Republican News · Thursday 13 February 1997

Illegal establishment

The British establishment campaign to free the two Scots Guards who murdered North Belfast teenager Peter McBride four years ago seeks to enshrine in law special treatment for British Army murderers. Ian Thain and Lee Clegg were released early, therefore so should James Fisher and Mark Wright (the two Scots Guards), they argue.

It is a campaign which, if successful, would give British soldiers a virtual licence to murder in Ireland. It is therefore of enormous significance for Nationalists, who are in the rifle sights of British soldiers every day.

Of course, up to now it has been the fact that members of the Crown Forces got away with murder. But in future they could be confident of getting away with murder. It would, literally, be one law for them and one law for Irish people.

It would also highlight the punitive nature of British justice which imprisons Irish republicans - some of whom have not been convicted of killing anyone - for more than twenty years while releasing Crown Force murderers after two, three or four years. Where now Margaret Thatcher's famous statement ``murder is murder is murder''?

Fr Des Wilson, speaking in support of the McBride family's campaign to have the soldiers serve their full sentences, spelt out how establishment support for the release of the two soldiers strikes at the heart of Britain's so-called democracy. He said: ``The British government has got to decide whether their courts are going to be supreme in the matter of the military.''

Judging by the Thain and Clegg cases, it is quite possible that the military, supported by a right-wing political and media establishment, are supreme.

Transatlantic dirty tricks

The importance the British government attaches to ending the US engagement in efforts to restore the peace process is shown by their dirty tricks to scupper that engagement. Way back before Bill Clinton was first elected, Conservative Central Office supplied George Bush with information which was supposed to smear Clinton.

In the same tradition of skullduggery was the British intelligence-inspired fantasy that US envoy Martha Pope was involved in a relationship with Sinn Féin negotiator Gerry Kelly.

That lie was quickly exposed but this past week has seen the exposure of a more elaborate and high-level British disinformation effort. The Times in London reported that US Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith may be removed as part of a major shift in White House policy. This was quickly denied by a White House spokesperson.

Then came another spin from the London media. US Secretary of State Madelaine Albright was to meet Patrick Mayhew in London next week and again it was supposed to herald a shift in policy, giving ``visible support'' to Mayhew. Now the Mayhew meeting is off, reflecting US anger at British conduct.

When will they ever learn?

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