Britain Attempting The Ultimate Cover-Up Of Its Dirty War In Ireland
As the British Government prepares to enact legislation which will effectively end all prosecutions and investigations, including coroners’ hearings and civil cases, related to all conflict-related deaths, it should be borne in mind by all that Boris Johnson and his cabinet have only one objective in mind – to prevent the full truth emerging about Britain’s dirty war in Ireland.
Recent British media reports, based on briefings by the Tory Cabinet Office, have claimed that this drastic step was necessary to prevent the “vexatious prosecutions” of British soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy massacres, a fallacy repeated again yesterday by Boris Johnson in Westminster.
However, those familiar with the conflict in Ireland will know only too well that the British Government is taking this step to halt a number of investigations which, if permitted to run their course, have the potential to make Britain a pariah state in the eyes of the international community.
The victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre. They were among the many hundreds of innocent Irish civilians who died at the hands of Britain’s murder machine in Ireland.
At the present time, it is estimated that almost 1,000 various conflict-related civil cases are pending in the courts. At least 45 inquests are awaiting commencement dates and another similar number of inquests are waiting to be progressed.
For several decades, a campaign involving repeated delays and lengthy legal obstructions has been waged at the highest levels within the British state against each and every attempt by families seeking to discover the truth of what really led to the deaths of their loved ones.
That campaign has included:
· the prevention and undermining of effective investigations, including inquests
· the deliberate with-holding of information
· the wilful destruction of documentation
· the discrediting of external investigations such as the Stalker inquiry into the British ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy and the Stevens inquiry into collusion between the British state and unionist death squads.
Among those responsible for waging the campaign against victims’ families have been members of the RUC and PSNI at senior leadership levels; senior high-ranking members of the British military; British Intelligence officers (MI5); officials within the Northern Ireland Office; officials within Britain’s Ministry of Defence / Cabinet Office; and British government ministers in both Labour and Tory governments.
Further evidence of that never-ending campaign was witnessed last November, when the British government again announced yet a further delay into ordering an inquiry into one of the most high-profile murders in the Six Counties – that of the well-known solicitor, Pat Finucane. British direct rule minister, Brandon Lewis, made the excuse that other review processes first had to run their course.
And, of course, the on-going ‘Operation Kenova’ into the activities of the British agent known as ‘Stakeknife’ and his control by state forces, is also something that Britain would prefer to see swept under the carpet.
Britain was, and remains, responsible for waging a dirty war in Ireland, just as it had done so in many other countries, such as Palestine, Kenya, Malaya and Oman, during the 20th century. The terror tactics it used differed little from one colony to the next.
The aftermath of a car bomb in Dublin in 1974. The British state used official and unofficial death squads to wage a murderous dirty war on both sides of the border.
Britain was never a neutral party to the conflict in Ireland. As such, it will resist any and all attempts to uncover the truth about the full extent of its campaign of murder and collusion – a truth, which if fully revealed, would have the potential to severely damage Britain’s position globally.
The legislation which Boris Johnson’s government is currently bringing through Westminster is designed to deliver the ultimate cover-up of a Britain's dirty war in Ireland.
This drawing of a line in the Irish sand fits neatly into the strategy of a Tory government which is becoming increasingly Anglocentric in its outlook and in its actions - a Tory government which is more than willing to lose the Six Counties and Scotland to further the interests of the English ruling class.
Boris Johnson cares nothing for how his controversial legislation is viewed in Ireland because he cares nothing for Ireland - something which the unionist community would do well to recognise sooner rather than later.