Irish Blog: VICEROYAL VILLIERS CANNOT WASH HER HANDS OF KILLING IRISH PEACE PROCESS

Irish Blog: VICEROYAL VILLIERS CANNOT WASH HER HANDS OF KILLING IRISH PEACE PROCESS:

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INTERNMENT PEACE PROCESS IS AN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

Two co-ordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in British Occupied Ireland, shot dead two unarmed members of the Reavey family and three members of the O'Dowd family, with another two wounded, one of them died a month later. These murders were part of a string of sectarian attacks on Catholics and Irish nationalists by an alliance of British soldiers and British police officers. Billy McCaughey from the police Special Patrol Group, admitted taking part and accused another British police officer, of being involved. 

His colleague, John Weir, said two British police officers and a British soldier were involved The O'Dowd and Reavey murders, in what became known as the murder triangle, were a major factor, in young men and women like 19 year old Martin Corey from nearby Lurgan, joining the IRA, to defend their communities from British State terrorism.

British Sinn Féin's elected MLA, John O’Dowd  from the same O'Dowd family, almost 30 years later called on the British Government, to release Lurgan man Martin Corey. Mr Corey who had already served almost twenty years, was arrested again, at his Lurgan home on Friday April 16^th 2010, and brought to Maghaberry prison, on the instruction of the British Secretary of State, without any charges being brought against him. 

Mr Corey has now remained politically interned more than three years, without charge.or any reasons given, related to his political internment without trial. He therefore cannot defend himself, while the British  State and its secret services, have bombed and shot, the only two local lawyers, Rosemary Nelson from Lurgan and Pat Finucane an expert on European Law, that might have been able to help Martin in the absence of any ethical, political oversight. The British secret services have also assassinated the local journalist Martin O'Hagan in Lurgan, who would have intimate local knowledge of the individuals involved, who would highlight this grave injustice.

MLA Mr O’Dowd has said:

“The detention of any citizen without charge is totally unacceptable. If evidence exists of wrong doing against anyone then the proper course of action is to present that evidence in a court of law.

“A Court hearing allows a defendant to challenge the evidence in an open court and for due process to decide the fete of the defendant, not the British Secretary of State.

“No charges have been brought against Mr Corey and he has now spent 7 months in detention on the word of the British Secetary of sate. His continued detention is totally unacceptable and I am calling for his immediate release." 

Now that statement almost three years ago, despite the promises of power sharing in a supposed Peace Process, despite British Sinn Fein being firmly entrenched with the British establishment as part of thegoverning 'executive' in Stormont and Mr O’Dowd "unacceptable" declaration, along with other colleagues brief PR soundbites on the matter have not followed through by any obvious action required, as did the SDLP when internment without trial was last introduced in British Occupied Ireland, when they simply withdrew from Stormont in protest, deeming it totally unacceptable to any Nationalist never mind a professed republicans. Dead Irish republican volunteers would turn in their graves at such a spectacle. Meanwhile Adams and Co. couldn't be bothered explain the details of any agreement or couldn't be bothered other than issue a few grunts of PR Soundbites while climbing to power on the wounds of their dead volunteers and martyrs.

All of these matters related to the welfare and status of ex-combatants and volunteers, before the so called "Peace Process" were meant to be dealt with under what became known as the Weston Park agreement. However it now appears, there was no actual agreement on this matter at all, with the result that many ex-combatants and volunteers have been thrown to the British wolves and left without any protection.The British now politically intern and imprison with impunity at Her Majesty's pleasure. Right now members of British Sinn Fein, Republican Sinn Eein, Eirigi and RNU all perfectly legitimate political parties, are incarcerated indefinitely as political prisoners, prevented from pursuing their political objectives by peaceful means, hardly the fruits of an genuine Peace Process?

The leader of British Sinn Fein, has been taken to task on numerous occasions by many volunteers, including myself, about the terms and conditions of agreements, with regard to ex combatants.Gerry Adams and his colleagues have failed to clarify or be accountable to the people, who put his party in political power in the first instance. In the absence of accountability, we can only reasonably assume after the passage of so much time and the incarceration of so many former volunteers, that there is no actual agreement on this matter. This is criminally irresponsible by any standards of leadership.

Now one of the first responsibilities of any leader, in the event of the cessation of hostilities, are to acquire assurances and promises with regard to the welfare of his community and his soldiers(volunteers). Undertakings of protection for example of children and women from rape and his soldiers from revenge or vindictive treatment. To cease activity without such undertakings or promises is called an unconditional surrender and betrayal of both community and volunteers. The rape of republican children and women continues along with the vindictive treatment of senior republicans like John Downey and Martin Corey to name but a few. Whatever John O'Dowd or British Sinn Fein mean by   "unacceptable", in the instance of genuine Irish Republicans that translates into action, hopefully peaceful

 Wikipedia, defines "Unconditional surrender as a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary. Perhaps the most notable unconditional surrender was by the Axis powers in World War II."

The most famous early use of the phrase occurred during the 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson in the American Civil War. Brigadier GeneralUlysses S. Grant of the Union Army received a request for terms from the fort's commanding officer, Confederate Brigadier GeneralSimon Bolivar Buckner. Grant's reply was that "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." When news of Grant's victory—one of the Union's first in the Civil War—was received inWashington, D.C., newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Ulysses S. Grant's first two initials, "U.S.," stood for "Unconditional Surrender," which would later become his nickname.

However, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional. When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia atAppomattox Court House in 1865, Grant agreed to allow the men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses. Generous terms were also offered to John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and (by Grant's subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman) to Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina.

Grant was not the first and only officer in the Civil War to use such a term. The first instance came when Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman asked for terms of surrender during the Battle of Fort Henry. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote replied, "no sir, your surrender will be unconditional". Even at Fort Donelson, when a Confederate messenger first approached Brig. Gen. Charles F. Smith, Grant's subordinate, for terms of surrender, Smith stated "I'll have no terms with Rebels with guns in their hands, my terms are unconditional and immediate surrender". The messenger was passed along to Grant but there is no evidence that either Foote or Smith influenced Grant's decision later on that day. In 1863 Ambrose Burnside forced an unconditional surrender of the Cumberland Gap and 2,300 Confederate soldiers^[3] and in 1864 General Gordon Granger forced an unconditional surrender of Fort Morgan.

The use of the term was revived during World War II at the Casablanca conference when American President Franklin D. Rooseveltsprang it on the other Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan.^[4] And, when President Roosevelt suddenly announced this surrender condition at Casablanca, he did so referencing U.S.Grant and the fact that the famous general's initials, since the Civil War, had also come to stand for "Unconditional Surrender". (In doing so, however, FDRhad erroneously referred to Grant as "Ulysses Simpson Grant", which actually was the name of the general's grandson, who had served during both World Wars.)^[5]

The term was also used at the end of World War II when Japan surrendered to the Allies. Both Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalindisapproved of the demand for unconditional surrender, as did most senior U.S. officials). It has been estimated that it helped prolong the war in Europe through its usefulness to German domestic propaganda that used it to encourage further resistance against the Allied armies, and its suppressive effect on the German resistance movement since even after a coup against Adolf Hitler."

The current brutal British treatment of political prisoners such as British and Republican Sinn Fein's members John Downey and Martin Corey to name but a few senior republicans, are the fruits of an unconditional surrender by Gerry Adams and McGuinness. As the Good Books says by their fruits you will know them, thus this shameful secret unconditional surrender, was sold to the volunteers, the Irish republican Movement and Irish people as a Peace Process. Part of the attributes of honesty, is calling things by their right name. Adams and McGuinness on the basis of information released to the public are guilty at best of incompetence. I say this in the interest of Irish Republican Unity.

As a volunteer prior to the H-Block Hunger Strike, I was informed that an IRA cessation of activity was already agreed, in return for a political platform. However what we were not told, was that this was a hyped British political platform, exclusive to individuals like Adams and McGuinness, to the detriment of Republican ethics of principles before personalities. I and many others for the sake of some "bloody peace" against our better judgement, were willing to give the process a chance.

I personally believe, that political republican violence at this point in time will not help the "Cause of Ireland and its people of no property." However it is critically important that clarification, honesty and justice drive the process, not obfuscations, political internment and injustice if it is to have any substance or longevity unlike the Sticks and their numerous predecessors of generational  internment and counter insurgency, since the foundation of the two scum states.

I have no choice, as a former volunteer and former chairperson of what has now evolved into British Sinn Fein but to reluctantly, accuse both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness of sociopathic, irresponsible, unaccountable, leadership of what has now become definitively in every sense British Sinn Fein. I do not use the words British Sinn Fein, which are a contradiction in themselves lightly. This is not a personal attack, on the individuals concerned who have considerable political charisma and I also know from personal experience there are still some genuine but naive people in that party. 

That is not however in the interests of the plain people of Ireland. It certainly is not in the interests of Martin Corey, an innocent 63 year old man, who has been interned without trial, for more than 3 years now, along with other political prisoners abandoned by British Sinn Fein's unconditional surrender. The sociopathic political, personality, that enables the rape and abuse of children, like British Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Lackey Labour have no place in Irish politics anymore for they will enable the abuse of the Irish people as they have always done, to the bankers and the British, in the same way as the rape of their Irish babies.

IRISH PEACE PROCESS SMASHED BY BRITISH INTERNMENT

Price of Injustice

 international | rights and freedoms | opinion/analysis  Saturday May 18, 2013 06:40 by Brian Clarke - AllVoices 

British Occupied Ireland

A commoner in British Occupied Ireland, can be designated a “terrorist” on the secret, unaccountable dictat of the unelected British Viceroyal Villiers, without notice and without a trial. Under CMPs(Closed Material Procedures) any Irish person may be jailed, simply on vaguely-defined, highly paid “material support,” against any person or group, labeled by the Viceroyal as “terrorist.” Any political dissent, such as wearing green, as in a recent incident, or singing a 'Celtic Song', or holding a piece of paper at an Easter ceremony, can be labeled as “terrorism” or “material support for terrorism,”

Price of In Justice

Two essentials are driving the trampling of democratic rights in British Occupied Ireland and the shift towards authoritarian Viceroyal fascist rule there. The first is the massive social inequality, which the British Chief Constable in Ireland, Matt Baggott, referred to recently, when pleading for greater efforts to counter the economic and social roots of Irish republican dissent, in turn driven by the historic crisis, of British sponsored sectarianism, within their capitalist system of further inequality. Britain as usual, looks to sponsored state terrorism, police state repression, wartime political internment without trial, as a means to preserve their status, power and wealth.

The second is that real democracy is incompatible, with such high levels of sectarianism, social inequality and injustice, it is also incompatible with low intensity imperialist war, such as Britain is still conducting in Ireland, under the guise of a fake Peace Process. The UK military and intelligence agencies, have for centuries been wading in the blood of every country in the world, with the exception of just 10, in a drive to plunder the world's resources. The dead, wounded, interned and displaced numbered in the millions, with Ireland its first colony of 800 years suffering incessant genocide and invasions.

