It has become increasingly clear, since the new DUP led administration was
established at Stormont, that there is no political will within the leading
political parties of the United Kingdom and Ireland to work towards a Truth,
Justice and Reconciliation Commission that looks at the years of the north
of Irelands 'dirty war', including the criminal collusion that we now know
took place between UK Security Forces and Irish para-militaries.
For the London based political parties, real scrutiny of the 'secret state'
has always been out of bounds. At best a Westminster Parliamentary committee
will periodically look at the work of the security services. The members of
this Committee are more often than not selected due to their longevity as
parliamentarians, past links with the military, or worse, the very security
services they are tasked to investigate. Thus no one is surprised when the
members of this committee merely tinker around the edges and offer up a
report that give the boys and girls at Spook Central an 'A+'.
Consider that the UK Security Services down the years failed to see
the threats: the Argentine military posed to the UK Protectorate the Falkland
Islands; allegedly reported wrongly to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair
that Saddam Hussein's regime had WMDs etc; and at one time had as head of the
counter-espionage department which worked against the Soviet Union, Kim
Philby, who went on to end his career as a KGB General and holder of the
Order of Lenin. One might have thought at the very least a little
more diligence would have been more appropriate when overseeing the security
services. But such is the obscure Byzantine ways of the class ridden British
Establishment.
The north of Ireland's political parties, many of whom represent politically
the victims of UK State collusion, are little better. The Unionists secretly
regard any collusion that tool place as being a necessary price to be paid
for defeating and bringing to heel the Provisional Republican Movement. The
SDLP is far too timid to go out on a limb over this matter as it is not how
they operate, still believing after all that has happened in the north of
Ireland that back channels are the way to conduct 'civilized'
political business when dealing with the UK State.
As to Sinn Fein, whilst I have no doubt the majority of its membership wish
to see the British murder machine in Ireland exposed and brought to account,
their leaders, having signed the GFA, are like a fly caught on an old
fashioned fly-paper, believing they have no option but to concede this one
to the British State, as they are fearful of what might be revealed about
contacts between the security services and leading Republicans if any
Commission was to seriously look into the dirty war. When periodically SF
leaders fail to restrain themselves due to pressure from below and start
making public statements about the need for a collusion enquiry, the British
quickly swat them down by retaliating with a leak to some opportunist
Unionist politico, who threatens to name some unfortunate Sinner as a long
time British security force informer.
So does this mean a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission is dead in
the water as many commentators now claim? Not at all. What the
aforementioned means is that the responsibility for bringing any TJ&RC into
being rests where it always has, with civil society, both in Ireland, the
UK, EU and USA. Mr friend Anthony McIntyre is mistaken when he wrote in a
recent Blanket article that
"It is hard to see how the issue of truth is
going to be resolved. The stark answer is that it won't be. The current
British government would need to be of the same mind as the present
Argentinean government which has taken a strong stand against the record of
the 1976-83 military junta and is demonstrably prepared to grasp the nettle
of state murder and torture".
For what Anthony failed to mention was that previous Argentinean Governments
were just as hostile when it came to looking at the dark years of the
Military Junta in Argentina as the current British government is to a
TJ&RC It was only continuous pressure from Argentine Civil Society that
brought
about a change in government policy, beginning with the Mothers of the Plaza
de Mayo, who three decades ago began their protest in Buenos Aires in
support of the victims of the Junta's dirty war.
Are those who have been the victims of UK State collusion in criminality any
less worthy than their Argentine counterparts? Of course not, nor should we
underestimate the great reluctance and hostility any campaign for TJ&RC will
face from the UK State and its Irish political acolytes. But the struggle
for human rights and state accountability has never been easy and has
always been paved with a mirage of governmental mantraps and diversions. But
by mentioning the Argentine example Anthony has done us a service, for what
it shows is solidarity, persistence and bloody mindedness can achieve
progress if not tiny miracles. For time and again the Mothers of the Plaza
de Mayo were told by the nay-sayers that they could never succeed and were
threatened and bullied by the representatives of the State and various
political parties who were complicit in the Military Junta's dirty war. But
succeed they did.
We should also not over look the fact that like its Argentinean counterpart,
the campaign for a TJ&RC may well take time to achieve its aims and during
that period many of the current politicians who are placing road blocks in
its path will gradually be leaving the political scene. This leaves the way
open for others, possibly more opened minded and less tainted by the past, to
take their place and thus it is essential that when this generational change
occurs, a strong, vocal TJ&RC Campaign is knocking on their door.
The struggle for a TJ&RC is part of the broader struggle for the United
Democratic Socialist Republic. For with the GFA, the British State is doing
all it can to turn the clock back and rewrite its brutal history in the six
counties. An ongoing campaign to expose the levels of UK collusion in
criminality during the long war is necessary to expose those who choose to
acquiesce to the revisionist historical viewpoint. There are those who will
and do claim that the military occupation of the six counties during the
long war was all about enforcing the rule of law. The very presence of an
active TJ&RC campaign and the British State's refusal to establish such a
Commission will tell the world that British claims about being the guardians
of the rule of law in Ireland are nothing less than historical hogwash.
Mick's Blog: Organized Rage
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