>> the Steven's Inquiry into collusion. >> >> And attempts by David Trimble and the Prentice brothers to >> suppress Sean McPhilemy's book "The Committee" which attempts to >> expose a conspiracy to murder involving members of the RUC, >> prominent Unionist businessmen, professionals and politicians. >> >> Focusing on the BBC in the North of Ireland, Miller points to the >> corporations pro British agenda and pro Unionist ethos. "The BBC >> in particular has on the one hand been overly reliant on >> government statements and briefings during the peace process." >> >> On the other hand, "there has been a tendency to treat Orange >> parades as matters of either cultural expressions or as the focus >> of disputes rather than as expressions of dominance....the view >> of Orangeism as fundamentally sectarianism is extremely rarely >> reported and explained." >> >> In their submission to UN official Abid Hussain, the Coiste >> concluded that "BBC NI is open to being politically influenced by >> Unionist anti Agreement elements who have been very opposed to >> the prisoner release programme and have used this emotive issue >> to attack the peace process in general." >> >> The Coiste continues, "it is disappointing that then BBC have not >> reviewed and altered their guidelines given the changing >> political situation and in particular the Good Friday Agreement >> with its proposals for the release of political prisoners. >> >> "That agreement clearly indicates the distinction between >> political prisoners and ordinary criminals. This is nowhere >> reflected in the BBC guidelines." >> >> In his judgment, the UN Special Rapporteur recognised the rights >> of victims but went on to endorse the Coiste's view that the >> BBC's "attitude does not favour the reintegration of ex prisoners >> and reconciliation in Northern Ireland." >> >> The Rapporteur concluded that the BBC should "review its >> guidelines in this particular regard, taking into account the >> changing political situation in Northern Ireland and the Good >> Friday Agreement, which clearly indicates the difference between >> political prisoners and ordinary criminals." >> >> The UN report goes further, calling on the British government to >> scrap their emergency laws. Abid Hussein said emergency powers >> and the Official Secrets Act had restricted investigative >> journalism. >> >> The British government should immediately disband emergency >> legislation like the Prevention of Terrorism Act which "have a >> chilling effect on the right to freedom and expression," said the >> UN report, "as regards the media, further efforts should be made >> to improve the media tone and attitude." >> >> The Rapporteur called on the British government to publish the >> Stevens inquiry into crown force collusion with loyalist death >> squads, and the Stalker and Sampson report into summary >> executions by the crown forces, the operation of shoot to kill >> policy. The UN official said that the victims of state violence >> should have access to the reports. >> >> On the issue of contentious marches, he described the freedom of >> expression and assembly as "core human rights" but he recognised >> the need to guarantee that "the rights of others are not violated >> in the process." >> >> "The Special Rapporteur urges the government to stop the use of >> excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, in particular the >> indiscriminate use of life threatening plastic bullets, as >> recommended by the committee against torture in 1998." >> >> Commenting on the UN report, spokesperson for the Coiste, >> Laurence Mckeown said, "Abid Hussain has vindicated our challenge >> to the attitude of the BBC towards republican ex prisoners. >> >> "The UN report places the media's denial of political prisoners >> rights to freedom of expression within the wider context of >> attempts by the British state to suppress the truth about their >> role in the conflict. And places the onus on all of us to move >> into a new period of change based on truth and justice." >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> >>>>>> Dubliners reject anti-social behaviour >> >> >> About 1,500 people packed into the Grand Cinema in Cabra, Dublin, >> last week in response to a significant upsurge in anti-social >> behaviour in the greater Cabra area. The meeting was organised by >> Sinn Fein Councillor Nicky Kehoe at the request of residents. >> Recent burglaries and joyriding were high on the agenda. >> >> "The turnout was no surprise to me," Kehoe said, "as the >> community have responded in the past and the input by the >> residents who articulated their grievances was tremendous". >> >> The meeting, chaired by Sinn Fein Councillor Larry O'Toole, was >> kept brief and to the point. Residents were not found wanting in >> telling the trouble makers that they were not going to be >> intimidated while questions were directed at Gardai. >> >> The meeting decided to allow a period of eight weeks after which >> the situation will be reviewed. Those involved in anti social >> behaviour and their parents have been asked to recognise their >> responsibility towards the community while the Gardai were urged >> to act sooner rather than later. If the crime levels have not >> been sufficiently tackled in this period, another meeting will be >> called to explore alternatives. >> >> >> At another