along on a division of the capacity starting from May 8th, 2007.

Peter Hain, the British minister in Northern Ireland signed Monday May 7th 2007 the Décret allowing the formation of an semi-autonomous government of Northern Ireland, managed previously by London. The reverend Paisley who directs the democratic unionistic Party (DUP) and Martin McGuinness, number two of Sinn Féin lent oath Tuesday May 8th 2007 to become respectively new the Prime Minister north-Irish and the Deputy Prime Minister. The Prime Ministers British Tony Blair and Irish Bertie Ahern attended the ceremony with Stormont, the seat of the regional assembly - a vast white palate formerly symbol of the capacity Protesting.

Political principal parties north-Irish

Unionistic parties

- Democratic Unionist Party ( DUP - Left unionistic democrat): Founded and directed by Pasteur Ian Paisley, this party represents the Protestants extremists. Why the democratic word? Because the Protestants being majority in Ulster, the play of the democracy must normally favor them. Its speech violates and tinted demagogy a broad audience within Protestant popular environments is worth to him. The DUP definitively settled like the first party of Northern Ireland at the time of the general elections of 2005.

- Progressive Unionist Party ( PUP - Unionistic Party Progressist): This small part protesting extremist profits from a relatively reduced electoral audience (1,2% in 2003) with however a strong establishment in Belfast. The PUP is very close to the paramilitaries of the UVF. Its electoral weight is limited to 1 seat within the north-Irish Parliament and to 4 Advisers of District.

- United Kingdom Unionist Party ( UKUP - Unionistic Party of the United Kingdom): This small part born in 1996 of a radical scission of the UUP is unconditional maintenance of Ulster within British Monarchy. Electorally weak, it has only of one seat within the north-Irish Parliament and two Advisers of District. Its leaders seem related to the paramilitaries of the LVF.

- Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP - Left unionistic Ulster): It is about the oldest unionistic party (founded in 1905), gathering the moderate Protestants. It broke any bond with the paramilitary groups and its leader, David Trimble, is at the origin of the opening of the peace process. Although electorally powerful (22,7% in 2003), it has great difficulty to compete with the extremists of the DUP. The UUP has 24 seats within the north-Irish Parliament, of 154 Advisers of District, a deputy and a European member of Parliament.

Apart from these representative Protestant parties, there exists a myriad of bunches, like the Ulster Nation ( a ), the United Unionist Coalition ( UUC ) or the Northern Ireland Unionist Party ( NIUP ) whose cumulated electoral results turn around 1% of the voices (with a handle of Advisers of District) and who are only political frontages of paramilitary small groups.

It is advisable to add to this paragraph the Orange Order ( OO - Orange Order). Organized in the shape of a maconnic cabin, this movement refers to the king protesting William of Orange. Extremely from 80.000 to 100.000 members, it feeds out of frameworks and militants the near total of the Protestant political parties. Its public parades, celebrating the defeat of the Catholics and Jacques II Stuart with Boyne (1690), are as many provocations which degenerate each year in confrontations with the Catholics.

Republican parties

- Sinn Féin ( SF - Us Only): Historical party of the fight for the independence and the unit of Ireland, indissociable from WILL GO from which it constitutes the political branches, the SF was well dying man at the beginning of the conflict north-Irish. In 1970, it bursts in two distinct groups, the Official Sinn Féin ( O-SF ), of Marxist tendency and privileging the social struggles, and the Provisonnal Sinn Féin ( P-SF ), privileging the national and identity fight. The O-SF disappeared in 1982 to become a revolutionary party multiconfessionnel, the Workers Party (Left the Workers).

After years of fights, Sinn Féin (“provisionnal”) accepted, under the impulse of its leader, Gerry Adams, to sign the peace agreements of 1998, indispensable condition to their application. But that was not taste of the extremists of the catholic cause who had founded a Republican Sinn Féin ( R-SF ) in 1986 and involved with them part of the extremists of WILL GO. The R-SF refuses for the moment to take part in the electoral process.

- Irish Republican Socialist Party ( IRSP - Irish Republican Socialist party): Founded in 1974 by dissidents of Official Sinn Féin partisans of the recourse to violence, the IRSP quickly was nothing any more but the simple political window of its own paramilitary group, Irish National Release Army (INLA. - Army Irish of National Release). Refusing any concession, opposed to the electoral process, the IRSP is a political training dying woman today.

- Social Democratic and Ploughing Party ( SDLP - Workers party and Social Democratic): Founded in 1974, this party of center left represents the moderate Catholics and preaches non-violence.

