Operation Demetrius

Operation Demetrius
Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner
The entrance to Compound 19, one of the sections of Long Kesh internment camp
Location	Northern Ireland
Objective	Arrest of suspected Irish republican militants
Date	9–10 August 1971 04:00 – ? (UTC+01:00)
Executed by	British Army Royal Ulster Constabulary
Outcome	342 people arrested and interned 7,000 civilians displaced
Casualties	(see below)

v t e The Troubles Timeline Directory Ireland Battle of the Bogside August 1969 riots Battle of St Matthew's Falls Curfew Scottish soldiers' killings Operation Demetrius Ballymurphy massacre McGurk's bombing Balmoral Furniture Co. bombing Bloody Sunday Abercorn bombing Donegall St bombing Battle at Springmartin Springhill massacre Bloody Friday Operation Motorman Claudy bombing Benny's Bar bombing Dublin bombings Coleraine bombings UWC strike Dublin & Monaghan bombings Miami Showband killings Bayardo Bar Drummuckavall ambush Reavey & O'Dowd killings Kingsmill massacre Flagstaff incident Chlorane Bar Ramble Inn Jonesborough Gazelle downing La Mon bombing Warrenpoint ambush Dunmurry explosion Nellie M 1981 Hungerstrike Glasdrumman ambush St Bedan Ballykelly bombing Maze Prison escape Newry barracks Ballygawley barracks Loughgall ambush Enniskillen bombing Milltown Cemetery Corporals killings Lisburn van bomb Ballygawley bus bomb 1989 Jonesborough ambush Derryard checkpoint Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown Operation Conservation RFA Fort Victoria 1990 proxy bombs 1991 Cappagh killings Glenanne barracks Coagh ambush Teebane bombing Bookmakers' shooting Clonoe ambush Cloghoge checkpoint Coalisland riots South Armagh sniper campaign 1993 Castlerock killings Cullaville occupation Battle of Newry Road 1993 Shankill bombing Greysteel massacre Crossmaglen Lynx shootdown Loughinisland massacre Drumcree conflict Thiepval barracks 1997 Coalisland attack July 1997 riots Omagh bombing Great Britain Aldershot bombing M62 coach bombing Guildford bombings Birmingham bombings Marylebone siege Hyde & Regent's Park bombings Harrods bombing Brighton bombing Deal barracks Downing St attack Warrington bombings Bishopsgate bombing Docklands bombing Manchester bombing Elsewhere Gibraltar 1988 Osnabrück barracks 1996

Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (without trial) of 342 people suspected of being involved with Irish republican paramilitaries (the Provisional IRA and Official IRA), which were waging campaigns against the state. It was proposed by the Northern Ireland Government and approved by the British Government. Armed soldiers launched dawn raids throughout Northern Ireland, sparking four days of violence in which 20 civilians, two Provisional IRA members and two British soldiers were killed. Due mainly to faulty intelligence, many of those arrested were Catholics or Irish nationalists who had no links with republican paramilitaries. Loyalist paramilitaries were also carrying out acts of violence, which were mainly directed against the Catholic and Irish nationalist community, but no loyalists were included in the sweep.

The introduction of internment, the way the arrests were carried out, and the abuse of those arrested, led to mass protests and a sharp increase in violence. Amid the violence, about 7,000 people fled or were forced out of their homes. The interrogation techniques used on the internees were described by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976 as "torture", but the European Court of Human Rights ruled on appeal in 1978 that while the techniques were "inhuman and degrading", they did not constitute torture.^[1] The policy of internment was to last until December 1975 and during that time 1,981 people were interned.^[2]

Background and planning

Internment had been used a number of times during Northern Ireland's (and the Republic of Ireland's) history, but had not yet been used during the '"Troubles'", which began in the late 1960s. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) had been engaged in a low-level violent campaign since 1966. After the August 1969 riots, the British Army (BA) was deployed on the streets to bolster the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Up until this point the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had been largely inactive. However, as the violence and political situation worsened, the IRA was divided over how to deal with it. It split into two factions: the Provisional IRA and Official IRA. In 1970–71, the Provisionals launched an armed campaign against the British Army and the RUC. The Officials stated that their policy was one of defence.^[3] During 1970–71 there were numerous clashes between state forces and the two wings of the IRA, and between the IRA and loyalists. Most loyalist attacks were directed against Catholic civilians and the Irish nationalist/republican community in general, but they also clashed with state forces on a number of occasions.^[3]

