IRELAND: Civilians the main targets
BELFAST — In what is being hailed as "the most comprehensive study to date" of Troubles-related deaths, an April 1999 University of Ulster study confirms what has long been hidden by British propaganda and complicit media: pro-British forces have been responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in the six counties during "the Troubles".
Data in the new study also confirm the fact that the Irish Republican Army was waging war against the British state forces, while the British and their supporters waged a war of terror against the Irish civilian population.
The study, "Northern Ireland's Troubles: The Human Costs", shatters carefully cultivated British mythology of the "British army as protector" of nationalist communities. Data prove clearly that pro-British combatants in the six counties more often than not kill unarmed civilians, not armed combatants.
Pro-British forces, according to the data section, "Mapping Troubles-Related Deaths", have killed nearly 10 times as many unarmed civilians as they have killed members of republican military forces.
For the past 30 years, the British "securocrats" have managed media coverage of the Troubles to leave an impression of mindless republican violence against Irish society. The University of Ulster study blows holes right through the British propaganda spin. Of nearly 3600 deaths related to the Troubles, more than half — 1921 — have been unarmed civilians. Of those unarmed civilian deaths — the vast majority of them Irish nationalists — pro-British forces are responsible for 1066 (56%).
Catholics comprised more than 88% of those killed by state-paid forces (the British army, Royal Ulster Constabulary — RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment — UDR) whose religious affiliations were discernible. Seventy-five per cent of all those killed by loyalists (983) were Catholics, and 87% of loyalist murders were of unarmed civilians. And although the pro-British forces have killed 1066 Irish civilians, they have killed only 161 republican military force members.
The data also show that republican military forces have claimed responsibility for the deaths of 1070 members of the British military and the militarised RUC.
Among other data damning to British propagandists, the study finds that:
- The RUC has killed nearly twice as many unarmed civilians as they have killed republican military force members, and these figures do not even include RUC shoot-to-kill murders which are officially denied by the British government. More than 80% of the murder victims acknowledged by the RUC have been Catholic.
- Loyalists have murdered 33 times as many unarmed civilians — nearly 860 unarmed civilians, nearly all of them Catholic — as they have killed members of republican military forces, clear evidence that the occupation forces have been unable or unwilling to protect the nationalist communities from Unionist and loyalist violence. These figures do not include the 1997-98 "random" sectarian killing spree that loyalists engaged in at the height of the peace talks.
- The British army has killed 11 times as many republican military-force members as it has killed loyalist paramilitary members.
- The British army, since 1969, has killed more unarmed Irish civilians (168) than republican military force members (117).
- The UDR (now renamed the Royal Irish Regiment), of which UUP (Ulster Unionist Party) leader Ken Maginess was a member, killed 11 persons — nine of them unarmed civilians.
The death-exchange between warring republicans and loyalist paramilitaries is nearly even: republican military forces have claimed the lives of 31 loyalists, loyalists have killed 26 republican military force members.
The data do not include 14 sectarian "random" loyalist attacks on nationalist civilians between January 1997 and January 1998, two loyalist murders of civilians in April 1998, the loyalist incineration of the three little Quinn brothers, the murder of Brian Service, nor the loyalist-claimed assassination of Rosemary Nelson.
[Abridged from The Irish People.]
BY KATE SHERIDAN