packed and very lively public meeting in St Joseph's >> School in Finglas, Sinn Fein Councillor Dessie Ellis demanded >> strong action from the Gardai police and Dublin Corporation to >> curb the growing problem of 'joy-riding' and anti-social >> behaviour in Finglas West. >> >> Ellis, who organised the Finglas meeting in response to requests >> from local people, praised community activists who are working >> hard to improve the area but criticised those parents who refuse >> to take responsibility for the actions of their children and >> allow them to roam the streets at all hours. >> >> Ellis praised the work of Joe English and Dave Kenny of Dublin >> Corporation, who are now clamping down on anti-social tenants. >> They had interviewed 200 tenants over the past 6 months and >> evicted several who continued to make life impossible for their >> neighbours, although evictions and exclusions, stressed Ellis, >> should only be a last resort. >> >> The proliferation of so-called company cars was causing great >> danger in the area. Dessie urged the Gardai to target known rogue >> car dealers in the Finglas area, who were recycling scrap cars >> which had failed the National Car Test for around #50 apiece. >> Gardai are seizing 75 a week in the Blanchardstown/Cabra/Finglas >> areas, he said, but they are being replaced just as quickly. >> >> Dessie Ellis also highlighted the lack of facilities in Finglas. >> Much of the available space was being taken up with new housing >> and it was vital that Dublin Corporation build proper leisure and >> youth centres before all the space was gone. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> >>>>>> Funeral oration for Kieran Nugent >> >> By Councillor Tom Hartley >> >> This morning we are gathered here to lay to rest our dear friend >> and comrade Kieran. His untimely death has left his family, his >> friends and comrades with a deep sense of loss and sorrow. Yet >> in a very real way we are gathered here this morning to remember >> and celebrate his role as a family man as a friend and >> especially to pay tribute to his great political legacy as the >> first blanket man and to reflect on his personal contribution to >> our struggle for unity and independence. >> >> Kieran was only a boy when the Civil Rights movement began. In >> his youth he was to witness the political convulsions of the >> northern state in the aftermath of internment, of Bloody Sunday >> and the fall of the Stormont parliament. As a young 15 year old >> he was shot and seriously wounded by loyalists. A friend standing >> next to him was shot dead. >> >> Because of his activism and his strong commitment to the >> republican ideal it wasn't long before Kieran found himself >> behind bars. This was during the period when the British >> Government introduced its three pronged strategy of >> Ulsterisation, Criminalisation and Normalisation. >> >> The building of the first H Blocks ran parallel to a massive >> British propaganda campaign. The full resources of the British >> state were brought to bear in an effort to convince domestic and >> international opinion that the republican struggle was nothing >> more than an armed conspiracy of gangsters. >> >> At every conceivable opportunity British Ministers tried to >> strangle the republican resistance with a single reference; >> criminality. Simply put, this was an attempt at a massive >> political fraud in an effort to distort the political nature of >> the Irish conflict. >> >> In effect the British Government was turning truth on its head. >> Torture and prisons, internment without trial, discrimination and >> prejudice, poverty and repression, special laws and special >> courts, the dead of Derry's Bloody Sunday and McGurks bar, bad >> government through bad law, all indicators of English rule in >> Ireland were now to be hidden inside a strategy of >> criminalisation. >> >> The introduction of this strategy had led to a degree of >> uncertainty among republicans as to the nature of British >> strategic direction. The British had worked hard at hiding their >> intentions, as always confusion and mis-information were the >> building blocks of their new strategy. It was all so simple in >> British eyes, Republican prisoners were to broken in the >> knackers yard they called the H Blocks and Armagh Jail. >> >> Isn t it wonderfully ironic then that the one major flaw in >> British strategic planning was their inability to read the minds >> of republican remand prisoners. In the cells of the Crumlin Road >> jail and Armagh women's prison young republicans had decided to >> resist any attempt to treat them as criminals. >> >> Kieran was a teenager when the British Government decided on its >> strategy of criminalisation. He was a teenager when the British >> Government decided that republican prisoners were to be broken as >> a means of breaking the republican community. He was still a >> teenager when on the 14 September 1976 he was flung naked into a >> H block cell. Here at this juncture of our history and hidden >> from all but a few, the all powerful repressive machinery of the >> English state in Ireland set out to crush a young republican from >> the Lower Falls. The first blanket man. >> >> In the simplicity of his defiance, refusing to wear a prison >> uniform, Kieran Nugent in the long tradition of republican prison >> struggle, reclaimed