Operation Demetrius began in the early hours of the 9th August 1971, when British soldiers began to enforce a policy of internment without trial targeting suspected republican militants. A highly unsuccessful operation in intelligence terms as the vast majority of those interned were either long retired republican activists/volunteers or had nothing to do with republicanism but were simply catholic and for that simple reason alone they lost their freedom.
Parallel to the announcement of the internment was the banning of parades, a clear attempt to limit the expression of outrage towards the draconian operation. The British state’s policy of internment was to last until December 1975 and during that time a total of 1,981 people were interned, 1,874 were Catholic/Irish republican, while 107 were Protestant/loyalist. The first Protestant/loyalist internees were detained in February 1973 despite the fact that the UVF had been active since 1966. These statistics highlight the blatant sectarian nature of the operation and clearly dispel any myth of the British military acting as an impartial bystander during the conflict.
Internment had been employed by the Unionist Government at Stormont in every decade since the creation of the northern state as a means to suppress Republican opposition. In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s republican suspects had been imprisoned without trial. It was the success of the previous uses of the draconian policy that the Unionist government of Stormont used to persuade the British government of the necessity that it be used again. Its use only led to a destabilisation of what was already a volatile political climate. The manner in which the arrests were carried out, and the physical and mental abuse suffered by those arrested, led to mass protests and a sharp increase in violence. Amid the violence, approximately 7,000 people fled or were forced from their homes.
The outrage of what could only be viewed as communal punishment and humiliation was strengthened once treatment of the internees reached the public domain. Nothing short of torture could be used to describe those that found themselves at the mercy of the British soldier’s active in the six counties at the time. A number of internees went through what the British security forces labelled “deep interrogation”. A set of techniques used to torture information from a suspect, including; deceiving detainees into believing that they were to be thrown from high flying helicopters. In reality the blindfolded detainees were thrown from a helicopter that hovered approximately 4 feet above the ground. Forcing detainees to run an obstacle course over broken glass and rough ground whilst being beaten. Wall standing, hooding, and subjection to noise, sleep deprivation, deprivation of food and drink and water boarding.
The wave of violence that internment prompted, the innocents arrested, the thousands made homeless and those forced to endure torture all these factors coupled with the knowledge that Internment had practically no military gains at all is the legacy of the policy implemented in the early hours of the 9th of August 1971.
A sobering fact that we must keep to the forefront of our thoughts today is that Internment is not a legacy issue, its victims are growing and with this so must a united voice against this denial of basic human rights. The British state has learned from the mistakes of the past, rather than the blatant mass arrests of 71, a selective and underhanded method is being carried out by the enemies of radical, progressive change in Ireland, existing in many forms such as internment by remand, licences being revoked and convictions based on the evidence of Walter Mitty characters and state paid informers as well as rulings in the absence of an impartial jury make up the Internment of today.
The democratic deficit of the Diplock courts convicting republicans today coupled with the complicity of politicians sitting in both Stormont and Leinster House as republicans suffer at the hands of a judiciary that answers to the beck and call of MI5 and their superiors is indeed an appalling and critical failure of the democratic state structures that supposedly protect our human rights today but an even greater crisis and one that needs urgently addressed is the shameful manner in which republican prisoners are treated in gaols throughout Ireland today. Strict controlled movement is being enforced to deny prisoners fresh air, shower facilities and exercise, the unnecessary degradation of prisoners that are forced to endure strip searches upon entering and leaving the gaol. Denial of medical treatment which put 49 year old Ta McWilliams’s health at serious risk recently due to the fact that prison staff refused to act on Ta’s complaints of chest pains, later when medical staff did examine Ta they quickly realised the seriousness of his condition and he soon was admitted to Craigavon area hospital for a heart operation but not before being forcibly strip searched.
The vast array of methods being used to silence and deter republicans today, the deafening silence of the politicians of both the 6 and 26 county governments and the severity of the human rights abuses perpetrated against republican prisoners should not give us cause to despair. But should harden our resolve and give us the determination to highlight, expose and persevere over such injustices.
