Up
until two nights ago, I had never met John Devine.
I had learned of his existence days earlier as a
result of media reports that he had been abducted
from his West Belfast home, and was later found
in a dishevelled state in Monaghan. Then the rumour
mill began to crank itself up. In some minds the
shadow of suspicion cast itself in the direction
of Provisional republicans. DUP leader Ian Paisley,
having lost none of his tunnel vision, and sensing
an opportunity to chisel away at Sinn Fein's negotiating
position, raised the issue with the British prime
minister.
But
Devine was said to hold views that would place him
closer to Republican Sinn Fein than to its Provisional
counterpart. He had earlier been released after
a prosecution case against him in relation to a
bomb scare on board a Belfast bus collapsed. While
he formally denies being a member or active supporter
of any armed republican group, the inflection used
when stating, 'I do support the plight of republican
prisoners and will continue to do so' suggests to
the seasoned observer that Devine is striving to
be honest in a context governed by certain legal
constraints.
Had
his abductors belonged to the Provisional movement,
there would have been a cacophony of voices from
RSF and like minded quarters, accusing the Provos
of being Broy Harriers. But with nothing hurled
in the direction of the usual suspects the silence
seemed instructive. The Provisionals, on this occasion,
would not have invited ridicule by protesting their
innocence.
When
the Blanket took a call from someone seeking
assistance for John Devine, there was no debate
about the merits of the matter. Highlighting injustices
inflicted on those least capable of countering them
is a time-honoured role of the Blanket. Many
of those associated with the journal acquired their
republican outlook in an era when republicanism
appeared to speak truth to power. Fighting the corner
of the abused, demonised, marginalised and powerless
seemed so natural that to do otherwise would be
to erode the very reason for being involved in republican
political activism.
When
John Devine arrived in my home, over a week after
his ordeal, he walked gingerly. The reason for his
discomfort was evident. The parts of his body visible
to the eye bore the signs of severe abuse. His hands
were grotesquely swollen and misshapen. It was difficult
for him to hold a pint glass of water and drink
freely from it. The glass perched precariously in
his palm, beyond the power of any grip, and always
looked as it were about to topple over. When his
companion rearranged his clothing to expose swathes
of purple flesh, I sensed instinctively I was in
the company of someone who had undergone torture.
John
Devine's story is as simple as it is appalling.
On Saturday the 23rd of October, three to four men
came to his home. After a brief introduction, he
felt something prod into his back. The words, barked
into his ear, 'internal security, you are under
arrest' conjure up a vile image of Freddie Scappaticci
sadistically stalking some hapless prey on behalf
of his British handlers. This time the ‘internal
security’ belonged to the Continuity IRA. What
operations its ‘internal security’ is
designed to protect frustrates the investigative
powers of even the most assiduous researcher. The
organisation has proved itself wholly incapable
of mounting any challenge to the things it claims
to be opposed to. There are no state forces graves
marked with ‘killed by the Continuity IRA.’
Compared to the campaign once waged by the Provisionals,
CIRA’s is a farce.
After
being placed under ‘arrest’ John Devine
was taken out of his home and transported to the
Giant's Foot where his eyes were taped and his limbs
bound before he was placed in a car boot and whisked
off for a rendevouz with his torturers. After what
seemed an hour, he was taken out of the car to be
punched and beaten. He was then hauled to a building,
the floor of which had been covered in advance with
plastic sheeting. This was a planned torture, not
something carried out on a whim. There he was beaten
continuously and accused of being an informer. Those
brutalising him insisted that he disclose the identity
of his handlers. He denied the allegations put to
him. Fearful for his own life and terrified at the
prospects that his children would have to go through
life in West Belfast scarred by the stigma that
their father had been shot dead for being
an informer, he remained steadfast in his determination
not to confirm the charges being laid by his accusers.