for all of us, the legitimate and democratic >> right to oppose English government in Ireland. And by doing so, >> set in train the heroic struggle of republican prisoners in the H >> Blocks and Armagh prison, which in a few short years would see >> the strategy of criminalisation defeated and consigned to the >> dustbin of English failure in Ireland. >> >> But those were years of sorrow, as the full weight of imperial >> brutality was used against republican prisoners, for the most >> part teenagers from the northern republican communities. >> >> In the simplicity of his defiance, refusing to wear a prison >> uniform, Kieran Nugent a teenager from the lower Falls alone and >> in the vulnerability of his nakedness refused to be broken. If >> ever we need an example of the power of the human spirit we >> should reflect on that moment when the dignity >> >> of this young man broke the power and inhumanity of the British >> state. At the very moment with their first H Block prisoner, >> when they thought themselves all powerful, the British Government >> in Ireland had already lost their attempt to criminalise the >> republican people and their struggle. >> >> Kieran Nugent was not raised to become a heroic figure of the >> republican struggle. He was an ordinary young man raised inside >> a loving and caring lower Falls family. Raised in such a setting >> his life should have been a long and happy contribution to his >> family and his community. But the journey of Kieran's young >> life was to be disrupted by the political upheaval of the >> northern state. >> >> There will always be a great depth of feeling in our community >> for this young man from the lower Falls who rose to meet the >> enormous challenge of his time. It is a testament to the great >> strengths he received from his parents, his brothers and sisters >> that in a period of great solitude he was able to stand alone and >> face down the brutality of the British state in Ireland. >> >> His decision not to wear a prison uniform and his many years >> spent protesting in a H Block cell will continue to tell us of >> his integrity, his strength, his humanity and his capacity to >> endure. His destiny, was to become in his time, the very first >> of an heroic generation who sought through protest and hunger >> strike, to assert the moral strength of their community in the >> face of a brutal onslaught by an amoral government. >> >> We can be proud that this ordinary extraordinary young man came >> from our community and was the first of many ordinary >> extraordinary young men and women whose political legacy >> resonates to the four corners of the world when men and women sit >> down to talk of freedom and independence. >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> >>>>>> Analysis: Remembering the Hunger Strikers >> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------- >> As Martin Ferris rose to deliver the 18th Bobby Sands memorial >> lecture in the Felons Club in West Belfast last Friday night, the >> thoughts of the majority of those in the audience would have been >> with the family of Kieran Nugent, the first man to go on "the >> Blanket" in the present phase of the struggle, who died on >> Thursday. >> >> That Kieran was to go down in the history of this struggle as the >> man who warned the British prison authorities that if they "want >> me to wear a prison uniform they'll have to nail it to my back", >> and became THE symbol of republican resistance in the jails is >> testament to his courage and determination. >> >> In his lecture Ferris duly paid tribute to all those prisoners >> who died on hunger strike and went on to praise, "those who took >> part in the prison struggle, and those who have since died, >> particularly Kieran Nugent. This weekend is both about them and >> for them. There can be no distinguishing between their courage, >> strength, determination and generosity". >> ----------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> We look back at those sacrifices of 1980 and 1981 and ask >> ourselves why? Why did these men give up their lives? From 1976 >> through to the end of 1980 hundreds and hundreds of republican >> POWs in Armagh and Long Kesh endured the most barbaric and >> inhumane conditions. They led the battle against the British >> government's policy of criminalisaton - the attempt to hide their >> role in the war in our country. While focusing on our political >> prisoners this policy was part of a broader strategy aimed at >> destroying the entire republican struggle and vision. >> >> By 1980, after almost five years of the daily and hourly >> struggle for survival, the republican prisoners decided that >> their struggle for political status had to be raised to a new >> level. >> >> They decided with the full knowledge of the implications and >> consequences of their actions, that the last resort of hunger >> strike, was the only tool left with which to advance the struggle >> for political status. The decision to hunger strike was not made >> in order to fulfil some vision of self sacrifice. It was a >> pragmatic decision, made in the context of a struggle for better >> living conditions within the prison, which would be used to move >> the struggle forward, from criminalisation to political status. >> >> In 1981 the deaths of our ten comrades was probably the most >> painful time in