A long time majority among the Catholics, it was supplanted by Sinn Féin. For as much, its electoral weight remains important (17% of the voices in 2003) with 18 seats within the north-Irish Parliament, 117 Advisers of District, 3 deputies and a European member of Parliament.

Interdenominational parties

- Alliance Party off Northern Ireland ( APNI ): Founded in 1970 in order to reconcile the two communities catholic and Protestant woman, Alliance forever really been able to emerge, drowned in the daily violence of the conflict. In 2003, the APNI collected only 3,7% of the voices and its electoral representation remains quite marginal with only six seats within the north-Irish Parliament and 28 Advisers of District.

- Northern Ireland Women' S Coalition ( NIWC - Coalition of the Women of Northern Ireland): Founded in 1996 on the initiative of women belonging to the two confessions, this pacifist political coalition electorally crumbled in 2003 (0,8% of the voices). It does not have any more but only one Adviser of District.

There exist other parties out of catholic cleavage/protesting, but their electoral representativeness is of an extreme weakness, which they are the Marxists of Workers Party (0,3%), of the Conservative party (0,2%), of the Verts (0,4%) or of the Socialist Environmental Alliance (0,35%).

It is seen, the north-Irish political life is largely dominated by the extremists of the two camps and leaves moreover only one quite weak place to the partisans of the reconciliation.

North-Irish paramilitary main organizations

The Unionistic ones

- Ulster Volunteers Forces ( UVF - Force of the Volunteers of Ulster): Taking again the heading of the old founded paramilitary group in 1912, this new version of the UVF goes back to 1966. The UVF would count nearly 1.000 clandestine activists.

- Ulster Defense Association ( UDA - Defense association of Ulster): Founded in 1971 and strong, with its apogee of 40.000 members, it was a long time supported by the Protestant authorities and was used even as suppletive force with the north-Irish police force. Prohibited in 1992, it entered clandestinity and would count between 2.000 and 2.500 activists. - Ulster Freedom Fighters ( UFF - Combatants for the Freedom of Ulster): Born into 1973 from a fraction of judged UDA too near to the authorities, the UFF was announced very early by its violence anti-catholic. The UFF would count 200 to 300 activists.

- Red Hand Defenders ( RHD - Defenders of the Red Hand): This clandestine group was born in 1970. Its heading refers to the red hand which is reproduced on the blazon of Ulster and symbolizes the province with the eyes of the Protestants. Very close to the Protestant preserving mediums, the RHD would count a hundred particularly famous activists for their violence.

- Loyalist Volunteers Forces ( LVF - Force of the Volunteers Loyal supporters): It is about the one of the last born on the Protestant paramilitary scene. Founded in 1996, the LVF gathers elements extremists resulting from the UDA and UVF. It would count 500 activists.

There exist other Protestant groups paramilitary, sometimes independent or sometimes related to those previously quoted which act in an intermittent way. Let us quote the Protestant Action in bulk Forces (PAF), Ulster Resistance (UR), the Volunteers Orange (OV) or Red Hand Commandos (RHC). The whole of these groups hardly represents more than 300 activists.

Republicans

- Irish Republican Army ( WILL GO - Irish Republican Army): Military branches of Sinn Féin, WILL SUIT it knew the same internal torments as its political frontage. In 1970, WILL SUIT it bursts in two distinct organizations, the Official WILL GO ( O-IRA ) and the Provisionnal WILL GO ( pi ). Since 1971, an internal war opposes both WILL GO. They are the activists of pi, the “provos”, which carry it. The O-IRA issues one cease fire in 1972 and dissolves in 1974.

WILL GO “Provisional” then seems the movement headlight of the armed struggle of the catholics and excels in practice of the urban guerilla warfare. Remarkably organized, it counts, during the signature of the treaty of 1998, nearly 1.500 clandestine activists and more than 20.000 active sympathizers. But, the announced “centring” of Sinn Féin, had involved a scission in 1986, with the creation of Republican Sinn Féin (R-SF). In parallel, the extremists of WILL GO created a Real WILL GO ( WILL LAUGH ) become in 1996 the Continuity WILL GO ( WAXED ) which, strong probably of more than 600 clandestine and a few thousands of sympathizers, continues the armed struggle.

- National Irish Release Army ( INLA - Army Irishwoman of National Release): Exit in 1975 of the remains of Official WILL GO (O-IRA), the INLA seems the military branches of Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP- Irish Republican Socialist party). Strong from 400 to 500 clandestine, the INLA is decapitated in the current of the years 1980 by a wave of arrests concerning its leaders. WILL GO will benefit from its weakness of the moment to absorb part of its forces. The INLA would count nothing any more but 100 to 150 activists.