A knock on the door! In the early hours of the morning. A door smashed with British jackboot of state terrorism, and armed men breaking into your home. They call them military and British paramilitary police, as you are dragged from your bed. Jail, internment camps, no charge, no trial, indefinite detention. This has been the institutionalized pattern of political internment in Ireland, for more than a hundred years now. It is still happening today, as the well documented cases of Marian Price and Martin Corey still testify, despite a much touted Peace Process.

The current international struggle against real and state sponsored “terrorism” is the latest political cover, misused by the British, for their centuries old, worldwide arrest and murder of tens of thousands of political opponents, youth, workers, intellectuals and other enemies of their colonialism or pirate rape of worldwide communities along with their resources. The UK government, currently asserts the power, to subject anyone Irish who disagrees, as a designated “terrorist,” subject to arbitrary arrest and detention without trial indefinitely. Political internment without trial has become institutionalized in Ireland.

Leaving to one side for a moment, how morally grotesque all of this is, one does not have to be particularly bright, to see, that such obvious injustice, has no place in building a genuine peace process.Those secret service puppets, stooges, who are called politicians in British Occupied Ireland, who have curried favour and made lucrative careers, by exclusively condemning non British state violence, are quite comfortable with all of this institutionalized violence, to the point where a mercenary British Chief Constable was forced to highlight some of it, in a one party British sponsored kleptocracy .

It is vital where ever we are, to oppose such criminal British assaults on freedom, in the first instance, no matter who is targeted, because such state kidnap, when unopposed, has become institutionalized. Now that it has happened, this is difficult to stop, because once it happens, it inevitably occurs, that internment without trial, will expand way beyond just the Irish and other groups originally targeted, to include all of the people of no property, wherever criminal privilege, ensnares.

Anyone Irish who has been paying attention, knows that British concepts of "guilt" and "innocence" are quaint relics of a dead Magna Carta and a discarded habeas corpus. All that matters today in British Occupied Ireland, is how many convictions a prosecutor can get and how many secret service careers are advanced in the secret "injustice" system, of a scum sectarian state, sponsored by supremacist British Tories, under the watch of Viceroyal Villiers. "Justice," just like everything else in " British civilized" society, is an industry and a product, that keeps the British Tory ruling classes happy with the restless Irish natives still under the colonial jackboot.

Freedom and truth are not part of the equation as with the ruling class worldwide, now in the advanced stages of preparations for the inevitable confrontation with the international people of no property. We need to make our own preparations, conscious of the examples elsewhere, of progressive, evolutionary, political struggles to genuine government by the people of no property, for the people of no property. It is they and only they, who can be trusted to avert the threats of dictatorship and guard a genuine democracy, with social equality and real justice.

After World War II at the Nuremberg Tribunals, the principal Judge said of the purpose of Nuremberg: “We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it.” The intent was to establish a precedent against aggressive war like, Iraq, just 57 years later. Jackson said: “Let me make clear, that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes and if it is to serve a useful purpose, it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment.

“We are able to do away with domestic tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power against the rights of their own people only when we make all men answerable to the law. This trial represents mankind’s desperate effort to apply the discipline of the law to statesmen who have used their powers of state to attack the foundations of the world’s peace and to commit aggression against the rights of their neighbors.”

On April 24, 1946, one of the Nazi defendants Wilhelm Frick, told the Tribunal, “I wanted things done legally. After all, I am a lawyer.” Frick drafted, signed and administered laws that suppressed trade unions and persecuted Jews. He insisted he had drafted the Nuremberg Laws for “scientific reasons,” to protect the purity of German blood. Frick also knew that the insane, aged and disabled (“useless eaters”) were being systematically killed, but did nothing to stop it.

Frick was sentenced to death by the Nuremberg Tribunal and hanged on Oct. 16, 1946.

I do not advocate capital punishment, even for the likes of Viceroyal Villiers and her ancestor also called Viceroyal George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, who ruled over the genocidal holocaust, that murdered millions of Irish people, in what they call the Great Hunger. I simply want the Villiers and Tories held accountable, as their faux-lawyer Nazi counterparts were. Otherwise Britain has made a liar out of Justice Jackson and made a mockery of the Nuremberg principles, which so many working class people, gave their lives for, including their loyalists in Ireland, which will be revealed as just another case of “victor’s justice” despite promises to the contrary. Their own Churchill called internment, an Act of War in the highest degree Odious and the mark of an authoritarian regime.

I do not know how British law, hold it's supposed professionals to account but I do know that Viceroyal Villiers obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1991. After graduating she worked as a barrister and as a lecturer at King's College London (1994–99). It is understandable that these international colleges may simply be places of ill repute and vice, bearing in mind the British track record, of not honouring it's Royal pardons and their SS shredding her Majesty's writs. But if by chance, they even aspire to any claim of morality in their lawless neo-colony, then they sshould not need me to explain to them, how to commence what the Price of Justice requires.

As with freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, is also meant to be guaranteed, in a democratic peace process, with the reality, however being, that political assembly is a semi-criminal activity in British Occupied Ireland. Political protests are routinely met with vastly disproportionate police mobilizations, “kettling” (in which protesters are surrounded and forcibly moved in one direction or prevented from leaving an area), beatings, tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenades or plastic bullets are the standard British response to a peaceful, political protest, in a massive show of force, complete with riot gear and police snipers on rooftops. What is this but a police state, repression, combined with internment without trial, death squads, that murder human rights lawyers and journalists. A foundation for a Peace Process?