recent republican history. >> >> The cynicism and lack of humanity of the British government was >> laid bare before the world. The Irish hunger strikers became a >> symbol, not only against oppression, but also of humanity and of >> the desire of people to be free. >> >> In the words of a fellow political prisoner from South Africa, >> Strinni Moodley, the Irish republican prisoners were and remain >> 'symbols for humanity', because they were the very articulation >> of humanity. They made the greatest sacrifice for their fellow >> human beings. They died for the sake of the human race'. >> >> What is probably most striking about Bobby Sands is that he was >> an ordinary man who became extraordinary because of the sheer >> scale of oppression and terror and hope and resistance he grew up >> in. His involvement in political life was a consequence of both >> his environment and his personality. He was the kind of young >> man who could not remain passive in the face of discrimination or >> violence. >> >> Whether as a local community activist within the tenants >> association, in political work as a Sinn FEin activist or indeed >> as an IRA Volunteer, his life became a life of resistance. >> >> His level of political commitment was incredible. He was willing >> to put his life on the line as as IRA Volunteer and he endured >> the realities of prison during the darkest days of British >> oppression. He was willing to go a stage further and offer his >> life so that we would be free. This is a commitment that cannot >> be measured, it cannot be quantified. it is absolute. He also had >> a strength and determination which enabled him to see his >> convictions through to the end. >> >> He was an inspiration to all those who came into contact with >> him. >> >> However he was also a son, a brother, a friend and a husband and >> father. He was an ordinary human being whose death brought great >> suffering to and grief to those who loved him and were close to >> him. Irrespective of all that I have said, we must never loose >> sight of the fact that his sacrifice was also the sacrifice of >> his family. And their courage, their strength and their >> commitment must be remembered and applauded. >> >> All of those who were on hunger strike and all of their families >> and friends endured the same pain, the same suffering and the >> same grief. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the subsequent >> developments, we have a duty to honour and remember them all in >> equal measure. The image of Bobby Sands is their collective image >> and we must never loose sight of that. >> >> The hunger strikes broke the British government and their prison >> administration in the North of Ireland. It was the defining >> moment in the battle for political status and indeed the wider >> battle for Irish freedom, justice and equality. >> >> Politically the impact of the hunger strikes on republican >> politics, on Irish politics and indeed on Britain's policy here >> in Ireland was both profound and far reaching. It has been >> described as a watershed and there is no other way of describing >> it. >> >> It shook both northern and southern states to their foundations >> and laid the foundations for political developments that are >> beginning to bare fruit today. >> >> The most important of the changes brought about by the hunger >> strikes were those within republicanism itself. Through the >> campaign for political status and then the hunger strike itself, >> Irish republicans reengaged with politics for the first time >> since the civil rights movement. We developed a broad based >> popular campaigning dimension to the struggle which provided a >> vehicle for thousands of people to become involved and express >> themselves politically. >> >> The lessons of the hunger strikes have become guiding principles >> in everything that we are doing in the present. Change did not >> come easily or quickly at that time and as we are witnessing >> today it requires a long and determined struggle in which all >> people can play their part. >> >> The peace process is part of this process and the Good Friday >> Agreement is part of this process. But they can only deliver real >> change if we understand what they are. >> >> The days of second class citizenship are over. Let us be clear >> that the Good Friday Agreement is not a republican document. And >> despite our misgivings we signed up to it on the basis that it >> provided us with a vehicle for bringing about meaningful change. >> It is precisely for this reason that the unionist leadership >> continues to oppose it. >> >> They cannot countenance fundamental change, they cannot >> countenance equality. Not it appears can the British government. >> >> There is no point in people sitting here and reflecting on >> either the tragic or human side of the hunger strike unless we >> ask ourselves what is our responsibility for advancing the >> struggle. How will we best honour the commitment and sacrifice of >> those who died on hunger strike? Ask yourself what can move us >> closer towards our goal of a united democratic socialist 32 >> county Ireland. This will only be achieved if everyone plays >> their part no matter how small, no matter how great. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> c. RM Distribution and others. 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