BY MARTIN HILL
LONDON - Widespread protests followed the July 3 release
of British paratrooper Pvt. Lee Clegg, after serving less
than three and a half years of a life sentence. Clegg was
imprisoned for the 1990 killing of Karen Reilly at a
roadblock in West Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Patrick Mayhew, British secretary of state for Northern Ireland, personally approved the recommendation to release Clegg. He was only the second soldier to be convicted of murder in Northern Ireland. Both received early release.
No republican or loyalist prisoner convicted of murder has ever been released short of serving at least 10 years. Clegg is preparing to resume his army career.
Government officials insisted that the release was a judicial, not a political decision. "No one in Belfast believed that," said the Economist. "The scorn increased when it emerged that the much-respected head of Northern Ireland's Probation Board had resigned from the Life Sentence Review Board in protest at the `deviation' in Mr. Clegg's case from the usual criteria for reviewing a sentence."
"He's got away with murder," was the angry reaction of Sean Reilly, father of the young woman shot by Clegg. "They made special rules for him because he wore a parás uniform."
The leader of the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, criticized the release as "crass insensitivity," and said, "There must now be urgent action in the case of other prisoners who had the experience of being caught up at a young age in troubles which they did not have any control over." Irish prime minister John Bruton warned that the peace process could be at risk unless Irish Republican Army prisoners were given similar treatment.
"People here find this decision insulting," Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said. Slogans went up on walls in West Belfast saying, "Clegg out - all out!" referring to the hundreds of political prisoners still in jail. Angry demonstrations, pickets, and rallies in Belfast and other towns backed this demand.
Some 2,000 marched in West Belfast, protesters in Derry blocked roads, and others demonstrated in Dungannon and Coalisland. In London, members of Saoirse, the campaign for freedom for Irish political prisoners, staged a protest outside Parliament as television cameras covered the reelection of John Major as Conservative Party leader.
During some of the protests in Northern Ireland, demonstrators overturned vehicles and set them on fire. The Royal Ulster Constabulary arrested more than 30 people.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams rejected government claims that the violence was being orchestrated by his party. "If the peace process is to be salvaged, the British government must remove the obstacles it has erected to dialogue," he said. Saoirse explained that the outbreak of violence reflected frustration at the government's double standards.
Clashes also took place when the right-wing Orange Order staged its annual marches in towns across Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne July 12. Many Catholics view these demonstrations commemorating the 1688 defeat of King James II's army as attempts at intimidation. Residents took action to block march routes in Portadown and the Ormeau Road in Belfast .
Prisoners' supporters are stepping up their efforts as a result of recent events. Saoirse will be participating in a day of protests August 31, marking the anniversary of the IRA cease-fire. As well as protests in Ireland, a major rally is planned in London's Trafalgar Square.
Martin Hill is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union in Luton.