18 June 1998 Edition
Back issue: 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''.
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''.