A Chairde,
On Friday 17 February Albanian separatists blew up a coach packed with Serbian women and children in Northern Kosovo, killing seven people and seriously wounding 21, with ten more on the critical list.
It is scarcely credible that the RTE news service in its morning bulletins totally ignored this atrocity in what could only have been a blatant act of censorship. The story received major coverage on BBC radio and television news bulletins.
The prioritisation of stories in RTE news bulletins is of an increasingly bizarre disposition insofar as one atrocity will be highlighted and another ignored. The perceptive listener or viewer must come to understand how it is that the media, whilst purporting to be objective in its portrayal of world events, exercises a rigid form of censorship through constantly rejecting one story for another.
This must also lead the perceptive viewer to reach the conclusion that this prioritising of stories is in the service of a political agenda and that totalitarianism rules whilst the pretence is of democracy.
David Hanly on Mourning Ireland once famously summed it all up, it being the generalised chaos everywhere, with an admirably Hemingwayesque clarity and brevity, this in response to a guest banging on about human rights abuse. ``That,'' said Hanly, with a hint of exasperation tinged with world weariness, ``is capitalism, is it not?''
Hanly's guest could thank his lucky stars that he had not encountered the redoubtable Aine (Maximus Interruptus) Lawlor or Richard (Oberstrumbahnfuhrer) Crowley...
Of course when David hanly conceded that inequality and injustice are synonymous with capitalism he was sending out a message to listeners at large to the effect that protest or even challenge and you might say debate about inequality and abuse of power is futile.
This being the case, why bother about programmes such as Mourning Ireland? Music would be preferable, though we would have to expect frequent interpolations from Big Brother. Listeners would at least be spared the unseemly squabbles so characteristic of Mourning Ireland.
John Kelly,
Mullingar,
County Westmeath.
Spanish `democracy'
A Chairde,
I would like to take this opportunity to call your attention to events in the Spanish/French occupied Basque Country. Since the Spanish right-wing party the PP got into power things are getting worse for us.
While Spanish prime minister Aznar tries to appear internationally as a peace maker offering himself to mediate between Israel and Palestine in the search for peace through dialogue, his only way to deal with us, the Basques, is through police and more repression.
While Judge Garzon tries to imprison Pinochet, he closes his eyes to the hundreds of Basques who have suffered torture under interrogation.
The following numbers (for the year 2000) speak for themselves:
Nearly 700 people arrested, this means two every day. 253 of them were arrested under the special laws against terrorism and being so they were isolated for several days while under interrogation. 77 people claimed to have suffered torture during interrogations. 200 police charges against marches and demonstrations causing injuries to tens of people. More than 30,000 people stopped, identified and searched in more than 200 nearly permanent police checkpoints.
But this numbers will not surprise anybody who knows that in the spanish occupied Basque Country there are 5,200 members of the Spanish Civil Guard, 2,550 members of the Spanish national police force, 4,000 of the Spanish army and nearly 7,000 members of the so called Basque police, while in the smaller French-occupied Basque Country there are 2,000 members of the different French police forces and army. This means a 21,000 strong repressive force being 14,000 of them foreign and not wanted invaders in a country whose population is about 2.5 million people.
We demand the Spanish and French estates to bring their troops out and to let us establish a true democratic and free Basque Country!
GDM
Spanish-occupied Basque Country
mRUC recruiting must stop
A Chairde,
I recently read an article in An Phoblacht about the present recruitment drive being pushed by Sir Ronnie Flanagan to encourage the recruitment to a ``new'' type of police force in Northern Ireland. At this present time it can be seen as nothing more than an attempt to attract people to the ranks of the RUC and not this new police force in Northern Ireland given that the new force is not in any way operational. I do not know whether this is an illegal act or not, however, one thing is clear and that is that this recruitment drive should be stopped immediately.
The credibility and impartiality of the RUC has long since been in doubt, even more so by the uncovering of evidence that suggests that there has been widespread collusion between the RUC and Loyalist Paramilitary forces, evidence which I happen to think is highly believable. Because of this, I do believe that the recruitment campaign for a new police force in Northern Ireland should not be headed or even encouraged by the current head of the RUC as this brings into doubt the credibility of the new organisation. I am in no way trying to smear the reputation or image of Sir Ronnie Flanagan, however, I do believe that it is his position as head of a dubious police force that brings into doubt the campaign to encourage recruitment to this new force. He should not be allowed to publicly declare his support for this new force as his association with the RUC is detrimental to its image and, more importantly, as this new force is not in existence, he is, technically, encouraging recruitment into the ranks of the RUC. This should certainly not be allowed.
As a republican who believes in Irish unity, I do believe that it should be officers of the Gardai who should police the Ulster province, but as this is not going to happen in the near future, I certainly believe that there should be, at least, an impartial police force in operation whilst Ulster is still in British hands. The RUC should be dissolved immediatly and most certainly should not be associated in any way with the creation of a new impartial police force in the region given their unmistakable pro-Unionist stance. In the meantime, I can only hope that the day that sees British occupation of Ireland end and the land being returned to its rightful people is not too far in coming.
Dan Walford
All-Ireland Foot and Mouth plan needed
A Chairde,
It is sad to see some Irish journalists and politicians aping the wilder extremes of the anti-Agreement, right-wing British press in trying to blame republicans, (or even the Good Friday Agreement!), for the importation of Foot and Mouth Disease into Ireland.
The truth is that, at the very outset, when FMD was first suspected in Britain, Sinn Féin called for an immediate ban, north and south, on animals and animal produce from Britain. This could have been relatively effectively policed at ports and airports. Such an all-Ireland response could have been quickly implemented if we had stronger all-Ireland Bodies, as argued by Sinn Féin in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations.
Now, it is obviously much more difficult and costly to prevent the spread of disease across an arbitrary border, which ignores even local natural boundaries and where smuggling has been endemic since partition.
Of course, the same logic applies to BSE, which has seriously affected farming, north and south. And, it is clear from the way in which sporting events are proceeding quite normally in England, Scotland and Wales, that agriculture and food processing still plays a much more important role in all of Ireland than in Britain. The lesson is obvious: we need a much more integrated all-Ireland strategy in agriculture, animal health, food processing and the environment.
Cllr Dessie Ellis
Sinn Féin
Finglas, Dublin 11
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)