A cloak of decency
A surprisingly honest assessment of Mason's `enquiry' into RUC
torture came from Official Unionist hack John Taylor on BBC TV's
`Tonight'' programme last Tuesday. He concluded: ``We welcome a
form of enquiry which will clear the RUC''.
Certainly Mason is taking no chances with his three-man team who
are to conduct the Brits' `private independent enquiry' into
Amnesty's allegations of RUC torture.
Judge Harry Bennett is a former Brit, having served with the
Royal Artillery; Professor John Marshall is also a former Brit,
having reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Army
Medical Corps and Sir James Haughton has forty-two years service
behind him in the Birmingham and Liverpool police.
The background and training of these three members of the English
middle-class ensures the results of the enquiry will be a sound
piece of Brit-speak, along the following lines:
``A few plainclothes RUC men (Special Branch) may have regrettably
over-stepped the mark in their creditable pursuit of terrorists.
But the RUC as a whole is a fine upstanding body of men fully
deserving the whole-hearted support of the public. Regrettably
Amnesty International by refusing to name their informants
rendered it impossible to investigate any particular case of
alleged ill-treatment''.
Basically the report will be full of the typical hypocrisy of the
occupation forces and will comprise a tissue of lies based upon
half-truths. The gentlemen investigators will very much regret
the over-enthusiasm of a few `bad apples' who might bring the
fine traditions of British democracy into disrepute.
A cloak of decency will be drawn across the horrors of
Castlereagh. None of the brutes and torturers will be brought to
the dock. Instead in a few months time the most expert (at
leaving no marks) will recieve promotion, whilst their senior
officers will be invited to afternoon tea and medals at the
residence of ``Her Majesty the Queen of England''.
Republican News, Saturday 19 June 1978.
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