BY JUDE McCULLOCH & DAMIEN LAWSON
It is 30 years since Bloody Sunday, when British paratroopers, suppressing a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, opened fire and killed 14 unarmed civilians — half of them teenagers. Though these deaths may seem distant, there are lessons to be learnt from this tragic event that need to be heeded in Australia today.
The thousands of civil rights marchers who took to the streets on Bloody Sunday were protesting the internment without trial of "terrorist" suspects. In the three months between when the policy was introduced and the time of the march, approximately 900 politically active republicans were imprisoned without trial and interrogated in ways that violated human rights.
The Coalition government's plan to extend the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's (ASIO) powers so that it can detain anyone suspected of having information about "terrorism" for 48 hours without access to legal advice or the right to silence involves a similar suspension of fundamental rights.
Similar legislation overseas, and the interpretation of the term in intelligence and security circles, suggests that it will be broad enough to include a range of people active in social movements. Trade unionists, environmentalists, anti-globalisation protesters and community activists could all become targets. This is not just speculation. In the US, members of Greenpeace protesting at a military base have already been treated as terrorists, despite the non-violent nature of their protest.
By 1972 the British army's occupation of Northern Ireland had usurped the traditional role of civilian law enforcement — the presence of armed soldiers at demonstrations had become the norm. Although Australian developments have been far less dramatic, we have, nevertheless, witnessed the gradual militarisation of "internal security". Paramilitary police squads, and tactics originally justified on the basis of counter-terrorism, have gradually been integrated into routine policing, particularly the policing of dissent and public protest.
In addition, amendments made to the defence act just before the Olympics make it more likely that the federal government will call upon the army to deal with any large-scale public protest.
The march in Northern Ireland that took place on Bloody Sunday was illegal because protest marches had been banned under emergency legislation. It was as much a demonstration for the right to protest as against internment. The Victorian state government's proposed Peaceful Assembly Bill will dramatically reduce the right to public protest. It will thus create a context where police or security forces feel justified in using high levels of force to disperse crowds.
The Coalition government's "internment" plans, the militarisation of law enforcement and the proposed restrictions on public protest all combine to create a political climate that is moving us towards a militarised state and undermining democracy.
Like in 1970s Northern Ireland, in Australia today civil liberties are portrayed as unaffordable luxuries because of the security threat posed by terrorism. Yet the British government's actions in Northern Ireland show that "counter-terrorism" can itself be a source of terror for innocent people.
The first person arrested under the United Kingdom's Prevention of Terrorism Act in the mid 1970s was Paul Hill. After enduring psychological and physical violence at the hands of police he and three others, the Guildford four, confessed to a bombing they did not commit. The four spent a total of 60 years in prison before their convictions were overturned. This was only the first of a series of infamous miscarriages of justice involving Irish Catholics facilitated by anti-terrorism legislation.
"Counter terrorism" can inspire the type of terror it is meant to be preventing. The repression of dissent that goes hand-in-hand with counter terrorism can turn people away from more peaceful forms of political protest, and towards violent expressions of opposition. The introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland in 1971 helped shift republicans away from peaceful protest towards political violence.
The anniversary of Bloody Sunday is an opportunity to reflect on the implications of removing democratic rights in the search for security. The equation of dissent with terrorism and military power with security are at the heart of the conflict that escalated that fateful Sunday. As new laws are considered by State and Federal parliaments in the months ahead we should be careful not to tread the same path.
[Jude McCulloch is a lecturer in police studies at Deakin University. She is the author of Blue Army: Paramilitary Policing in Australia (Melbourne University Press 2001) and can be contacted on <jmculloc@deakin.edu.au>. Damien Lawson is a lawyer at the Western Suburbs Legal Service. This is an abridged version of a presentation at a SKATV fundraiser on January 30.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 20, 2002.
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