The Compton Report despite the whitewash, has lifted the rock and shown us some of the scum which wriggles around underneath the surface of British politics.
The enquiry found that prisoners in internment were Made to stand in the "crucifixion" position against a wall, in one case for 43 hours; Subject to a continuous monotonous electronic noise machine; Deprived of sleep for fifty hours or more; Forced on a diet of bread and water. Wall torture. All eleven men whose cases are described had to spend long periods outstretched against walls, with their feet out from the wall and only their fingertips touching it. The report concludes "As regards the posture on the wall we find that the action taken to enforce this posture constituted physical ill-treatment" (para.92).
However in para 48 they attempt to justify the treatment. It requires "detainees to stand with their arms against a wall but not in a position of stress" it "provides security for detainees and guards against physical violence during the reception and search period and whenever detainees are together outside their own rooms in a holding room awaiting interrogation."
In para.64 they explain how Mr. Auld was kept in this position for 43% hours and Mr. Clarke for 40 hours in a period of six days -presumably for their own self defence?
In para.80 they offer a quite extraordinary justification for the beating of prisoners. "We were told that in a number of instances as a result of maintaining the required posture for a considerable period an interrogated would find his hands or arms had become numb. In such cases the guards would rub the hands or swing the arms of the interrogated to restore normal feeling".
According to Compton this was not torture, but in para. 62 we are blandly told "if a detainee collapsed on the floor he was picked up by the armpits and placed against the wall to resume the approved posture."
Hood Torture. In para. 93 Compton says "the general allegations are substantiated and we consider that they constituted physical illtreatment." However, in para. 59 we are told "we were told that in fact some complainants kept their hoods on when they could have removed them if they wished."
Noise Torture. They admit that this is "a form of physical ill-treatment."
Starvation. Para. 95 "we find physical illtreatment in the diet of one round of bread and one pint of water every six hours for men who were being exhausted by other measures at the same time."
The main task of the Compton Report was not to find whether or not torture had taken place. Its task was to free the British government from the horns of a dilemna.
Because of the close-knit nature of society in northern Ireland, what was happening inside the internment camps was already common knowledge. This knowledge, when added to an already bitter hostility to the Unionist government in general, and to the internment policy in particular, has created such a groundswell of resentment and anger in the Catholic community that it has forced the withdrawal of all politicians claiming Catholic support from public office.
The appointment of the Catholic Dr. Newe to Faulkner's government only emphasizes this withdrawal. The British government desires to reverse this trend, in particular, there is a desire to get the SDLP; the main opposition party, to return to Stormont. A reversal of this abstentionist policy is considered crucial to the British government's policy of dividing the Catholics and attempting to isolate the Republicans from the more compliant elements. British counter-insurgency experts see this as the key to the success of their war in Ireland.
The Red Mala 90th Novamhor 1071 Pons Q how to whitewash British Imperialism It has been well known for a long time that Gerry Fitt has been entering into negotiations to this end behind the backs of his colleagues. Had the Compton Report been a complete whitewash, it would have decreased the possibility of success for this manoeuvre.
An enquiry which told the truth however, would have so repulsed public opinion in Britain that it would have increased the pressure, alreasy mounting, for the end of internment and the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland.
Compton's solution is to redefine the meaning of the word brutality.
In para. 105 the report says, "We consider brutality is an inhuman or savage form of cruelty. and that cruelty implies a disposition to inflict suffering, coupled with indifference to or pleasure in the victim's pain."
Thus, by their definition, brutality has nothing to do with the condition of the person who is being maltreated, it depends on the state of mind of the person inflicting the treatment. Not since De Valera got the definition of a Republic from the Oxford Dictionary has British imperialism been so well served by a semantic play on words.
This hair splitting provides the basis for a preamble to the report by Maudling who states "the committee have found no evidence of physical brutality, still less of torture and brain washing."
Supporters in Britain of the Irish people's struggle should refuse to be drawn into these semantic discussions. Britain has no right in relane.
Our task is to use the increased awareness in Britain of what is happening in the Ulster torture chambers to intensify our campaign in this country for the end of internment, the withdrawal of British troops.
For this reason, we welcome the decision of the Anti-Internment League to mount a demonstration through the West End of London of December 19th, Demonstrate against torture and Internment in Ireland for the withdrawal of British troops.
Sunday 19th December, 4.00 pm.
Assemble Embankment, Charing Cross Tube Station.
Sean Reed
SAOR EIRE
The war in the north of Ireland overshadows events in the south. Yet there is a struggle going on there too. The forcible entry' Bill recently passed in Dublin is a savage piece of le gislation to beat the widespread agitation on housing. The police too are extremely active.
it is generally believed that the Lynch regime is both eager and willing to do as other Fianna Fail governments have done, and intern the IRA. The first shift of a balance of forces in their favour will allow them to launch an onslaught of the mass republican movement. Meanwhile they don't dare move. At the moment they content themselves with picking off left wing republicans a few at a time. The latest victims are Sean Morrissey and Paddy and Joe Dillon, republican activists, and allegedly members of Saor Eire (Free Ireland) Group. The three have been on the run for eighteen months. Two of them Sean Morrissey and Joe Dillon are now charged with the murder of a policeman Richard Fallon. The third Paddy Dillon was savagely beaten by the police.
Frank Keane, another alleged member of Saor Eire recently stood trial in Dublin on the same charge of shooting the same policeman during a bank robbery last year. He was acquitted. It was widely believed before Keane's trial that he was victim of an attempted police frame up. The 'evidence' produced at the trial reinforced this view. The police witness who claimed to identify Keane proved unreliable, And evidence regarding fingerprints was easily shown to be inadequate by the standards of international forensic science. Keane was released on bail to now stand trial on a lesser charge after he had already spent over a year in jail in the shadow of the rope. (In Ireland the death penalty still exists for the killing of a policeman.)
Sean Morrissey and Joe Dillon now have to face the same ordeal. If the police are preparing to press the same charge after their experience with Frank Keane then they must count on making a better case. They will not hesitate to fabricate one. Once before they have framed Joe Dillon. Dillon was convicted of robbery on the same sort of flimsy evidence lodged recently against Keane. For example 'his' fingerprints were identified on a basis of far less points of similarity than is acceptable to interpol. He got five years in jail. Truly Joe Dillon has no reason to have faith in green Tory justice. Joe Dillon and Sean Morrissey believe that the police aim to try and do a better job than they managed on Frank Keane. They have issued an appeal for solidarity action to the Irish and British Left. They believe that the publicity given to Keane case in England may have had a restraining effect on the police. As militant socialist republicans who have been victimised in the past and are almost certainly being victimised now, they have a right to this solidarity.
A Morrissey-Dillon Defence Committee has been set up to give publicity and raise money for their defence.
Contact: Patrick Byrne c/o 349 Alexandra Park Road, London N. 22. (Readers interested in more information related to Saor Eire, should write to THE RED MOLE for back copies in which we published both Saor Eire's manifesto and an interview with leading SE militants.)
The following article is reprinted from The Fund. District offleials claimed that The great rank-and-file walkout of