- Irish People Release Organization ( IPLO - Liberation organization of the Irish People): Dissidence of the INLA appeared in 1986, the IPLO was devoted to a higher bid politico-soldier which very quickly obstructed WILL SUIT it which started a military campaign against it. Still activates although dying woman, the IPLO does not seem to lay out of more than one hundred of activists. It should be noted that the unionistic paramilitaries profited a long time from a certain benevolence on behalf of the north-Irish authorities and from complicities with the police force. In addition, the whole of the paramilitary, Protestant groups like Catholics, has important funds coming from gifts, but more generally from the racket, the drug or attacks of banks.

Murals ( murals )

Although the first fresco was painted by the loyal supporters in 1908, it is starting from the end of the year 1970 and the fight of the republican prisoners that this practice of “mural propaganda” without equivalent in Europe from its extent and its diversity, took its rise.

After one period of profusion in the years 1990, the practice of the murals still remain very present in the Irish northern landscape and in particular with Belfast and Derry.

There exist permanently approximately three hundred murals in Northern Ireland.

Murals North-Irish

An assessment

Material and human assessment

The tensions in Northern Ireland are moderately qualified “disorders”. The number of victims is however considerable for a population of 1.600.000 people. From 1969 to 2003 one counts indeed:
  • 3.500 killed
  • 47.500 wounded
  • 19.600 imprisonments
  • 37.000 shootings
  • 16.200 bomb attacks or attempts
  • 2.200 arsons
  • 22.500 catch weapons

In addition during this period, the police force seized 12.000 firearms and 116 tons of explosives…

July 28th, 2005, WILL SUIT it announced that it stopped its terrorist activities and loopholes and that all its armament would be destroyed (handguns, rocket launchers, explosives…) Everyone political of the countries concerned with this advertisement without precedent declared was delighted and satisfied by this decision. However, Unionistic north-Irish remains skeptics in spite of this apparent good will emanating from WILL GO. For them, as long as iconographic evidence will not be shown, the doubt is allowed.

Statistics on the human losses of the conflict north-Irish

|} On 3.480 the 30 year old victims of conflict in Northern Ireland, 1969 to 1998:

  • 60% was killed by the republican paramilitary forces

  • 28% were killed by the paramilitary forces loyal supporters
  • 11% were killed by the British security forces
  • 91% were men
  • 53% had less than 30 years
  • 30% were Protestant

More than 25 years of emergency regulations…

The Ireland stop against the United Kingdom of January 18th, 1978 returned by the European Cour of the Human rights reports the nature and the effective range “extra-judicial” catches by the British authorities at the time of this conflict, their application and the ill treatments which underwent of the individuals of their freedom on their basis. These measurements were condemned by the CEDH.

During years 1950, the Great Britain authorized by decrees of measurements of searching, internment, curfew, special procedures of judgment, control of the firearms and explosives and restrictions on the Liberté of movement.

Thereafter, the British authorities estimated that it was necessary to found a system of detention and internment of the people suspected of serious terrorist activities, but against which one could not produce evidence enough in front of the Tribunaux.

Thus of August 9th 1971 at November 7th 1972, date of the replacement of certain decrees of exception, the authorities of Northern Ireland made use of four capacities:

  • arrest for purposes of interrogation without mandate during 48 hours

  • arrest and police custody by any member ( officer ) of the RUC which had quality to authorize the arrest since it appeared to him to be essential " for the safeguard of peace and the maintenance of law and order " ;
  • detention of an individual stopped
  • internment

During the weeks former to the introduction of these measurements, the police force, in consultation with the army, drew up lists of the people to be stopped. They concerned not only alleged members of WILL GO, but also of the individuals suspected of having either of the reports/ratios or bonds with it. WILL GO was going to represent the target of an operation called “Demetrius”.

On Monday, August 9, 1971 as from 4 hours of the morning, the army, assisted sometimes police officers, launched an operation to apprehend the 452 people whose name was reproduced on the above mentioned list. Finally, was carried out to approximately 350 arrests under the terms of these decrees of exception. The interested parties were taken along in the three regional centres of detention created to accommodate them during 48 hours: Magilligan Weekend Training Centers, in the county of Londonderry, Ballykinler Weekend Training Centers, in that of Down, and Girdwood Park Territorial Army Center, in Belfast. They all were questioned by members of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). 104 of them recovered their freedom in the 48 hours. Those which had to be held were transferred to Belfast, on board the ship-prison " Maidstone" or with the prison of Crumlin Road. Previously, 12 individuals were sent in centers not identified for a " thorough interrogation which lasted several days (see will infra on the ill treatments). This operation “Demetrius” had an overall character and nonselective. It aimed WILL SUIT it like organization. It was even allowed that because of its width and its speed, some people were stopped or even held on the basis of insufficient or inaccurate information.