Ask the people of no property ghettoized across the neo-colony. They will tell you justice is locked up, it is political interned right now, in the form of Marian Price and Martin Corey. Like a slow burn fuse, internment without trial, is an instrument of war that burns in the Irish psyche and heart. It has no place in a peace process. Nobody can be that stupid, not even the Brits but to realize, it guarantees more war, especially in the instance of icons of Irish street resistance, to British colonial occupation in Ireland. It hasn't worked in a hundred years and it will not work now. No, like recent British aggressive wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria the British industrial war complex, demands permanent wars of profit and political research laboratories for their state terror in police state neo-colonies, such as British Occupied Ireland.

Ireland: Political prisoner Marian Price victim of British injustice

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

By Steven Katsineris

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, veteran Irish civil rights leader, said in response to the case of Irish republican Marian Price, who was returned to jail in 2011: “It is a clear signal to everyone who is not 'on board' and who is not of the same mind as the government that no dissent will be tolerated.

“No dissent will be tolerated and you challenge the status quo at your peril.”.

Marian Price, 59, is a long-time Irish republican activist and ex-Irish Republican Army volunteer. She was given two life sentences over bomb blasts in London in March 1973 that targeted a British army recruitment centre and Old Bailey courts. Price was one of nine republicans sentenced, including her sister Dolours and Gerry Kelly, who is now Sinn Fein MLA for North Belfast.

Price was given a “royal pardon” in 1980 and left prison suffering from poor health and weighing only five stone. The Price sisters had spent 200 days on hunger strike demanding to be transferred to a jail in Ireland's north, where republican prisoners had political status.

They were both forcibly restrained and force-fed three times a day over the last 167 days of the hunger strike.

Despite her health issues and prolonged jailing, Price remained politically active after her release. Her outspoken criticism of British rule caused problems for the British administration, who had probably hoped she would quietly fade from the political scene.

Price’s continued activism and vocal support for republicanism kept her under scrutiny and made her a target for British security services.

Jailed on orders of government official

Price was returned to prison in 2011, not on the basis of fresh evidence or any new offence. Rather, then-British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson ordered her detention and charged her with encouraging support for an illegal organisation.

The basis of this charge is that Price attended a 1916 Easter Rising Commemoration held in Derry; one of many held by Irish republicans each year. At the event, Price held up a piece of paper for a masked man from the 32-County Sovereignty Movement as he read out a message.

Three days later, Price was arrested. She was then granted bail, but arrested again after she left the court on Paterson's orders.

This time, the reason was based on secret information from the British intelligence services, which claims the evidence cannot be revealed due to national security concerns.

Later, Price was also charged with “providing property for the purposes of terrorism”; this allegedly related to her purchase of a phone, which authorities “think” was later used by attackers who killed two soldiers in 2009.

Price's supporters believe this is merely an attempt by the British authorities to link her with a crime. No evidence or connection to the incident was produced and she was again granted bail by the court.

Yet Price remains in prison due to Paterson's order.

Price's real transgression seems to be her critical remarks about conditions in the six Irish counties still claimed by Britain, and of the Good Friday Agreement that lead to the power-sharing arrangement between Sinn Fein and parties that support British rule in the north.

Solitary confinement

After her arrest, Price was held in solitary confinement in the all-male Maghaberry high security prison for more than nine months, despite not being convicted of any crime.

Then in February last year, Price was taken to Hydebank Women’s Prison where she served another nine months in solitary confinement.

In May last year, the so-called charges involving the Easter Commemoration incident were thrown out of court by a judge. Still Price remained in prison as her mental and physical health rapidly deteriorated.

Then in June, by now seriously ill, she was transferred to a secure ward at Belfast hospital.

The European Court and former Commission on Human Rights, as well as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), have said the use of solitary confinement can be classified as torture, depending on the circumstances.

The CPT has also said that solitary confinement “can amount to inhuman and degrading treatment” and has on several occasions criticised such practices. It has recommended reforms such as abandoning specific regimes, limiting the use of solitary confinement to exceptional circumstances, and/or securing inmates a higher level of social contact.

Furthermore, the revised European Prison Rules of 2006 have clearly stated that solitary confinement should be an exceptional measure and, when used, should be for as short a time as possible.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has also stated that prolonged solitary confinement constitutes a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment prohibited under Article 5 of the American Convention on Human Rights.

The UN’s lead investigator on torture, Juan Mendez, has called for governments to end the use of long spells of solitary confinement in prison. Mendez said such isolation could cause serious mental and physical damage and amounted to torture.

He further said that short term isolation was permissible only for prisoner protection, but all solitary confinement longer than 15 days should be banned.

Support for Price

In a joint statement in November last year appealing to US officials visiting Ireland to support calls for the release of Price, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein deputy first minister of the Northern Ireland Executive Martin McGuinness said: “[Price's treatment is a] serious case of injustice and denial of human rights and judicial rights in the north of Ireland.

“We believe that her detention is unjust and runs contrary to the principles of natural justice. We believe very strongly that Marian Price McGlinchey should be released.

“ Her human rights have been breached. She has been denied justice and due process. She is seriously ill. Her detention undermines the justice system and the political process.

“She clearly presents no threat to anyone.”