The idea of re-introducing internment for republican militants came from the unionist government of Northern Ireland, headed by Prime Minister Brian Faulkner. It was agreed to re-introduce internment at a meeting between Faulkner and UK Prime Minister Edward Heath on 5 August 1971. The British cabinet recommended "balancing action", such as the arrest of loyalist militants, the calling in of weapons held by (generally unionist) rifle clubs in Northern Ireland and an indefinite ban on parades (most of which were held by unionist/loyalist groups). However, Faulkner argued that a ban on parades was unworkable, that the rifle clubs posed no security risk and that there was no evidence of loyalist terrorism^{[citation needed]}. It was eventually agreed that there would be a six-month ban on parades but no targeting of loyalists and that internment would go ahead on 9 August, in an operation carried out by the British Army.^[3]

On the initial list of those to be arrested, which was drawn up by RUC Special Branch and MI5, there were 450 names, but only 350 of these were found. Key figures on the list, and many who never appeared on them, had got wind of the swoop before it began. The list included leaders of the non-violent civil rights movement such as Ivan Barr and Michael Farrell. But, as Tim Pat Coogan noted,

What they did not include was a single Loyalist. Although the UVF had begun the killing and bombing, this organisation was left untouched, as were other violent Loyalist satellite organisations such as Tara, the Shankill Defence Association and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. It is known that Faulkner was urged by the British to include a few Protestants in the trawl but he refused.^[4]

In the case brought to the European Commission of Human Rights by the Irish government against the government of the United Kingdom, it was conceded that Operation Demetrius was planned and implemented from the highest levels of the British government and that specially trained personnel were sent to Northern Ireland to familiarize the local forces in what became known as the 'five techniques', methods of interrogation described by opponents as "a euphemism for torture".^[5]

Legal basis

The internments were initially carried out under Regulations 11 and 12 of 1956 and Regulation 10 of 1957 (the Special Powers Regulations), made under the authority of the Special Powers Act. The Detention of Terrorists Order of 7 November 1972, made under the authority of the Temporary Provisions Act, was used after direct rule was instituted.

Internees arrested without trial pursuant to Operation Demetrius could not complain to the European Commission of Human Rights about breaches of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because on 27 June 1957, the UK lodged a notice with the Council of Europe declaring that there was a "public emergency within the meaning of Article 15(1) of the Convention."^[6]

The operation and its immediate aftermath

Operation Demetrius began on Monday 9 August at about 4AM.

The operation was in two parts:

• (1) Arrest and movement of the detainees to one of three regional holding centers: Girdwood in Belfast, Ballykinler in County Down, or Magilligan in County Londonderry.
• (2) The process of identification and questioning, leading either to release of the detainee or movement into detention at Crumlin Road prison or aboard HMS Maidstone, a prison ship in Belfast Harbor.^[7]

In the first wave of raids across Northern Ireland, 342 people were arrested.^[8] Many of those arrested reported that they and their families were assaulted, verbally abused and threatened by the soldiers. There were claims of soldiers smashing their way into houses without warning and firing rubber bullets through doors and windows. Many of those arrested also reported being ill-treated during their detention. They complained of being beaten, verbally abused, threatened, harassed by dogs, denied sleep, and starved. Specific humiliations included being forced to run a gauntlet of baton-wielding soldiers, having their heads forcefully shaved, being kept naked, being burnt with cigarettes, having a sack placed over their heads for long periods, having a rope kept around their necks, having the barrel of a gun pressed against their heads, being dragged by the hair, being trailed behind armored vehicles while barefoot, and being tied to armored trucks as a human shield.^[9][10]

The operation sparked an immediate upsurge of violence, which was said to be the worst since the August 1969 riots.^[8] The British Army came under sustained attack from Irish nationalist/republican rioters and gunmen, especially in Belfast. According to journalist Kevin Myers: "Insanity seized the city. Hundreds of vehicles were hijacked and factories were burnt. Loyalist and IRA gunmen were everywhere".^[11] People blocked roads and streets with burning barricades to stop the British Army entering their neighborhoods. In Derry, barricades were again erected around Free Derry and "for the next 11 months these areas effectively seceded from British control".^[12] Between 9 and 11 August, 24 people were killed or fatally wounded: 20 civilians (14 Irish Catholics, 6 Protestants), two members of the Provisional IRA, shot dead by the British Army, and two members of the British Army, shot dead by the Provisional IRA.^[13]

