Fourthwrite .......................Issue No. 9

Camp X-Ray treatment was tried in Ireland

by PJ McClean

The recent release of the state's '30 year papers' once again pointed out how a combination of terrorism and the bending of the laws of the land fed the flames of communal terror and internecine strife which has plagued the last 30 years of our lives here in Northern Ireland.

Most people in these islands can now see that when governments adopt the methods of the terrorist and sink to their barbaric level of depravity, the dragon's teeth they sow take years to reap. Who can deny that internment and the proven inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in 1971 left us with the bitter legacy still burning itself out in the bitter sectarian clashes of North Belfast and the ongoing murder of innocents?

Citizens here in Northern Ireland have learned something, admittedly painfully slowly, from the experiences of those dreadful years. At both political and community level they have made valiant efforts to restore civil society to a state of order with agreed political structures functioning under the rule of law valiantly upheld by an accountable and largely acceptable policing service.

But what have governments learned? That question is prompted by what we see and read of the treatment meted out to the Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners. Added to hooding, disorientation, de-humanisation and isolation is depravation in chains half way around the globe. From the experiments carried out here 30 years ago the Government of the USA seems to have learned a new lesson- to create a No Man's Land where no law prevails.

What protection has a prisoner in that No Man's Land? How is he designated? Is he entitled to any rights? To visits? By whom? Who is to speak to him? In what language? Is his family entitled to be punished too by his banishment? But the question is posed, "What can one do with ruthless terrorists?" "These men are murderers. Their arrest and questioning has uncovered untold amounts of arms and saved countless lives."

Maybe so, but that refrain is familiar to those of us who were forced to undergo those torturous methods 30 years ago. We too were declared murderers and ruthless terrorists. The world was told that these methods of securing information led to the uncovering of caches of arms and thus saved countless innocent lives. But no arms were found and not one of those interned or forced to undergo the cruel and degrading treatment was ever charged with an offence or brought before a court. And when the propaganda war had abated the International Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg upheld our cases and found the Government guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees.

But even  in those terrible circumstances the detainees in Northern Ireland could be said to have been fortunate. Thirty years ago the Government of the day hadn't learned to create a No Man's Land. Even ships like the Maidstone were subject to the laws of the land and International Conventions. Prisoners had the opportunity of obtaining legal redress. What of the Afghanis in the No Man's Land of Guantanamo Bay? Where will they seek redress? Who cares? Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said that how a nation treats its prisoners reflects the type of nation it is? But in the early years of this new millennium are we talking about "Nation" or "world domination"? 

Does the new definition of  "illegal combatants" of the detainees in Camp X-Ray presage the arrival and imposition of a new world order based solely on the test of what is seen to be of US National Interest? Is the Geneva Convention deemed to be past its "sell-by" date (in this newly dominated world) as was the Kyoto Treaty and the International Criminal Court? With nuclear testing listed for re-commencement and the anti-ballistic treaty dead, is the scene actually set for global submission or else?

If the last 30 years of murder, mutilation and mayhem here in Northern Ireland have taught the combatants one lesson it is that "or else" doesn't work. There is another way.

The presence, the treatment, the designation and subsequent repatriation of the detainees now in the No Man's Land of Guantanamo Bay may yet provide the challenge to focus on, would give real meaning to what President Bush has so far paid lip service to in a recent speech when he spoke of "human dignity", "the rule of law", "free speech" and "equal justice". He omitted any reference to "solidarity" or the "international brotherhood and sisterhood of man". Perhaps that concept doesn't square too well with what is now taking place