"4. Dissolution of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. "5. Withdrawal of all British forces from Northern Ireland and the institution of law enforcement and criminal justice under local control acceptable to all parties. "6. Convening of all interested parties for the purpose of accomplishing the unification of Ireland." WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1971 NORTHERN IRELAND TODAY Mr. Ribicoff: Mr. President, recent events have underscored the timeliness and cogency of Senate Resolution 180, calling for an end to the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, which I cosponsored with the distinguished senior Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy). This morning's New York Times carries a front page story headlined "Ulster, Torn by Guerrilla War, Faces Major Political Change." Two specific changes mentioned in the article-the abolition of the Northern Ireland Parliament and the end of internment-are contained in our resolution. More people are becoming aware of the depth and the nature of the causes of the growing violence in Northern Ireland. While there may still be genuine differences over solutions to this conflict, I am certain most Americans would agree that an increase in the use of military force and the continuation of discriminatory practices against a minority in Northern Ireland are not the answers. I ask unanimous consent that the entire article by Bernard Weinraub, published in the New York Times of November 10, be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: ULSTER, TORN BY GUERRILLA WAR, FACE MAJOR POLITICAL CHANGE "Belfast, Northern Ireland.-Torn by a new surge of urban guerrilla warfare, Northern Ireland is confronting the major social and political crisis of its 50-year history. "Government officials, Roman Catholics and Protestants, moderates and extremists on both sides agree that Ulster faces a dramatic political shift that will result in London's assuming new initiatives and powers in the tormented province of the United Kingdom. "At the highest level of the Protestant-dominated provincial Government there is growing anxiety that the semi-independent Parliament at Stormont Castle will be suspended and some form of direct rule from London will take its place. With that the precarious dominance of the million Ulster Protestants over the halfmillion Catholics will topple. "It is now a crunch situation,' a senior official here said today. "There is a feeling among Protestants-a real feeling of the possibility of betrayal by Westminster.' "The current crisis is the culmination of the wave of killings, bombings and arson that followed the Government's internment of suspected terrorists to root out the Irish Republican Army, which seeks to end the partition of Ireland. In the three months since then 96 persons-61 civilians, 28 soldiers and 7 policemen— have been killed. The most recent incident occurred today when a British soldier, on foot patrol near the Bogside in Londonderry was shot and killed by a sniper. "Belfast, with a population of about 400,000, is a stricken city. Wooden barriers protect the new skyscraper Europa Hotel and downtown office buildings, where security guards inspect packages, are boarded up. At dusk shops and pubs are also boarded and at 9:30 p.m. the buses stop running. By night the darkened main street, Royal Avenue, is eerily silent except for the rumble of armored cars and voices crackling over military radios." LEGACIES OF TERROR "The barbed wire, the smoking hulks of pubs, the funerals that clog traffic, the shattered shops, the restaurant windows of plywood and corrugated ironall these are the visible legacies of terror in this 19th-century industrial city. "Voicing the Catholic minority's view, Tom Conaty, chairman of the Central Citizens Defense Committee, a powerful group in the Catholic ghetto, said: "This thing's going to break. It won't go on. We're sick of violence but it's going to continue unless Stormont is abolished.' "Northern Ireland is like a 50-year toothache,' he continued. 'Direct rule would be like going to the dentist. It will hurt for a while but we'll get used to it." "Although the Catholics yearn for unification with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland to the south, the immediate aim of Catholic leaders is to eradicate the Parliament, which most Catholics view as merely dedicated to Protestant dominance. "The Protestants, who fear that the Republic will eventually engulf them, view direct rule as a first step toward unification." SAD DAY FOR ULSTERMEN "The Rev. Ian Paisley, the extremist Protestant, said that he has learned 'on the highest authority' that direct rule was imminent. "This is a sad day for Ulster and a sad day for Ulstermen,' he said. "The possibility of direct rule evokes uncertainty and anger, especially among Protestants. "Prime Minister Brian Faulkner said over television last night: 'I believe that the imposition of direct rule would produce a far more violent holocaust in Northern Ireland than anything we've ever had.' "His associates speak in even blunter, almost frightened terms saying that direct rule would be a betrayal by the British Government. "What form direct rule may take remains uncertain. There is some discussion of a commission of Catholics and Protestants appointed by London, to run Northern Ireland and plan a new government and constitution, possibly in three years' time. "Although the terrorists would oppose such a move, the feeling among Catholic leaders is that the rank and file would support direct rule as long as Parliament and internment ended. "John Hume, who has emerged as the most influential figure in the predominantly Catholic opposition, said: "The first and essential step, whatever the agreed solution to emerge from the current situation, must be the abolition of the present system of government.' "Mr. Conaty was equally adamant: 'Ending internment and abolishing Stormont would give us a chance to turn the community against violence. You can't do that now. Stormont was the institution for most of the problems we have. And internment is a disaster'." ARMY INTELLIGENCE SPOTTY "A total of 882 persons have been seized since the imposition of internment on Aug. 9. More than half-476-have been released. 