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25 June 1998 Edition

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Make equality and justice traditional

by Seán Marlow

So Tony Blair has called on British armed service employers to take strong action against English soccer hooligans. If thugs really were to be thrown out of the British Army and RAF, it would drastically reduce their numbers and would be a great boost to the demilitarisation campaign.

However, doesn't it say everything about Britain's attitude to Ireland when their prime minister can call for soldiers to be sacked for causing embarrassment to their country in France but are encouraged to continue their British Army career when convicted for the murder of unarmed Irish people. Corporals Ian Thain and Lee Clegg even managed to get promotion after serving all of two years for murder. But even they were unlucky compared to the hundreds of British soldiers and RUC members who have directly killed nearly 400 Irish citizens, including several children killed with both lead and plastic bullets. Apart from Thain, Clegg, Fisher and Wright, not one of these killers has served a day in jail; many (like the officers in charge of Bloody Sunday and the RUC Commander responsible for killing Nora McCabe) have been honoured and promoted and their victims have been ignored by the media and establishment politicians.

It is worth bearing all this in mind next time we hear these media and political hacks using the feelings of victims as an excuse to stall the release of prisoners who have served up to 23 years or to set preconditions about the decommissioning of weapons. These hypocrites totally disregard the victims of British Forces. Every day their bereaved families have to face the prospect of meeting their loved ones' killers still deploying their weapons aggressively (as we saw on Garvaghy Road two weeks ago) and never having spent a day in jail for their crimes.

Republicans should continually insist that all of these ``controversial'' issues (weapons, prisoners, policing, parades, etc) be addressed on the basis of equality. British Army and RUC weapons (and those they supplied to loyalist death squads) should be removed from Irish streets - just because they are legal doesn't make them any less lethal. Republican and loyalist prisoners should be treated on the same basis as Ian Thain and Lee Clegg; that is, they should have been released years ago.

The RUC - who, under the political control of then Minister for Home Affairs (and current deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party), John Taylor, started the ``Troubles'' by killing Samuel Devenney, Francie McCloskey and nine year old Patrick Rooney before the IRA fired a shot - needs to be disbanded. Chief Constable Flanagan's unguarded admission that he would ``absolutely'' force yet another march through nationalist Garvaghy Road if (when!) the Spirit of Drumcree threaten to use ``whatever means necessary'' is a clear invitation to the most reactionary elements of Unionism to intimidate, burn out and kill (remember Michael McGoldrick) Catholics. It proves that the RUC hasn't changed its inherent inequality and needs to be replaced with an unbiased policing service.

With the threat of the ``marching season'' now upon us, we need to look at how to achieve equality on parades. I see three possibilities:

ban all parades - but I can't see the Orange Order giving up all their marches on the Twelfth of July;
allow anyone to march anywhere - but I can't see nationalists being allowed to march through the centre of Portadown, never mind through a loyalist area;
parades should not go where they are not wanted - this is obviously the fairest solution and dialogue should take place between prospective marchers and host communities to reach agreement.
And no-one is fooled by the spurious claim that Orange parades are different because they are ``traditional''. After all, slavery, apartheid and the denial of the vote to women were once traditional but that doesn't mean they were right!

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