Ulster deaths
Among the distressing statistics which Northern Ireland has produced in the last three years of troubles is that it has the high- est unsolved murder rate of any Western developed nation. One astonishing fact that has had little or no circulation in Britain is a by-product of this: that of the fifty-five deaths since August 1969 which the Royal Ulster Constabulary have listed as occurring through political or sectarian violence, there has been not one single successful prosecu- tion for murder or manslaughter.
A figure like this is no more than a statis- tic until it is broken down into its component parts. Of the fifty-five dead, five were police- men, eight were soldiers and forty-two were civilians. The figure includes people killed in bomb attacks, people killed in internal IRA feuds, people gunned down in riots. Among the dead, are a child of nine, killed in Army crossfire, and an elderly woman burned to death. Nobody knows how many internal 1RA killings there have been, nor how many ]RA dead have been carried away from police check-ups. All that is certain about the figure is that it will continue to rise. Equally certain is that, while witnesses are impossible to find, impartial juries cannot be convened, and the three posts carrying responsibility for secur- ity in Northern Ireland continue to change hands, there will go on being no successful prosecutions for the toll of dead. The most severe charge that has succeeded to date in the Ulster courts is for the minor misde- meanour of carrying offensive weapons.
Aeolus
Previous page