John
Devine was next told that the beating was only phase
one; if he failed to comply with the demands of
his tormentors he would shortly enter phase two
- 'you won't like it.' He was then made to lie face
down for hours on the plastic sheeting while he
contemplated the certain horror of what lay ahead
in phase two.
Eventually,
he was hauled from his prone position and taken
to another room. It too had the same plastic sheeting
covering the floor. It was an anti-forensic measure.
Once Devine had been adjudicated upon the plastic
would be rolled up and easily disposed off. No effort
expended in laboriously removing forensic traces
from the torture chamber. In his new room, he was
again subject to a similar line of questioning.
His hands were burned with what he thinks was a
soldering iron. I cast a glance at his battered
fingers as he moved them painfully and nervously
while he detailed his experience to me. 'It was
terrible, I felt my hands were melting in a furnace.'
His
captors asked him how his children would feel about
their father being shot dead as an informer. 'My
kids know I am not an informer' was how he responded.
Although there is a touch of the infantile to a
forty-year-old man swearing on the graves of dead
IRA volunteers Dan McCann, Finbarr McKenna, Sean
Savage and Jim McKiernan, as evidence of his fidelity
to the code of omerta, it loses any pejorative significance
when judged in the context of the state of his mind.
A guy from a working class nationalist community
being tortured by sadists will invoke all manner
of things to keep them at bay, to delay another
searing sensation brought on by the burning of one's
own flesh. How many unfortunate Catholics failed
to swear feverishly or pray fervently at the hands
of the Shankill butchers? Devine's invocations were
laughed at derisorily.
As
the hours worn on his abductors asked Devine where
he wanted his bullet - to the front of the head
or the back:
Exact
numbers are hardly relevant - Devine’s body
tells its own story. What he was subjected to was
prolonged and severe. Perhaps sensing that torture
alone was not producing the desired outcome his
captors then offered him an amnesty which they advised
him to avail of. Insisting that he had done no wrong
for which he could be amnestied, he declined the
offer.
He
was then brought to a field and asked if he wanted
to pray before being shot. He said he did. Next,
he found himself being once again pushed into the
boot of a car, and after a journey of about an hour
he was taken out and told 'your time is up.' He
lay in stunned disbelief tinged with relief as they
told him he would have to leave the country within
twenty-four hours and seek refuge in Scotland. Opting
not to kill him, his kidnappers left him lying beside
a gatepost. Despite his injuries he eventually managed
to wriggle free. A passing motorist whom he tried
to wave down failed to stop but did report the sighting
to the gardai. They arrived on the scene and immediately
sent for an ambulance.
Later,
having discharged himself from a Cavan hospital,
he returned to Belfast where he told the Irish
News of his ordeal. His vivid account, coupled
with the paper’s photographs of his injuries,
obviously annoyed his torturers. Their response
was to fire shots into his West Belfast home. A
caller, rang the Irish News claiming the
attack on behalf of the Continuity IRA. Mustering
all the haughtiness of the brownshirts, the caller
asserted, ‘that will teach him and anyone for
shooting their mouth off.’ In other words the
sadists who are allowed to be members of this militarily
ineffective army can torture at leisure and nobody
shall utter a word in protest for fear of their
violence.
Further
angered that John Devine has provided an account
of events surrounding his abduction that challenges
its own version, the Continuity IRA today told the
Irish News that it regretted not having killed
its captive. It warned that, ‘should Mr Devine
continue to defy our order, then he will be dealt
with accordingly.’ In a clear threat to anyone
‘harbouring’ John Devine, the organisation
also stated that they too would be ‘dealt with.’
The
people who tortured John Devine should be cast out
from any republican body. Their claim to stand in
the tradition of past eminent republicans is mocked
by their use of torture. They have company alright
- the war criminals of Abu Ghraib. Whether they
like it or not, the tortured of the world will be
harboured from the torturers. The Blanket
will speak out against the torture of John Devine.
It will not be silenced by ‘internal security.’
Republicanism must always side with those being
burned at the stake and never with the witch hunters
who burn them.