Of the civilians killed, 17 were killed by the British Army and the other three were killed by unknown attackers.^[13] In West Belfast's Ballymurphy housing estate, 11 Irish Catholic civilians were killed by the British Army between 9 and 11 August in an episode that has become known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. Another flashpoint was Ardoyne in North Belfast, where soldiers shot dead three people on 9 August.^[13] Many Protestant families fled Ardoyne and about 200 burnt their homes as they left, lest they "fall into Catholic hands".^[14] Protestant and Catholic families fled "to either side of a dividing line, which would provide the foundation for the permanent peaceline later built in the area".^[11] Catholic homes were burnt in Ardoyne and elsewhere too.^[14] About 7000 people, most of them from the Catholic community, were left homeless.^[14] About 2500 Catholic refugees fled south of the border, where new refugee camps were set up.^[14]

By 13 August, media reports indicated that the violence had begun to wane, seemingly due to exhaustion on the part of the IRA and security forces.^[15]

On 15 August, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that it was starting a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of internment. By 17 October, it was estimated that about 16,000 households were withholding rent and rates for council houses as part of the campaign of civil disobedience.^[8]

On 16 August, over 8000 workers went on strike in Derry in protest at internment. Joe Cahill, then Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA, held a press conference during which he claimed that only 30 Provisional IRA members had been interned.^[8]

On 22 August, in protest against internment, about 130 non-Unionist councillors announced that they would no longer sit on district councils. The SDLP also withdrew its representatives from a number of public bodies.^[8] On 19 October, five Northern Ireland Members of Parliament (MPs) began a 48-hour hunger strike against internment. The protest took place near 10 Downing Street in London. Among those taking part were John Hume, Austin Currie, and Bernadette Devlin.^[8] Protests would continue until internment was ended in December 1975.

Long-term effects

The backlash against internment contributed to the decision of the British Government under Prime Minister Edward Heath to suspend the Northern Ireland Government and replace it with direct rule from Westminster, under the authority of a British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This took place in 1972.

Following the suspension of the Northern Ireland Government and Parliament, internment was continued by the direct rule administration until 5 December 1975. During this time a total of 1,981 people were interned: 1,874 were from a Catholic or Irish nationalist background, while 107 were from a Protestant or Ulster loyalist background.^[16]

Historians generally view the period of internment as inflaming sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland, while failing in its goal of arresting key members of the IRA. Many of the people arrested had no links whatsoever with the IRA, but their names appeared on the list of those to be arrested through bungling and incompetence. The list's lack of reliability and the arrests that followed, complemented by reports of internees being abused, led to more people identifying with the IRA in the Irish nationalist community and losing hope in other methods. After Operation Demetrius, recruits came forward in huge numbers to join the Provisional and Official wings of the IRA.^[14] Internment also led to a sharp increase in violence. In the eight months before the operation, there were 34 conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland. In the four months following it, 140 were killed.^[14] A serving officer of the British Royal Marines declared:

It (internment) has, in fact, increased terrorist activity, perhaps boosted IRA recruitment, polarised further the Catholic and Protestant communities and reduced the ranks of the much needed Catholic moderates.^[17]

In terms of loss of life, 1972 was the most violent of the Troubles. The fatal march on Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) in Derry, when 14 unarmed civil rights protesters were shot dead by British paratroopers, was an anti-internment march.

Interrogation of internees

The interrogation of internees was carried out by both the British Army and RUC. A number of internees were interrogated using the 'five techniques' (also referred to as sensory deprivation techniques), with training and advice regarding their use coming from senior intelligence officials in the British Government. According to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the five techniques were:

• (a) wall-standing: forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a "stress position", described by those who underwent it as being "spreadeagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers";
• (b) hooding: putting a black or navy coloured bag over the detainees' heads and, at least initially, keeping it there all the time except during interrogation;
• (c) subjection to noise: pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise;
• (d) deprivation of sleep: pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep;
• (e) deprivation of food and drink: subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the centre and pending interrogations.

Parker Report

When the interrogation techniques used on the internees became known to the public, there was outrage at the Government, especially from the Irish nationalist community. In answer to the anger from the public and Members of Parliament, on 16 November 1971 (just over a month after the start of the operation), the British Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker (the Lord Chief Justice of England) to look into the legal and moral aspects of the 'five techniques'.

The "Parker Report"^[18] was published on 2 March 1972 and found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:

10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.

On the same day (2 March 1972), United Kingdom Prime Minister Edward Heath stated in the House of Commons:

[The] Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques ... will not be used in future as an aid to interrogation... The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances.^[19]

As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly forbidding the use of the techniques, whether alone or together, were then issued to the security forces by the Government.^[19] These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the Government.

