Republican News · Thursday 26 March 1998

[An Phoblacht]

Seminar calls for release of prisoners

By Fern Lane

international seminar held at Westminster on Thursday 12 March to discuss the issue of prisoners as part of the current Stormont talks process, told the British Government that the release of all those imprisoned as a result of the conflict in the Six Counties had to be implemented as part of any lasting peace deal.

The seminar was organised by the Irish United Nations Association, in conjunction with the University of Ulster and the University of North London, and was sponsored by Labour MP Kevin McNamara.

Amongst the invited speakers was Brian Curran, the prominent South African civil rights lawyer, who played a crucial role in setting up the Truth and Justice Commission and had represented many ANC members during the apartheid years, and Brian Gormally, the Deputy Director of NIACRO. They, and indeed all the speakers, called on Tony Blair to begin implementing a release plan as a matter of urgency. The possibility of, perhaps, 150 political prisoners remaining in jail some 3 years after any negotiated settlement - as could be the case if no plan was forthcoming - would mean that any such peace deal would be inherently flawed and unsustainable.

Almost all participants, who included Fuascailt and loyalist prisoner representation groups, agreed that such minor measures as increased remission and home leave would not be acceptable without being part of an overall release strategy.

Brian Curran stressed how vitally important the whole issue of prisoners and their treatment had been during peace talks in South Africa in the early and mid-1990s. He told the seminar that when prisoner releases had been in danger of being stalled by legal niceties or the personal prejudices of various judges, the politicians had simply stepped in with the necessary legislative changes to ensure the process could go on. It was simply a matter of political will which he suggested was lacking in this case. He also said that it had been essential to ensure that the appropriate steps had been taken so that the feelings of victims of violence were not overlooked and that the rule of law was not undermined.

Also on the platform was the Saoirse Chairperson Eoghan MacCormac. He pointed out that one of the lame excuses currently being offered for the refusal to release prisoners - that turning out hundreds of men on the community would be dangerous - was a complete red herring. In the early and mid 1980s hundreds of men came to the end of their sentences within a very concentrated period of time, and the release of these men back into their communities had not, he said, ``caused any social cataclysm''.

Gareth Pierce, solicitor for the Birmingham Six, Roisin McAliskey and many others, told the meeting that said an integral part of the process of releasing prisoners and reaching a peace settlement would be for the British establishment to acknowledge that they had in fact been at war in Ireland over the past three decades.

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