The campaign to release Price has encompassed a diverse range of people and political, social and community organisations across Ireland and elsewhere. Calls for her freedom have been backed by the two parliamentary nationalist parties in the north, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP).

Adams called for Marian’s release in November, January and again in March. McGuinness has also appealed several times for her release, most recently at Sinn Fein's Ard Fheis (congress). He also attended and gave evidence at the Parole Commissioners hearing a short time ago.

SDLP leader Alistair McDonnell called for her release on March 30. SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey has been a vocal supporter of the release of Price, as has Lisburn independent councillor Angela Nelson.

The campaign is also supported by a wide range of republican and national groups, including the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (of which Price is a member), Irish Republican Socialist Party, Republican Network for Unity, Eirigi, Republican Sinn Fein, Irish Freedom Committee, Friends of Irish Freedom, the Celtic League, the United Celtic Brotherhood and the 1916 Societies.

Calls for Price's freedom have also come from Dublin City Council, Fermanagh Council, Dungannon Council, Galway Council, Derry Council, Sligo Council and Omagh Council.

Among other groups calling for Price’s release are the Scottish Republican Socialist Party and Human Rights Watch UK.

Justice

Devlin McAliskey said: “I think what is very important for people to recognise that what is happening to Marian is not an isolated case. While it's happening here in Northern Ireland and we have had to call upon the UN Rapporteur for Health to exercise his authority to examine it ... [it relfects] the arrogance [of] many of the Western powers ...

“I think Marian's case is symptomatic of those things we see every day ... That people can still be imprisoned without due process and that many countries, particularly in the very powerful Western alliances, feel that UN resolutions and UN protections are for protecting them from their enemies, but not people from powerful states.

“Marian's case is not just something peculiar to the Northern Ireland situation. The increasing confidence with which fundamental human rights and due process and protections are being ignored ― I think is frightening.”

The treatment of Price amounts to a return to the bad days of interment without trial, enforced by the British on the nationalist community in Ireland's north in the early 1970s.

Price is being held purely because of her views and criticisms. She is being selectively targeted because she refuses to remain silent in the face of British coercion and repression.

The British justice system’s mistreatment of Price has again exposed it as the disgraceful, hypocritical and discriminatory structure that it is, a fact that Irish people have experienced throughout the colonial occupation of Ireland.

Price’s case reveals the contempt the British judicial system has for genuine fairness and due process.

Twice she was granted bail by judges, only to be rearrested due to orders signed by the Northern Ireland secretary of state. Price has been illegally imprisoned. The lack of a genuine case against Price and her jailing without due process is a travesty that must be remedied by her unconditional freedom.

Price’s human rights are being grossly violated by her long-term incarceration. She is effectively detained without trial, sentence or release date. This means she could be held for an indefinite time, an illegitimate procedure that allows the British administration to hold her for the rest of her life if it so desires.

On the basis of compassion, legal, civil and political rights, and those of common sense, Price should be released immediately.

Statement on Martin Corey by Jim McIlmurray

On Tuesday, April 16th, 2013, Lurgan man Martin Corey will have spent three years in Maghaberry Prison without any charges ever being placed against him. During that time, police have never questioned or interviewed Martin regarding any incident, occurrence or event relating to his imprisonment.

So who is Martin Corey ?

Martin Corey is a 62 year old man who served 19 years of his life in Long Kesh as a republican prisoner. He was released by the prison authorities in 1992 and began to rebuild his life. He is a popular figure from a well respected, hard-working family in the town.

It was a proud day for Martin when he was granted a loan to purchase his own mechanical digger. After a time, he gained the contract as the parish grave digger, covering several cemeteries in the greater Lurgan area. Many people, myself included, will recall his compassionate approach and professionalism during the time of families' bereavement.

In all the time I have known Martin, I have only known his interests to be his family, his friends and his love of coarse fishing.

On Friday, April 16th, 2010, the police arrived at his O’Neill’s Terrace home and told him they had a warrant for his arrest. Martin was brought to Lurgan PSNI station and later that day transferred to Maghaberry prison. It was stated he broke the terms of his Life Licence release. When his solicitor requested to know what Martin was alleged to have done, he was told it a matter of National Security and the subject of closed file information.

For the past three years, his solicitor and barristers have challenged his unlawful detention on numerous occasions in the High Court. On Monday, the 9th of July, 2012, a High Court judge, Justice Seamus Tracy, who has a background in the European Human Rights Courts, ordered Martin’s immediate release, stating that his Human Rights had been breached under sections 4 and 5 of the European Human Rights act and that there were no charges for which he should answer. I waited for 4 hours outside Maghaberry with Martin’s family that day, only to be told at 4:15pm that the then current Secretary of State, Owen Patterson, had overruled the High Court judge and blocked Martin's release. I was 25 yards away from Martin when I received that call. I watched him step out of the prison van at the reception centre and watched him walk back to the van to be returned to his cell. As he got into the van, he paused and starred at me and that will always be one of the hardest and cruelest moments I have ever witnessed in my life.


Martin has a legal entitlement to an annual Parole Board review every twelve calendar months to reevaluate the reasons for his continued detention. I have been accepted to speak on Martin’s behalf; however, every date set for a hearing for Martin last year was followed by a cancellation by the Parole Board, citing numerous excuses. Martin hasn’t received a parole review in 18 months, an action deemed illegal by the Court of Human Rights in Strasburg. We are currently awaiting a date to take this case to the High Court for a judicial review.