Republican Network for Unity would call on all Republican and Socialist activists, Trade Unionists, Human rights activists and individuals concerned for the victims of Internment today and appalled by the actions of the state to show their support and attend the Anti-Internment march on Sunday 10th August, assembling at 12.30 at Ardoyne Avenue, in Belfast.
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Parallel to the announcement of the internment was the banning of parades, a clear attempt to limit the expression of outrage towards the draconian operation. The British state’s policy of internment was to last until December 1975 and during that time a total of 1,981 people were interned, 1,874 were Catholic/Irish republican, while 107 were Protestant/loyalist. The first Protestant/loyalist internees were detained in February 1973 despite the fact that the UVF had been active since 1966. These statistics highlight the blatant sectarian nature of the operation and clearly dispel any myth of the British military acting as an impartial bystander during the conflict.
Internment had been employed by the Unionist Government at Stormont in every decade since the creation of the northern state as a means to suppress Republican opposition. In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s republican suspects had been imprisoned without trial. It was the success of the previous uses of the draconian policy that the Unionist government of Stormont used to persuade the British government of the necessity that it be used again. Its use only led to a destabilisation of what was already a volatile political climate. The manner in which the arrests were carried out, and the physical and mental abuse suffered by those arrested, led to mass protests and a sharp increase in violence. Amid the violence, approximately 7,000 people fled or were forced from their homes.
The outrage of what could only be viewed as communal punishment and humiliation was strengthened once treatment of the internees reached the public domain. Nothing short of torture could be used to describe those that found themselves at the mercy of the British soldier’s active in the six counties at the time. A number of internees went through what the British security forces labelled “deep interrogation”. A set of techniques used to torture information from a suspect, including; deceiving detainees into believing that they were to be thrown from high flying helicopters. In reality the blindfolded detainees were thrown from a helicopter that hovered approximately 4 feet above the ground. Forcing detainees to run an obstacle course over broken glass and rough ground whilst being beaten. Wall standing, hooding, and subjection to noise, sleep deprivation, deprivation of food and drink and water boarding.
The wave of violence that internment prompted, the innocents arrested, the thousands made homeless and those forced to endure torture all these factors coupled with the knowledge that Internment had practically no military gains at all is the legacy of the policy implemented in the early hours of the 9th of August 1971.
 |
The democratic deficit of the Diplock courts convicting republicans today coupled with the complicity of politicians sitting in both Stormont and Leinster House as republicans suffer at the hands of a judiciary that answers to the beck and call of MI5 and their superiors is indeed an appalling and critical failure of the democratic state structures that supposedly protect our human rights today but an even greater crisis and one that needs urgently addressed is the shameful manner in which republican prisoners are treated in gaols throughout Ireland today. Strict controlled movement is being enforced to deny prisoners fresh air, shower facilities and exercise, the unnecessary degradation of prisoners that are forced to endure strip searches upon entering and leaving the gaol. Denial of medical treatment which put 49 year old Ta McWilliams’s health at serious risk recently due to the fact that prison staff refused to act on Ta’s complaints of chest pains, later when medical staff did examine Ta they quickly realised the seriousness of his condition and he soon was admitted to Craigavon area hospital for a heart operation but not before being forcibly strip searched.
The vast array of methods being used to silence and deter republicans today, the deafening silence of the politicians of both the 6 and 26 county governments and the severity of the human rights abuses perpetrated against republican prisoners should not give us cause to despair. But should harden our resolve and give us the determination to highlight, expose and persevere over such injustices.
Republican Network for Unity would call on all Republican and Socialist activists, Trade Unionists, Human rights activists and individuals concerned for the victims of Internment today and appalled by the actions of the state to show their support and attend the Anti-Internment march on Sunday 10th August, assembling at 12.30 at Ardoyne Avenue, in Belfast.
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