'If anyone should know about the 'black side of human nature' it is General Jackson whose troops exhibited just such traits in Derry 36 years ago.'
It is a tragic irony that just days before the anniversary of Bloody Sunday the British Army produce a report on the infamous treatment by its troops of the civilian population in Iraq.
It is clear that nothing has been learned in the last four decades and it is also clear that the Iraq enquiry prompted by the ill treatment and deaths of several civilians is equally as flawed as the many so-called independent enquiries into events in Ireland, including the Bloody Sunday massacre.
However, the greatest irony is that one of the key figures in the tragic events in Derry on 30th January 1972 was wheeled out by the BBC to comment on today's Iraq report.
The former head of the Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, who was " 2nd in Command of the Parachute Regiment Company involved in the Bloody Sunday killings, said it was "nonsensical" to suggest the Iraq report was a whitewash, arguing: "You can never, ever say that it won't happen again because human nature is human nature and some indulge in the black side of human nature."
Well if anyone should know about the 'black side of human nature' it is General Jackson whose troops exhibited just such traits in Derry 36 years ago.
Other commentators described the latest report more objectively. Phil Shiner a public interest lawyer said "The (Brigadier Robert) Aitken inquiry lacks any independence or rigour, is a complete red herring and represents a whitewash". Meanwhile Amnesty International International called for "a fully independent investigation" into the death of Baha Mousa the Iraqi civilian whose death sparked the report.
It is unfortunate for those whom the British Army are visited upon as 'peacekeepers' that their capacity for brutality seems undiminished.
No one was ever held to account for the deaths in Derry and it seems highly unlikely that those families left to mourn the more recent atrocities by the British Army in Iraq will ever get justice.
Those who died on Bloody Sunday and their bereaved families deserve to be remembered next week.
In the longer term perhaps January 26th could become a wider focus for remembrance of all those killed and tortured by the British Army in colonial wars and so called 'peacekeeping' operations over the past sixty years.
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
25/01/08
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