Martin has been subjected to a number of incidents during his time in Maghaberry Prison. These incidents include waiting over three weeks for an emergency dental appointment; of note, a veterinarian would have a legal obligation to report a pet owner for cruelty if he found an animal to be suffering for that period. Also, Martin's request for compassionate leave to attend the funeral of his brother was denied by both the Prison Service and the Courts without any reasons given. He was only granted leave to attend 1 hour before the service started after a request was made to the Justice Minister on humanitarian grounds. I had to make three requests to the Prison Ombudsman to intervene in cases concerning material submitted by myself for Martin for use in his cell crafts. The prison staff either confiscated the printed image materials or refused to provide them to Martin. The Prison Ombudsman upheld all three decisions in Martin’s favour, ruling against the Northern Ireland Prison Service and determining that the material must be provided to Martin.

Martin’s case has been in the High Court in Belfast several times over the past three years, without any finding of criminal offence with which to charge him. Had Martin been charged with possession of an illegal firearm during his arrest three years previously, he would have been released six months ago. There is no other name for his illegal detention other than internment without trail.

As a close friend of Martin's, I am in a better position than most to know if he was ever involved in any activity that could be deemed illegal or “a threat to National Security”, a phrase often utilized by faceless, nameless individuals in the courts. I can say without fear of contradiction that Martin is an innocent man. Everyone should make their voice be heard and call upon the Secretary of State to either bring charges against him or release him immediately.

I speak to Martin by telephone on a daily basis and visit him regularly in Maghaberry Prison, and can assure everyone that his spirits remain high despite his total lack of confidence in the judicial system in the North of Ireland. He thanks everyone for their continued messages of support .

We are currently awaiting a date to attend the Court of Appeal in London to challenge his illegal detention. If unsuccessful there, we will take his case to the European Courts of Justice. We will continue our presence at the Belfast High Court to request the Parole Board to give an explanation as to why Martin has been denied his legal right to an annual Parole Review.

Jim McIlmurray

Spokesperson for Martin Corey

BRITISH GOVERNMENT DISMANTLING IRISH PEACE PROCESS

Gerry Adams has informed the Dáil or Irish parliament that decisions made by the British Tory government, have seriously undermined the Belfast Agreement and the work of political institutions of the Irish Peace Process.

He also accused the current and past Irish governments in the Republic of taking their eye off the North. There are outstanding issues, such as a bill of rights an Irish language act, also to be dealt with.

“The Government is a co-equal guarantor with the British government of this agreement.This is not the British government’s agreement.’’

Mr Adams said the British government had reneged on an €18 billion commitment agreed to develop an economic peace dividend. He called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to join with him in calling on the British government to honour its commitments.Besides the examples of several breaches by the British of the Peace Process mentioned above, other Tory Government broken promises are as follows.

In the instance of the murder by the British Government death squads of a human rights lawyer, the party on behalf of Pat Finucane visiting Downing Street recently, included Pat’s widow Geraldine, children, Michael, Katherine and John; Pat’s brothers Martin and Seamus, former business partner, Peter Madden and campaigner, Jane Winter, arrived on a Tuesday afternoon.

Cameron entered the room, accompanied by VIceroyal for British Occupied Ireland, Owen Paterson and Cameron’s private secretary.Initially, things looked promising with Cameron, according to John Finucane:

“He came into the room and apologised to us on behalf of the British government for the collusion in my father’s murder. He also apologised for all the delays and broken promises which successive British governments have made to us for the last 10 years.

“We fully expected at that point that he was going to announce to us that he was going to allow an inquiry into my father’s murder. We had been led to believe for more than a year that this was what was going to happen. Instead he proceeded to inform us that he had asked a barrister to review papers in the case and report back to the Secretary of State. It was a total insult.”

The meeting was then immediately ended by Geraldine Finucane, when it was clear the British Prime Minister was ruling out any inquiry.John Finucane, said, “I think Mummy had had enough, she just said she didn’t want to hear anymore.She said she wanted the meeting to end.” Outside 10 Downing Street, Mrs Finucane said her rage was such that she could barely speak.There has also been an angry response from nationalist and human rights quarters.

Cameron’s handling of this case has surprised those who praised him for his handling of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry when he apologised to the 14 innocent victims shot by the British Army on the streets of Derry.

His treatment of the Finucanes, in contrast, reneges on the international agreement his government made with its Irish counterparts at Weston Park in 2001 as part of the Irish Peaxe Process to hold an inquiry into the Finucane murder.So what have the British got to hide?

British/Irish Rights Watch spokesperson Jane Winter, who was at the Downing Street meeting, said she is convinced that there are individuals in the highest echleons of the British establishment who do not want their role in the events surrounding Pat Finucane’s murder to become public.

“I have come to the conclusion that there is something about Patrick Finucane’s death that successive governments have tried to hide and still want to hide,” she said.

“There’s something so utterly damning that they don’t want the public to know.”

Referring to the detailed discussions which had taken place between Downing Street officials and the Finucane’s lawyers, Ms Winter said:

“There have been extensive talks for over a year between the two legal teams.

“All the talk was about what sort of public inquiry could be agreed.

“It certainly was more than what was offered by David Cameron.”

“The prime minister expressed his profound sympathy for the family and said it was clear from (the) Stevens and Cory (inquiries) that state collusion had taken place in Mr Finucane’s murder and he accepted these conclusions.

“On behalf of the government he apologised to the family.

“He confirmed that the government’s priority was to get to the truth in the best and most effective way and the secretary of state will set out the details for this process shortly.”

Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, also questioned whether the Prime Minister believed it was right to “renege” on a previous Government's commitment to hold a public inquiry into a killing he referred to as “a dark moment in the country's history.” 

In an email Sir Jeremy sent to Simon King, the private secretary to the British Prime Minister he asked, “Does the PM seriously think that it's right to renege on a previous Government's clear commitment to hold a full judicial inquiry?

“This was a dark moment in the country's history, far worse than anything that was alleged in Iraq/Afghanistan. I can’t really think of any argument to defend not having a public inquiry. What am I missing?” A reply email stated that Cameron “shares the view this is an awful case, and far worse than any post 9/11 allegation.”

Another item reneged on by the British, is the reintroduction of internment without trial, with the theft of a Royal Pardon by Britain's secret services MI5 and the shredding of the Royal document by the out of control British spooks. Both of these innocent, senior traditional Irish republicans, Marian Price and Martin Corey, have been kidnapped by the British Secret Service Mafia MI5 and imprisoned indefinitely by secret kangaroo courts.

Few British prime ministers have been as tireless in promoting Britain's arms industry as David Cameron. He calls it a key part of the UK's economy and he was heavily sponsored in the last election by the the British industrial war complex. He has promoted wars, arms and sectarianism not just in Afghanistan and the rich Gulf States in huge arms deals but has also promoted sectarianism in Libya and Syria.  

The British Tory Government policies, aside from breaking and ignoring the Irish Peace Process, is hell bent on promoting sectarianism in Ireland, as an excuse and  justification for another profitable British war, on ordinary Irish people. The British Tories are dismantling the Irish Peace Process, as part of their permanent war business worldwide.

British End Irish Peace Process

 international | anti-war | opinion/analysis  Saturday November 10, 2012 00:11 by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices 

Hypocrisy and Arms Deals – Quick Death, Fast Profits

Britain has a shameful track record of exporting arms, along with crowd control equipment, to torture regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. These arms, equipment, counter insurgency techniques, are to be tested again in the laboratory of British Occupied Ireland, something that came to halt during the peace process. Britain cannot claim to be on the side of peace and democracy while their Tory PM, sponsored in the last election by Britain's industrial war complex, acts as a travelling salesman for the arms industry. Sponsored too it appears, are certain elements of Britain's secret services who are responsible for ending the peace process in Ireland.

British Death Dealing Markets

Britain has a shameful track record of exporting arms, along with crowd control equipment, to torture regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. These arms, equipment, counter insurgency techniques, are to be tested again in the laboratory of British Occupied Ireland, something that came to halt during the peace process. Britain cannot claim to be on the side of peace and democracy while their Tory PM, sponsored in the last election by Britain's industrial war complex, acts as a travelling salesman for the arms industry. Sponsored too it appears, are certain elements of Britain's secret services who are responsible for ending the peace process in Ireland.

The troubled in Ireland and the use of British equipment and counter insurgency techniques, serves as a window to Britain's neo-colonies of their commonwealth, to involve themselves in the lucrative rackets and political corruption of armament sales, to their political stooges of neo-colonial commonwealth. With the shift in the political decision making process in Britain, now heavily weighted in the upper echelons of their secret service palace on the Thames, Cameron is merely a salesman for their war racket while political internees of secret courts and evidence, such as Marian Price, Peter Corey and Gerry McGeough simply pawns of provocation, to conclude the Peace Process in Ireland. While British Labour appeared to take the process seriously, the Tory leader in waiting, London Lord Mayor Boris Jonson probably expressed Tory sentiment best with his description of Sinn Fein activity as " Left wing crap."

There is no evidence since the Tories came to power, of any power sharing dividend of the peace process for Irish nationalists. Indeed Provisional Sinn Fein in the person of Adams and McGuinness, have been made to look increasing like boys whistling in the dark, by the sequence of Tory Vice royals, who in reality are ruling the orange statelet, with a distinctly arrogant bigoted London tone, rather than the usual provincial, orange, sectarian dictat. The Boston College debacle, the arrest in Belfast of former republican peacemakers, along with the return of internment are distinct breaches of the terms and spirit of the peace process.The Irish republican reaction of killing British operatives, is confirmation that the sponsored Tories and secret services, have achieved their target, of ending the process.

Recently the Guardian revealed that Britain lent Indonesia £630m to buy British arms for General Suharto when he was slaughtering protesterss. The weapons, included armoured cars, jet aircraft used against civilians in East Timor. £50m was lent to the Argentinian junta to buy British arms prior to the Falkland war. The British lent £12m taxpayers monies for Land Rovers to President Robert Mugabe. Amnesty International said vehicles were used to smash peaceful demonstrations. £100m in loans were provided to Egypt under Hosni Mubarak to buy British weapons. Unpaid loans were provided to Saddam Hussein in a war against Iran.

Tim Jones, policy officer at JDC told the Guardian; "For years the UK government has claimed it is not possible to find out where debts come from. The figures released show this was a lie. They reveal a history of horrendous loans to dictators such as General Mubarak, General Suharto and Saddam Hussein for military equipment. People in these countries should not have to pay these unjust debts."

A recent article by Colin Todhunter explains it further.

"British PM Cameron is often quite keen to stand in front of the TV cameras and lecture the public on the values of peace and democracy in an unstable world. With his public school accent and an air of authority and respectability afforded by the trappings of state, Cameron words may carry a good deal of weight to the casual observer. But what better way to evaluate his commitment to such high-minded principles by highlighting his actions.