Adopted by the Parliament of the the United Kingdom, the law of 1972 enacting transitional provisions for Northern Ireland ( Northern Ireland Provisions Act ) came into effect on March 30th, 1972. It provided that the authorities of the United Kingdom would exert for a time the powers of the Parliament and government of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland. It entitled the Queen to legislate in her Council in the place of the Parlement of Belfast, which it suspended. With regard to the executive, it transferred attributions from the local government to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It was about a new station created for the circumstance. Its holder was member of the government of London and person in charge before the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Promulgated for one year, the Loi was extended thereafter. This Secretary of State for Northern Ireland could adopt any measure or give any directive which the safeguard of peace and the maintenance of law and order could require. By assuming the direct administration, the government of the United Kingdom declared that one of its key objectives consisted in putting an end to the internment envisaged by the law on the capacities of exception and to study the means of doing without the capacities which it instituted. Mid-May of the year 1972, 259 people had been slackened.

However, on August 8th 1973 came into effect the law on the state of emergency to Northern Ireland ( Northern Ireland Provisions Act 1973 ). It abrogeait certain provisions of the decrees of the years 1950 but created new " measurements; extrajudiciaires":

  • the arrest and detention during 72 hours;

  • police custody during 28 days;
  • detention.

Submitted to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in January 1975, the Commission Report Gardiner devoted to a critical examination penal procedures concerning of the acts related to terrorism and already set up, or to set up, in infringements. It related to also the capacities of the security forces, of the state of the prisons, the special categories of prisoners and detention. On the basis of recommendation of the aforesaid the Commission, the Parliament of the United Kingdom modified it by a law of August 7th, 1975 ( Northern Ireland Provisions Act 1975, " the modifying law on the state d'urgence"). Coming into effect on August 21st, 1975, this one enacted as regards detention of new rules. It turned over to the principle of a detention ordered by the Secretary of State, and either by a police chief, the ordinance having to be preceded by the report/ratio of an adviser equipped with legal qualifications.

Ill treatments undergone by the prisoners

The British forces of safety operated in Northern Ireland, starting from August 9th, 1971, of many arrests and warning statements at sight under the above mentioned capacities of exception. The suspects underwent interrogations, usually carried out by the RUC. They were intended to determine if they had to be interned and/or to collect information on GOES. From August 1971 in June 1972, the police force retained approximately 3.276 people in various detention centres. These centers were replaced in July 1972 by police stations located at Belfast and in a barracks of the army at Ballykelly. The British government itself denounced the ill treatments which had accompanied the initial arrests as well as the later interrogations.

The CEDH studied 41 cases in the light of medical reports/ratios and of written observations.

12 stopped people the apprehended on August 9th, 1971 and 2 people in October 1971 were selected and taken along in not identified centers. They underwent there, from August 11th to 17th and from October 11th to 18th respectively, a type of thorough interrogation including/understanding the cumulative application of five particular techniques. These techniques, called " of désorientation" or " of deprivation sensorielle" , were employed in 14 case. It arises that they consisted of this:

  • station upright against a wall: one forced the prisoners to remain, lasting of the long periods of a few hours, in a " posture of tension" (" stress position"); the interested parties indicated that it had been necessary for them to be held, drawn aside arms and legs, against a wall, the fingers resting on it well above the head, the lower extremities distant one from the other and the feet behind, which had obliged them to be drawn up on the toes, the weight of the body relating essentially to the fingers.

  • cover of the head of the prisoners by a black hood or navy blue which, at least at the beginning, remained permanently safe there during the interrogations.
  • noise: before the interrogations, the prisoners were in a part where a strong whistle did not cease resounding.
  • deprivation of sleep before the interrogations.
  • food reduced in solid food and liquid during their stay to the center and before the interrogations.

The British government recognized right from the start that the recourse to the 5 “techniques” had been allowed " a top niveau". Although one never authorized them in an official document, the English Center of information (English Intelligence Centers) had orally inculcated them in April 1971, at the time of a seminar, with members of the RUC. The two series of interrogations pushed with the means of the aforesaid techniques led to gather a considerable mass of information and in particular to identify 700 members of the 2 factions of WILL GO as well as the persons in charge of approximately 85 attacks up to that point unexplained.

Allegations of maltreatment and ill treatments charged to the security forces were revealed shortly after the operation Demetrius (see supra on the operation).

