British government considered ethnic cleansing in Northern Ireland, documents show

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday January 01, 2003 16:36 by looper

British government considered ethnic cleansing in Northern Ireland, documents show

British government considered ethnic cleansing in Northern Ireland, documents show

JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 1, 2003
©2002 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/01/international0816EST0471.DTL

(01-01) 05:16 PST LONDON (AP) --

At the height of bloodletting in Northern Ireland, the British government considered trying to end the sectarian conflict by forcibly moving hundreds of thousands of Catholics to the Irish Republic, according to records released Wednesday.

But the top secret contingency plan -- dated July 23, 1972 -- was rejected out of concern it would not work unless the government was prepared to be "completely ruthless" in carrying it out, and that it would provoke outrage at home and abroad, especially in the United States.

"We do not believe that the government would be able to obtain the support of public opinion in Great Britain for the drastic actions that we consider in this paper," the newly declassified document said.

"Any faint hope of success must be set against the implications of a course which would demonstrate to the world that (the government) was unable to bring about the peaceful solution of problems save by expelling large numbers of its own citizens and doing so on a religious basis," the document added.

It is the first indication that Britain once considered using a method that came to be known as "ethnic cleansing," a strategy Britain, among many nations, denounced when Serbs used it against Muslims and ethnic Albanians during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The plan came to light in a batch of formerly confidential papers declassified after 30 years and released by Britain's Public Record Office. The plan is contained in a report commissioned by the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath to prepare for a time when Britain was on the verge "of losing control" in Northern Ireland, the document says.

Almost 500 people were killed in 1972, more than any year since. On Jan. 30 of that year -- now known as "Bloody Sunday" -- British soldiers shot and killed 13 unarmed Catholic protesters in Londonderry.

Nearly every day brought some new bloodshed: bombings, gun battles and other violence. During one "fairly quiet" period -- Jan. 20-21, 1972 -- five explosions injured six people, the report says.

Signed by Cabinet Secretary Sir Burke Trend, the plan called for a "massive reinforcement of troops" in the province accompanied by "searches, interrogation and possibly internment" against Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups.

If that failed, another suggested solution involved either redrawing the border or a "compulsory transfer of population" affecting more than a fourth of the province's 1.5 million residents.

More than 200,000 Catholics would be moved from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic or "into homogenous enclaves within Northern Ireland." A similar number of Protestants living in lands ceded to the Irish Republic would be moved into what remained of Northern Ireland.

The report notes that such a plan "raises obvious political difficulties" and would provoke outrage in the United States and among Britain's other allies.

"Unless the government were prepared to be completely ruthless in the use of force, the chances of imposing a settlement consisting of a new partition together with some compulsory transfer of population would be negligible," the document said.

It advised the government continue the "present policy of reconciliation, tempered with a firm but selective military response to terrorism."

The documents also include accounts of secret meetings in 1972 between senior British officials and members of the Irish Republican Army.

The first took place in a remote Irish farmhouse on June 20 between P.J. Woodfield, a representative of Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw, and a two-man IRA delegation: Gerry Adams, now leader of the IRA-linked political party Sinn Fein, and Daithi O Conaill, who reputedly became chief of staff of the IRA the following year. O Conaill died in 1991.

According to Woodfield's report, labeled "top secret," the aim of the three-hour meeting was to negotiate an IRA cease-fire. In return, Britain promised not to arrest IRA suspects and to improve conditions for paramilitary prisoners.

Woodfield was impressed with the 23-year-old Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA. The meeting, he wrote, was conducted "in an informal and relaxed atmosphere," with the civil servant even helping to draft the wording of the IRA's cease-fire announcement.

"There is no doubt whatever that these two at least genuinely want a cease-fire and a permanent end to violence," Woodfield wrote.

"Their appearance and manner were respectable and respectful. ... Their response to every argument put to them was reasonable and moderate. Their behavior and attitude appeared to bear no relation to indiscriminate campaign of bombing and shooting in which they have both been prominent leaders."

The IRA announced a cease-fire on June 22, 1972, but it broke down July 9.
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On the Net:

Public Record Office, www.pro.gov.uk

©2002 Associated Press  

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Inside Government: Heath plan to redraw border outlined

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=365692

By Brian Walker

EDWARD Heath's Tory government drew up secret plans to forcibly expel hundreds of thousands of Catholics from Northern Ireland and redraw the border to create a Protestant-only province, according to official files released today.

Documents released to the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule show that up to half a million people would have been forced to leave their homes in the establishment of what officials described as an "avowedly sectarian statelet".

The proposals - drawn up in the middle of 1972, the worst year of the Troubles - were possibly the most extreme solution ever considered by a British government to the problems of Northern Ireland and effectively amounted to a form of ethnic cleansing.

Officials warned that they would face "great resistance" and could only been forced through the "completely ruthless" use of force.

The move to consider drastic remedies came against a background of escalating violence, which claimed almost 500 lives in the course of the year, prompting fears among that the province was on the brink of civil war.

The Stormont government of Ulster Unionist leader Brian Faulkner had already been replaced by direct rule from Westminster amid the worsening crisis following 'Bloody Sunday' when 13 people died after British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march in Londonderry.

The plan was presented to Heath on July 23, two days after another notorious datemark - 'Bloody Friday' - when 11 people died and 130 were injured in a series of bomb attacks in Belfast.

In his preamble to the document - marked 'Top Secret: UK Eyes Only' - Cabinet Secretary Sir Burke Trend said it was "explicitly addressed to a situation in which we are on the point of losing control of events unless we take very severe action indeed."

He added: "A great deal would depend on the extent to which we could continue to count on local co-operation as regards the maintenance of essential services and on the loyalty of the RUC."

The first stage of the plan, prepared by Cabinet Office officials, was for a massive security crackdown, more than doubling the number of troops from 20 battalions to 47.

The aim would be to: "Swamp with troops all extremist strongholds including 'no-go' areas or any other area where there is a risk of inter-sectarian strife, to achieve complete domination and demoralisation of extremists of both sides impartially."