Let’s cast our eyes towards the Arab world. Under Cameron, Britain is not only involved in stoking conflict in Syria right now, but also helped destroy Libya by supporting and taking part in an illegal NATO bombing campaign. Moreover, Britain not only exported weapons and crowd control equipment to Gaddafi months before attacking him, but also to dictator Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and to the regime in Bahrain, a clique which last year carried out the fiercest of crackdowns on protesters.

And this week, David Cameron is accompanying representatives of British weapons manufacturers to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in an attempt to win further lucrative defence contracts for UK firms.

Referring to this trip, Britain’s Green Party MP Caroline Lucas says that while the economy needs a boost, Cameron should draw the line at “dirty money”. Lucas went on to say that Britain has a shameful track record of exporting arms and equipment to regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Libya and said Britain can’t claim to be on the side of peace and democracy while the PM acts as a travelling salesman for the arms industry.

Henry McLaughlin, from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), added that despite everything that has happened in the last two years in the Arab world, the British government continues to bolster authoritarian regimes with weapons’ sales and to spend taxpayers’ money on promoting further deals.

The beneficiaries of the UK arms trade

While spokespersons from the British government are fond of telling the media that tens of thousands of British jobs depend on the defence industry and that huge arms deals are ‘good for the country’, it is well worth considering that defence companies are privately owned and that each worker employed in the UK by BAE Systems, the country’s largest defence contractor, is subsidised to the tune of around 13,000 pounds a head. It begs the question, media sound bites aside, who really benefits from the arms industry?

The arms sector’s contribution to the British economy is minimal, but the industry constitutes a very powerful and effective lobby and the links and revolving door between government and self-serving arms manufacturers have been noted (1). Little wonder then that in 2006, using a report from BASIC, the Oxford Research Group and Saferworld, and updated government figures, it was calculated that the arms trade received about 852 million pounds a year in subsidies. Much of this money goes to BAE, a company with a track record of bribery, espionage and arms deals with oppressive regimes, among other dodgy deeds.

Kaye Stearman from CAAT says that while BAE loves to talk about the supposed benefits it brings to the UK economy, the greatest benefits go to the arms company’s bosses. Top man at BAE Ian King pockets around a million pounds a year base salary, according to the 2010 BAE annual report and already has a pension pot of 11 million pounds. That’s not even taking into account his various share options.

David Cameron does a good job for the likes of King. In 2011, he was in Egypt mouthing platitudes about democracy and human rights as the Mubarak regime fell. Then he moved on with his arms dealers in tow to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia- those bastions of democracy and human rights, who were invited by the Cameron government to attend a London arms fair. And on the day that Cameron was in Libya celebrating another hollow victory for imperialism, many of his arms dealing cronies in London were reaping the rewards of his militaristic policies and salesmanship at the said fair, the Defence and Security Equipment International Exhibition.

As the London fair was in full flow, Cameron was in Libya wallowing in the limelight on the political platform of ‘protecting’ Libyans from Gadhafi. What sheer hypocrisy. Tens of thousands now lie dead in Libya, countless others were maimed and much of the country’s physical and social infrastructure is in ruins as a result of British-French military rockets and bombs.

Some 1,000 arms manufacturers displayed their wares in London, and over 40 countries were represented. The Economist Intelligence Unit (part of the Economist Group) stated that 14 of those countries were authoritarian regimes. Five countries, according to the British government itself, were countries with “the most serious human rights concerns.”

Quick death, fast profits

But who cares when there is a fast buck to be made? Certainly not the British government, which partly funded the event through its arms promotions organisation. Despite apparent concerns over repression and human rights abuses and despite soothing official statements about the stringent conditions for issuing sales licences for arms, Cameron has few qualms about selling to Algeria, Israel, Bahrain, Libya, Iraq, Saudi, Pakistan and the UAE, some of which constitute his government’s ‘arms export priority markets’.

While Cameron and British Foreign Secretary William Hague stand in front of TV cameras and make warm sounding speeches about humanitarianism and the precious nature of human life, they and their arms dealing buddies are all to willing to play fast and loose with the lives of millions of people through their militarism, the ratcheting up of regional tensions and the sanctioning of arms deals.

If the arms industry ever went into a mild panic when the Cold War finished, there was never any need. Despite the economic downturn and major defence cutbacks in the US and Europe, markets such as West Asia, Africa and India, the world’s largest arms importer, are on hand to keep the pot boiling. With politicians stuffed in back pocket and tensions being stoked in various locations across the globe, regional arms races seem likely to keep the arms trade in profit for a long time to come.

As far as India is concerned, according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, India is the world’s largest importer of arms and its imports have grown by around 240 per cent since 2000. In 2009/2010,New Delhi’s defence spending increased by 34 per cent in one year alone. Notwithstanding India’s concerns over China and its ongoing tensions with Pakistan, the Indian state is currently using 50,000 security personnel in an attempt to quell its Naxalite/tribal insurgency.

The insurgents are operating in some of the world’s most impoverished and politically disenfranchised geographic regions. It doesn’t take a cynic to ponder if such a situation merely represents a profitable opportunity for arms companies abroad to flog their wares to the Indian state in order for it to carry out repression on its poorest people who are resisting state-corporate land grabs.

In the meantime and back in Britain, people are continually fed the lie that eye-catching arms deals are good for “the country.” In this time of biting austerity, it’s the quality of life for us, the people, that really counts, not headline-hogging arms deals that ultimately fuel conflict to the detriment of the many and for the benefit of the few."

Related Link: http://irishblog-brianclarkenuj.blogspot.com/

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