66 Although the army maintains that many hard-core terrorists have been seized, the large number of those released points to a spottier flow of intelligence than the army had been claiming. Critics also point out that the efficacy of internment has been undermined by the wave of terror and killings that it provoked. "Internment has been turned into an even more emotional issue by charges that prisoners have been tortured. Yesterday the widely respected London-based organization, Amnesty International, reported internees' allegations of torture and brutality. "In the Catholic community leaders have asserted that internment is an antiCatholic measure and that Protestant gunmen have been ignored. This was denied by Mr. Faulkner, who said: "I can't tell you, in fact, whether there are any Protestants who have been interned but I would accept, certainly that at least 90 percent of those who have been interned are Catholics. This is because the I.R.A. has such a grip in the Catholic community. But I say this-that the vast majority of the Catholic community, probably 90 percent of them, are totally opposed to the thugs and murderers in the I.R.A'." ECONOMY IS LAGGING "Intensifying the old antagonism between Protestant and Catholic is a lagging economy that has entrenched the disadvantages of the Catholics. "Business in Belfast has dropped more than 40 percent in three months. Three of the city's 11 dance halls are closed and the others are open only once or twice a week. Stores advertise "bomb damage sales." "A visitor returning after only a month discerns the decline. One of the bestknown hotels, the Grand Central, is closed. The best Chinese restaurant is protected with wooden sheets, the result of a recent blast. Airline service has been curtained. "Last week a recruiting campaign for teachers in Australia brought a flood of applicants. "We're losing not only teachers but doctors and businessmen and some of our best skilled craftsmen,' said Brian Walker, chairman of the moderate New Ulster Movement, set up two years ago to spur a Catholic-Protestant dialogue. "When the skilled carpenter or toolmaker leaves for England or Australia or South Africa, we're not just losing a man but 20 and 30 years of training and experience. It's heartrending to see the drain. It's a hemorrhage on our national resources and far more shattering to our community than the bombing of a store'." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1971 REPRESSION IN NORTHERN IRELAND Mr. Ribicoff. Mr. President, the violence and acts of terror in Northern Ireland are bound to continue and increase in intensity unless the oppressed minority there feel there are genuine prospects for peaceful alternatives. Today's New York Times carries an account by Tony Lewis, writing from London, of the ordeal of one man interned without trial under the Special Powers Act. The article states that there was nothing special about this particular episode, and shows, according to Lewis, "why, despite all the announced reforms of recent years, the Catholics remain so totally alienated from the Ulster system." Lewis, who in the past has written perceptively on this subject, gets to the crux of the issue in Northern Ireland today. The end of internment, and the abolition of the current Parliament in Northern Ireland are two of the key elements in Senate Resolution 180, which I introduced, and which is cosponsored by Senators KENNEDY and WILLIAMS. As times goes on, more people, in Britain, in the United States, and elsewhere, will come to the inescapable conclusion that the present system in Northern Ireland, as Mr. Lewis states, "can ever bring peace.' I would like to call this article to the attention of all my colleagues who are Seeking a better understanding of the crisis in Ulster. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the column by Mr. Lewis, "The Incident of Mr. Fox," be printed at this point in the RECORD. There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: THE INCIDENT OF MR. FOX (BY ANTHONY LEWIS) "London, November 12.-It began with a letter from the Ardoyne, a Roman Catholic ghetto of Belfast. "My husband's name is John Joseph Fox, he was in the British Army for six and one-half years, also he was on reserve. We came home to Ireland after 25 years in England where all the children were born. "Now they have taken my husband into prison from his home on the 9th of August and he is still a detainee at Crumblin Road Prison. He was beaten up terrible, in fact he thought it was the end for him. I know they have made a mistake so why don't they let him go? I just don't understand. . "Mrs. Fox wrote to Victoria Brittain, an English journalist who had stayed in the Ardoyne last spring on assignment for The Times of London. Miss Brittain turned the letter over to The Times, which printed it. "Stormont, the Northern Ireland Government, at once denounced the letter as false. Mr. Fox was not being detained without trial as a suspected terrorist, an official said: He was in jail awaiting trial on a charge of car theft. He had appeared in court on that charge on Aug. 25, been remanded to prison (denied bail), and appeared and been remanded again on five later occasions. "When that official denial was published, it seemed odd. Do British courts really deny bail in auto theft cases? Could a man be held in jail for months before trial on such a charge? A simple check showed that the answer to these questions was no. "The Stormont statement was in fact a farrago of