August 31st, 1971, the government of the United Kingdom created a board of inquiry on this subject, under the presidency of Sir Edmund Compton. It examined 40 cases of which 11 concerned people subjected to the 5 techniques in August 1971. It estimated that the interrogations thorough and carried out using these last constituted physical ill treatments, but not of the maltreatment to the direction which it allotted in this term. Adoptee on November 3rd, 1971, his report/ratio was made public with an additional report/ratio presented by Sir Edmund Compton, on November 14th, on 3 other cases going back to October and September and of which one included/understood the use of the techniques.

The Compton reports/ratios raised critical sharp in the United Kingdom. November 16th, 1971, the British Minister for the interior announced that a new commission, chaired by Lord Parker off Waddington, had been formed to seek if, and in the affirmative on which points, it was necessary to change the authorized procedures the time for the interrogation of people suspected of terrorism and for their police custody during this interrogatoire".

Bench on January 31st, 1972, the Parker report/ratio contained 2 opinions, respectively majority and minority. According to the first, the recourse to the techniques, subject to guarantees recommended to avoid the excessive use of it, did not have to be condemned in the field of ethics. According to the second on the contrary, who emanated from Lord Gardiner, such processes of interrogation could not be justified morally even in a crisis situation due to terrorism. The majority agreed with the minority to conclude with the illiceity from the litigious methods in internal rights, but its opinion was limited to the English right and with some of the techniques if not each one of elles". The Parker report was published on March 2nd, 1972. The same day, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom declared before the Parliament: " It] government, having studied the whole of the question with great care and while thinking of possible later operations, decided that the techniques (...) will not serve any more an average auxiliary of interrogation . " And to add: 'My declaration applies to all the future circumstances. If a government were to consider (...) that additional techniques of interrogation are essential, I believe (...) that it would probably be necessary for him to invite the Room with him to give the capacity of it.

As well as the Prime Minister had enabled it to foresee, the government then addressed to the security forces directives prohibiting expressly employment, even noncumulative, of these “techniques” of interrogation.

With the audience of February 8th 1977 in front of the CEDH, theGeneral one of the the United Kingdom declared: " the government of the United Kingdom thought of the problem of the recourse to the “five techniques” with an extreme attention and by having in particular regard to article 3 of Convention. It pledges now unconditional which they will be reintroduced in no circumstance to help with the interrogations . "

The CEDH in is stop raises that generally she declares herself persuaded that one could not exclude from the after-effects psychiatric at some of the 14 victims of the “techniques” of interrogation. The medical reports/ratios drawn up on these occasions and of the photographs taken the same day revealed on the body of a suspect of the bruises and contusions which it did not present before. The Court is " convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that some of these lesions (...) resulted from ways in fact to which the security forces had been delivered on him to the center ". More generally, and while being based on the established facts, it estimates probable that one sometimes used of physical violences as a practitioner the 5 techniques.

… and 10 years of nonright.

Officers of the information of the police force of Belfast of the special units of the RUC covered with the advisers belonging to Protestant militia UVF in spite of their implication in at least 10 murders and as many attempts, according to the conclusions of an official investigation published Monday, January 22, 2007. This scenario related to the period 1991-2003. In his report/ratio, Nuala O' Loan, the Catholic mediator of the police force, authorized to inquire into complaints against the police force of Northern Ireland, writes that agents covered with the extremists of the UVF of a unit based with Mount Vernon, radical district Protesting of the north of Belfast. The report/ratio reports how the north-Irish police force did everything so that the criminals are not apprehended, going until writing wrong notes, to destroy evidence thoroughly, to block the search for weapons or to form the suspects with the interrogations. Implied has minimum in shootings, traffics of Drogue and extortion of moneies, these advisers were authorized to act as any impunity and were even remunerated. In ten years, a loyal supporter received the equivalent of 120.000 euros. “ It there had very few rules, not real management ”, explained the mediator of the police force Nuala O' Loan. A former detective of the division of the criminal investigations expressly declares in the report/ratio that him and his/her colleagues were prevented on several occasions by agents of Special Branch from inquiring into crimes implying of the members of the Protestant militia of the UVF or the UDA. It appears that thus a good number of murders were never elucidated.

The ratio of 162 pages is the 3 years result of investigation. He asks the police force to reopen tens of files dating from the years 1990 and to continue the former officers implied in the cover of the crimes of their advisers. The mediator of the police force insisted on the difficulty of his investigation. Thus, two reprocessed police chiefs refused to testify. Other officers answered évasivement and in a contradictory way, sometimes showing “ mistaken for the law ”. For Nuala O' Loan, it is certain that the police officers could act only covered with the more high level of the hierarchy.

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Report/ratio of the mediator of the police force for Northern Ireland

Catalog of films

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