Republican News · Thursday 22 May 2003

They cancel elections and kill 'their own' citizens

BY JIM GIBNEY

It has been a bad few weeks for the British government, its policy makers and those trying to wreck the peace process.

It might not seem so at first glance but it has been a good few weeks for republicans, nationalists, democrats across this island and those working for Irish independence and reunification.

The British government is in the dock of Irish, US and British public opinion, accused of behaving like a 'tin pot' dictatorship for cancelling the Assembly election.

They also stand accused in the wake of the revelations surrounding the 'Stakeknife' affair of killing their own citizens through the use of agents working for their various intelligence services.

These revelations come hot on the heels of the recent Stevens' report which concluded that the British Army and the RUC colluded with loyalists to target and kill those perceived to be a threat to the state.

No one except a small group of people around David Trimble accepts Tony Blair's explanation that the democratic outcome of the Assembly election would have made forward movement in the peace process impossible.

It does not matter whether Stakeknife is a real person or the product of a fertile MI5/6 mind. What matters to democrats, to peacemakers, is that the British government at the level of Downing Street ran murder gangs and approved the killing of its own citizens in the Six Counties.

important element of the peace process is educating and informing public opinion here and abroad.

Republicans are trying to convince more and more people to support our analysis of the origins of this conflict and our solution for solving it - independence.

So when we say that partition, British rule in this part of our country is undemocratic, indeed anti-democratic, this view is confirmed in people's minds by Tony Blair's cancellation of the election.

When we say that British State forces routinely directed and manipulated loyalist paramilitaries and other agents through their intelligence services and they killed hundreds of people across Ireland, this is confirmed in people's minds by the Stevens' report and the Stakeknife affair.

It is, of course, difficult to distill judgements such as these from the whirlwind of misinformation and the 'avalanche of spin', as Gerry Adams described it in his Ulster Hall speech last Thursday night, that surrounds the Stakeknife story.

Nonetheless, it is important for republicans to bring forward their own views of what is going on.

We don't have to settle on any one particular view about Blair's motivation in suppressing the democratic voice of the people.

Those who argue that he did it to save David Trimble from the DUP are right. Those who say he did so to halt the growth of Sinn Féin are right.

Those who say he did so because at this point in time his political/military system cannot cope with the ongoing impact of the peace process are also right.

Similarly, we don't have to settle on any one particular view of the motivation of those behind the Stakeknife story. Those who argue it is aimed at demoralising republicans and undermining the IRA's integrity are right.

Those who argue that it is the securocrats trying to undermine the peace process are right.

That it is evidence of a turf war between MI5 and MI6 for control of informers and intelligence operations in Ireland; that it is a diversion away from the real story, Blair's denial of democracy - these and many other theories are all valid.

All of this speculation is not only important, it is essential. We must try to make political sense of all that is happening. In doing so, we can plot a course out of the morass of confusion and give political direction to those who seek the maximum political change.

We cannot afford to be either transfixed by the latest 'event' or paralysed or be driven to despair.

What we are witnessing is the unravelling of a centuries old conflict; a trial of strength between those who want the old order to remain in control and those seeking to sweep this order to one side.

There are very powerful forces on the side of those opposed to change.

They are the people who plotted Bloody Sunday, defended doing so and are frustrating the inquiry into the massacre. They are the people who allowed ten men to die on hunger strike, the same people who used loyalists to kill our neighbours, comrades and friends.

There is a fall out from recent events which can serve the interests of those seeking to ensure the peace process works.

So democracy cancelled in the Six Counties provokes a debate in the US Congress. A full-page advertisement criticising Blair's decision appeared in the New York Times signed by powerful and influential people.

Kevin Mc Namara sponsored a debate in the British House of Commons about the Intelligence agencies killing Irish people.

A wider debate has been generated about the morality of what the British government presides over in the Six Counties.

Questions are posed about the quality of a society that cannot function properly, where elections are cancelled.

Questions are asked: 'Is it permissible for the government to break its own laws, to kill its own people? What value the law? What value the government?

Comparisons are being made between the Six Counties and military dictatorships in other parts of the world.

The conclusion that people will draw from all of this is that there is something rotten at the heart of society on this part of the island.