European Commission of Human Rights

The Irish Government, on behalf of the men who had been subject to the five techniques, took a case to the European Commission on Human Rights (Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on Hum. Rts. 512, 748, 788-94 (Eur. Comm’n of Hum. Rts.)). The Commission stated that it

...unanimously considered the combined use of the five methods to amount to torture, on the grounds that (1) the intensity of the stress caused by techniques creating sensory deprivation "directly affects the personality physically and mentally"; and (2) "the systematic application of the techniques for the purpose of inducing a person to give information shows a clear resemblance to those methods of systematic torture which have been known over the ages...a modern system of torture falling into the same category as those systems applied in previous times as a means of obtaining information and confessions.^[20][21]

European Court of Human Rights

The Commissions findings were appealed. In 1978, in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) trial Ireland v. the United Kingdom (Case No. 5310/71),^[22] the court ruled:

167. ... Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood. ...

168. The Court concludes that recourse to the five techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights] Article 3 (art. 3).

On 8 February 1977, in proceedings before the ECHR, and in line with the findings of the Parker Report and UK Government policy, the Attorney-General of the United Kingdom stated:

The Government of the United Kingdom have considered the question of the use of the 'five techniques' with very great care and with particular regard to Article 3 (art. 3) of the Convention. They now give this unqualified undertaking, that the 'five techniques' will not in any circumstances be reintroduced as an aid to interrogation.

References

v t e The Troubles History of Ireland History of Northern Ireland History of the United Kingdom Irish nationalism Irish republicanism Irish unionism Ulster loyalism Participants in the Troubles Republican paramilitaries Provisional IRA Official IRA Irish National Liberation Army Continuity IRA Real IRA IPLO Security forces United Kingdom British Army Royal Air Force Royal Navy Northern Ireland Ulster Defence Regiment Royal Irish Regiment Royal Ulster Constabulary Ulster Special Constabulary Republic of Ireland Garda Síochána Irish Army Loyalist paramilitaries Ulster Defence Association Ulster Volunteer Force Loyalist Volunteer Force Red Hand Commandos Young Citizen Volunteers Ulster Young Militants Ulster Resistance UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade Linked to: Some RUC and British Army members Chronology     Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association formed (1967) Battle of the Bogside (1969) Riots across Northern Ireland (1969) Beginning of Operation Banner (1969) Social Democratic and Labour Party formed (1970) Internment without trial begins with Operation Demetrius (1971) Irish government enacts Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act preventing Sinn Féin and IRA members from having access to the media (1971) Bloody Sunday by British Army (1972) Northern Ireland government dissolved. Direct rule from London begins (1972) Bloody Friday by Provisional IRA (1972) Power sharing Northern Ireland Assembly set up with SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party in power (1973) Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional IRA prisoners escape from Mountjoy Prison by helicopter (1973) Ulster Workers' Council strike causes power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly to end (1974) Dublin and Monaghan bombings by UVF with alleged British Army assistance (1974) Kingsmill massacre by South Armagh Republican Action Force (1976) Warrenpoint Ambush by Provisional IRA (1979) 1981 Irish hunger strike by Provisional IRA and INLA members (1981) Hunger striker Bobby Sands elected MP. Marks turning point as Sinn Féin begins to move towards electoral politics (1981) Maze Prison escape. 38 Provisional IRA prisoners escape from H-Block 7 of HM Prison Maze (1983) Brighton hotel bombing by Provisional IRA (1984) Anglo-Irish Agreement between British and Irish governments (1985) Remembrance Day bombing by Provisional IRA (1987) Peace Process begins (1988) Operation Flavius, Milltown Cemetery attack and Corporals killings (1988) Broadcasting restrictions introduced by British government (1988) Bishopsgate bombing (1993) Downing Street Declaration (1993) First Provisional IRA ceasefire (1994) Broadcasting restrictions lifted (1994) Loyalist ceasefire (1994) Docklands bombing (1996) 1996 Manchester bombing (1996) Second Provisional IRA ceasefire (1997) Good Friday Agreement (1998) signals the end of the Troubles Assembly elections held, with SDLP and UUP winning most seats (1998) Omagh bombing by dissident Real IRA (1998) Political Parties Unionist parties Democratic Unionist Party Northern Ireland Unionist Party Ulster Unionist Party Progressive Unionist Party Conservative Party UK Unionist Party Traditional Unionist Voice Nationalist parties Democratic Left Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Labour Party Progressive Democrats Sinn Féin Social Democratic & Labour Party Workers' Party of Ireland Irish Republican Socialist Party Republican Sinn Féin Cross-community parties Alliance Party Historically important parties Nationalist Party Northern Ireland Labour Party Protestant Unionist Party Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party Northern Ireland Women's Coalition People's Democracy Republican Labour Party Anti H-Block Irish Independence Party The Troubles at Wiktionary The Troubles at Wikibooks The Troubles at Wikiquote The Troubles at Wikisource The Troubles at Commons The Troubles at Wikinews