untruths. Officials, asked to check, took two days and then admitted they had been wrong: Mr. Fox was being detained under the Special Powers Act, just as his wife had said. The facts were: "Mr. Fox was charged with the theft of a car last June. He pleaded innocent, producing what he said was a canceled check for the car and its proper documents. He was freed on bail of $1,200, later reduced to $480. "On Aug. 9, the day Stormont began interning suspected Catholic terrorists, Mr. Fox was seized under the Special Powers Aet and taken with other detainees to Crumlin Road Prison. If it were not for that, officials now agree, he would be free on bail. But the Government has neither lifted the detention order nor proceeded with the car theft case. "Mr. Fox has now been detained under the Special Powers Act for more than three months. Ordinarily Stormont decides within 28 days whether it has grounds to enter a formal internment order against a suspect, but even that has not happened. Mr. Fox is in limbo. And his prison is not in Greece or Brazil or the Soviet Union but in what the Ulster Protestants proudly insist is a part of the United Kingdom. "There is nothing very special about the episode—it does not come near the worst horrors of Northern Ireland. It just happened to be played out before a public audience, and it shows why things are as they are: why, despite all the announced reforms of recent years, the Catholics remain so totally alienated from the Ulster system. "If you live in the Ardoyne, you are convinced that there is no truth in Stormont, that there can be no real commitment to equal rights. You are convinced also that there is no assurance of fair treatment from the Ulster police, or of justice in an Ulster court. "None of this is to say, from an outsider's viewpoint, that injustice is all on one side. It would be impossible to say that after the I.R.A.'s cruelties, or after the terrible scenes of Bogside women shearing and tarring a girl because she loved a British officer. "But no nice balance from outside can change what the Catholic one-third of Northern Ireland perceives as reality: It lives in a sectarian Protestant state, created fifty years ago for the very purpose of maintaining Protestant domination, and there can be no hope until the structure of that sectarian state is dismantled. "That is the truth that successive British Governments have tried to avoid: The Stormont system, with its separate, perpetually Protestant Parliament and Executive for Northern Ireland, can never bring peace. No one should pretend that there is an easy way out of the Irish troubles, but the way has to begin with British recognition that the Stormont idea has failed." STATEMENT BY HERBERT P. RICKMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE NEW YORK CITY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE, INC., NEW YORK, N.Y. As Executive Director of the New York City Democratic Committee, and having recently returned from the North of Ireland, I submit the following statement on the grievous oppression inflicted upon the Catholic minority in the six counties. The minority in the north is oppressed by a governmental system of injustice and discrimination. This government is unable or unwilling to make the meaningful reforms it has promised. The strife which has taken more than 235 lives in Northern Ireland since 1969, is now spreading to Dublin, London, and elsewhere. The majority of those killed, wounded, or maimed have been civilians-including priests, women and children struck down by stray bullets. Soldiers and police have been slain and wounded on a daily basis. The Northern Ireland Government has been repressing its Catholic minority for fifty years but the problem goes back much further. This problem has been festering since the twelfth century when an Anglo-Norman army crossed the Irish sea to establish the precedent of British rule in Ireland. The recent violence in Ulster was due to a lethal error by the ruling Ulster Protestants. The Civil Rights movement of the sixties was mistaken for an attack on the State of Ulster. Previous challenges to the authority of the rulers of Ulster had indeed involved an attack on the existence of their state. Thus by the choice of the ruling elite, the energy of the reformist impulse has been made to shake the foundations of society. The Irish Republican Army had been trying for six years to rally the Catholics of Ulster to their banner. Whatever their views about the legitimacy of the Protestant Government and the injustices it visited upon them, the Catholics were not then ready to support its overthrow by violence. The I.R.A. communique announcing the end of the campaign_admitted that the chief reason was "the attitude of the general public..." Ulster was therefore at some level, a workable society, the I.R.A. was for the moment irrelevant. The time was ripe to begin dismantling the total Protestant supremacy-especially the electoral gerrymander which gave the Unionist a monopoly of power; and the various physical and legal instruments, notably the armed militia (the BSpecials) by which the oppressors exercised their control. The British government had an opportunity to take an activist role in achieving a permanent political solution to the problems of jobs, housing, educational opportunities, and political representation. The major British response has been to increase the number of troops in Northern Ireland. One can not help but note the parallel to the American experience in Vietnam, when many in this country thought it only took more and more troops to defeat a determined people. I believe that the violence and bloodshed in Ulster is of the deepest concern to Americans of all faiths, origin and political persuasion. They would like to see an end to the killings, whether perpetrated by the British Army, the I.R.A. or the Protestant extremists. (585) 77-178-72- -38 |