In the aftermath of the killing of two British soldiers and one Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer by so-called dissident republicans, opposed to the peace process in the six counties in Ireland's north still claimed by Britain, right-wing and reactionary forces have sought to use the killings to whip up anti-republican hysteria and attack civil liberties.
Amid a strong media campaign, authorities have invoked the 2006 British anti-terrorism laws that allow for the time suspects can be held without charge to be increased from seven to 28 days.
Eleven people have been arrested so far in relation the killings. Two of those — including a 17-year-old who is still legally a minor — have been held without charge for the longest time (10 days by March 19) for anyone arrested in the six counties since the infamous internment policy imposed by the British in 1971.
Under internment, more than 1000 people were arrested and jailed without trial.
Republican party Sinn Fein, which strongly opposed the killings as an attack on the peace process and is currently in a power-sharing executive in the six counties with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, has criticised the moves.
According to a March 19 statement, "Sinn Fein spokesperson on policing issues, Alex Maskey, today said if there is evidence against an individual then that person should be charged and that evidence put before the courts. If there is no evidence then that person should be released."
Sinn Fein is "opposed to the detention of people by the PSNI for questioning beyond the existing seven days".
Maskey said: "If confidence is to continue to be built in policing and the good work of recent years consolidated, then it is crucial that the PSNI demonstrate a willingness to uphold the highest standards of human rights protections."
Sinn Fein "repeated this position to the British government in recent days", Maskey said.
Sinn Fein has also condemned PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde's revelation, made the day before the soldier killings, that British security forces would be deployed in the six counties.
Socialist republican group eirigi, which split from Sinn Fein in 2006, also condemned the media hysteria and attacks on civil liberties.
In a March 19 statement, eirigi spokesperson Breandan Mac Cionnaith said: "the advent of 28-day detention in the Six Counties is an indicator of the British government's contemporary attitude to human rights.
"In recent weeks, the British government has revealed its thinking to be remarkably similar to what it was during the height of the conflict: increased numbers of British 'special forces' have been deployed, the PSNI has been exposed to be as unaccountable as ever and, now, people are being held without charge for periods of time that are in complete contravention of any notion of human rights."
Eirigi has made it clear that it does not support a resumption of armed struggle in the six counties, yet it has been singled out by the mainstream media, with reports that eirigi members have been among those arrested over the killings.
In a March 16 statement entitled "eirigi condemns trial by media", the group, in response to what it described as a "media frenzy", clarified that no member of eirigi had been arrested.
Eirigi chairperson Brian Leeson said: "A number of media outlets have already effectively tried and convicted those who have been arrested. We in Ireland have long experience of where such trials by media can lead."
Leeson said: "It is clear that some sections of the media are being manipulated by shadowy figures from within police and intelligence agencies in both the Six Counties and Twenty-Six Counties [in Ireland's south] in a malicious attempt to secure the widespread demonisation of Republicans.
"These same shadowy elements orchestrated, first the character, and then the actual, assassination of republicans and nationalists in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s."
It appears that powerful forces seek to use the recent killings as an excuse to turn back the clock and justify attacks on civil liberties in general and the republican movement in particular.
The fresh attacks on civil liberties invoke the horrors of the past in the six counties.
In an attempt to combat the rising civil rights struggle seeking equality for Catholics in the late 1960s, as well as the revival of the republican struggle for a united Ireland, the British state responded with internment, followed by the creation of special jury-less courts — only abolished in 2007.
Such attempts to repress the struggle for justice and national rights by the denial of civil liberties, combined with abuse suffered in prison, led directly to 10 men being allowed to die in Long Kesh prison in 1981 while on hunger strike, demanding basic respect for their human rights.
Much has been made since the killings of the strong desire of the people in the six counties not to return to the violence that preceded the peace process, which began in the 1990s.
No doubt the Catholic and nationalist community also do not wish to see a return to the days when their civil liberties were denied at the cost of great suffering.