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| Author | Topic: Memories of Ireland |
| Javier |
posted 5/11/04 10:26 PM
Iraqi photos stir memories of torture in IrelandBy Jim Dee/ Irish TimesMonday, May 10, 2004BELFAST, Northern Ireland - It's not surprising that photos of American soldiers degrading Iraqi prisoners hit Jim Auld hard. That's because they stirred painful memories of what British soldiers did to him decades ago. ``I was horrified. It brought back things so vividly, what had happened to us,'' said Auld, 52, one of 14 men subjected to sensory deprivation techniques when Britain imposed internment without trial Aug. 9, 1971. Internment was designed to crush the Irish Republican Army. But the IRA was expecting it, and most of its operatives avoided the army's net. Of the 342 original internees - all of them Catholics - less than a third had an IRA connection. Catholic ghettos exploded. In the preceding four months, nine people had died. Over the next four months, 114 died. Internees were beaten with battens. Some were forced to run over broken glass in their socks. Fourteen, including Auld, were hooded and made to stand against walls, legs spread far apart, supported by their hands. A constant loud hissing noise drowned out all sounds and added to their disorientation. Auld said if their arms tired and they lowered them, they were beaten. ``I was beaten unconscious several times. They just revived me and lifted me back into place,'' he said. Still hooded, Auld was then taken in a helicopter and told he was hundreds of feet in the air. ``They had me kneeling, holding me from the back, leaning me out. And they said, `You're going to tell us everything. Because if you don't, you're going out the door,' '' he said. ``When I landed, they had people on either side of me who ran me straight into a concrete post while I had my hood on. And I went unconscious.'' Auld said he was convinced he'd be killed. ``I thought, `There's no way these people can do this and allow me to live and go outside and tell people.' '' Despondent, he tried kill himself by slamming his head against a heating pipe. ``I thought I could crack my head or break my neck. But I cried because I failed and didn't die.'' Auld says soldiers ``softened him up'' for higher-ups who later carried out in-depth interrogations. But Auld had nothing to confess. So, after nine days, the beatings ended and he rejoined hundreds of other internees at Long Kesh interment camp, south of Belfast. Ireland subsequently took Britain to the European Court of Human Rights, where it was eventually found guilty of ``inhuman and degrading treatment'' of the so-called Hooded Men. After a year at Long Kesh, Auld was released without charge. He briefly checked into a mental institution and then moved to Dublin, where he joined the merchant marine to forget Belfast. But, in the 1980s, he got homesick and returned. Since 1992, he's worked with the Community Restorative Justice program, which seeks non-violent alternatives to paramilitary punishment attacks on alleged criminals in areas that are still hostile to the police. Auld never joined the IRA (he'd never have gotten the gun license he holds if he had), but many other internees did. ``I was in jail with hundreds of people who never had anything to do with the IRA,'' he said. ``And once they got into prison, all they wanted to do was join the IRA and kill soldiers, and kill cops.'' He said photos of ill-treated Iraqi prisoners will have the same effect. ``In Baghdad, there will be a queue to join those militia. And all they'll want to do is kill soldiers,'' Auld said. ``I always imagined that military and political people in government look at, and learn from, the mistakes of the past,'' he added. ``But it seems that nobody has learned from the past.'' |
| Javier |
posted 5/11/04 10:29 PM
Can you imagine what our good British friends would say HAD US acted as THEM?I cannot help that my comments regarding british brutallity were dismissed as something from other ages...Good Old Churchill praised the "moral effects of gassing the Irakis" in 1920.Nothing has changed. |
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Noelia (Moderator) |
posted 5/13/04 5:49 PM
JavierI would like to think, and for now, I really do, that this madness in Irak from the british is just a terrible influence they have from the US. Correct me if I am wrong, but the things they are doing in Irak, never happened here, at least, veterans of 1982 - from both sides - with whom I've talked were -lets say- "satisfied" with the enemy's behaviour and, both, the UK and Argentina had not been target of attacks which means, no civilians hurt. What Bush is capable to do, we already know, we also know that, as all good leaders, he knows how to "convince" people that he's doing the right thing, when he's torturing, killing and raping innocent people in Irak, and lets face it, only because americans DO feel hate for the islamic society. Either the UK is with USA for they really believe in Bush's quest against the "evil" middle eastern people, or because they dont have the courage to face them. Aznar has already been punished for helping the US in this insanity, but unfortunately lots of people had to die, to aware Spain of what was happening. It's obvious next target is the UK, lets hope they realize what Blair is doing BEFORE something really bad happens in the UK. Best Wishes, Noelia http://espanglishfriends.tripod,com http;//www.geocities.com/nxz1978 |
| Javier |
posted 5/15/04 1:01 AM
Dear Noelia,During the Malvinas 82 battle, british Paras lilled Argentinean prisioners. Seargent Carrizo survived such a shooting (with loss of encephalic mass)thanks a British officer from a different regiment who put an end to that madness. |
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