Blair can act on POWs
By the end of next week Sinn Féin leaders will have visited
republican POWs throughout Ireland and Britain briefing them on
the current situation and listening to their views on the peace
process.
The issue of the prisoners is at the heart of the peace process.
In 1994 the response of the then Conservative Government was to
punish republican POWs for the fact that there was an IRA
cessation in the first place. The brunt of this deterioration was
felt by POWs in English jails. They were deprived of the few
facilities they had, put in SSUs, strip searched and constantly
moved from prison to prison, while some prisoners were held
beyond the formal length of their unjust sentences. In sum they
were sytematically brutalised and deprived of basic human rights
at the behest of Home Secretary Michael Howard.
Over the next few weeks the British Government is supposedly
establishing the bonafides of the IRA cessation. Over the same
time period there is a requisite for Tony Blair and his
government to establish their bonafides. Next week Mo Mowlam will
meet with Sinn Féin and this is a positive step. It was nine
months before Patrick Mayhew conceded to take a similar step.
Tony Blair can use these weeks to order the end the holding of
POWs in SSU's. He can stop the ghosting of POWS and end the red
tape preventing the transfer of prisoners to Ireland. He can
direct his Home Secretary to review the continued detention of
prioners who have served 20 year sentences and where even in the
twisted British court system no reason exists for their continued
encarceration. He should also end the twisted and morally
bankrupt courts system that condemns people to 35 year sentences
not for murder or destruction of property but on the allegation
of conspiracy.
Ultimately Blair should move swiftly to release the POWs.
International experience has taught that it is not possible to
resolve a political conflict while those imprisoned as a direct
result of that conflict remain in jail.
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