International News Internationai News International News BAN THE BULLETS- AND

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my on the life support machine. Members of his family said that they ire put on the front page of the Daily Mirror, ' "so that British people can -Racist Kohlconference last week voted for a ban on plas bullets Meanwhile two Irish families are seeking just. ice for their children killed by British troops.

Martin Thomas reports.

"THE Catholic people in Northern Ireland have been silent too long. The children in Northern Ireland are murdered by plastic bullets ad no-one does anything about it.

"A soldier murdered my son, , and the Director of Public Prosecutions says that soldier has no crime to answer for. What can you do to get a prosecution of a British soldier who murders someone like that?"

James Barratt's 15 year old son Danny was shot dead by an army sniper as he sat chatting at his own front door, in July 1981.

The inquest Jury conTurmed that Danny was 'not a gunman or a rioter, . Yet the DPP has refused to bring charges.

James Barratt was over in Britain 1 last week to campaign for justice for his son's death. At a Labour Committee on Ireland fringe meeting in Blackpool, and at a London press conference last Thursday, he was joined of Stephen McConomy. Stephen, aged 11, was killed by a plastic bullet this April, and once again the DPP refused to prosecute.

A petition demanding further public investigation or these cases was signed at Blackpool by Moss Evans, Eric Heifer, Alan Sapper, Arthur Scargill and others.

Siephen was shot by a side: Ding tom. an amoured car as te ran dosa GERMAN television showed a historic first last Friday: the first successful toppling of a government by a parliamentary vote of no confidence. After the turbulence of the past few meeks, the end was suitably dramatic, with general иртоаг and vitriolic speeches.

The CDU/CSU, after 13 years in, opposition, rallied 256 votes from their own ranks and those of the centre FDP, less than expected. Schmidt polled 235, and 4 MPs were undecided.

Meanwhile, the new Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, has already set about proving that his economic solution relies precisely on the street away il Together with five friends of his own had been playing rol armoured car and a b: erected nearby t troops.

The children ran : a hatch was opened armoured car, and t plastic bullet was smashing the ba Stephen's head. Two who saw the shoot down to pick up s Sheltering behind : one of them shouter troops "Can g child?" "If you g him, Il shoot y soldier screamed back Eventually a poli arrived and Stephr taken to hospital. : brain had been destre the plastic bullet.

No date has ye given for an inque Stephen's death - an only this August tha was an inquest On Barratt, killed in July attacking the working class.

In a television interview, he committed the new govemment to 'tackling economic problems" by tax concessions to industry, higher indirect taxes, and cuts in welfare spending.

Not surprisingly, Kohl has invited Mrs Thatcher to pop over and see him in a couple of weeks.

And he is turning his attention -to the settled 'foreign' population. He finds the number of foreigners in West Germany (4.7 million, including 1.5 million Turks) too high, and wishes to introduce 'financial incentives to encourage them to go home"

Of course, Kohl is not referring to the skilled EEC immigrant workers, but the rom it.

or six age, he und the arricade the away as on the hen the fired, ck of , youths ing ran stephen. a. wall, jet the 30 near ou" a ice jeep en was But his oyed by it been st into d it was it there Danny 1981.

There had been rioting nearby the evening that Danny was killed, but then there was a lull, and Danny, with some friends and his father, went out to the front door. He was sitting on a wall, chatting, when he was shot dead.

The shot was fired by a British Army sniper in a nearby observation post. The sniper claimed that he saw gunfire flashes from the Barratt's garden, and Danny 1. 11' holding a gun.

Expert evidence showed that there were no signs of Danny having handled a gun, and that in the visibility conditions of the time it would have been impossible to see from the observation post whether Danny had a gun. The lawyer representing the army told the inquest that they accepted that Danny was not a gunman and that no gun was fired from the Barratts' garden.

Stephen's case and Danny's are not unusual. Many children and Turks, Yugoslavs, etc.

The German left must now be sure to build the fight against racism into their fight to protect living standards.

Schmidt see what their bra uninvolved bysta been killed by Bı since 1969; very killers have been The mother Stewart, a 13-yea by a plastic bull. is suing the soldir him and the offic in charge at the no-one has won a kind, and the 1 been repeatedly p Stephen was person, and the se to be killed by : rubber bullet si Seven of these ki in the five monti August 1981 - tr the campaign fi block hunger : when 29,158 pla were fired, nearly the total of 11 plastic bullets 1970.

In addition to hundreds of seric have been caused and plastic bullet no full count, l three months May 1981, Northern I pitals recorded 1 injuries.

Eyes

Four people lost eyes from plastic bullets in 1981, several had fractured skulls, many had lesser head injuries, one now has epileptic fits, and two are likely to remain partially paralysed. Several people - some children - have been blinded by plastic bullets over the years.

The rubber bullets (introduced in 1970) and plastic bullets ( which replaced we soldiers are inders have ritish troops few of the prosecuted.

of Brian ir old killed et in 1976, er who shot zer who was : time. But case of this hearing has ostponed.

the 14th eventh child a plastic or ince 1970. illings were hs April to le height of or the Hstrikers -stic bullets I a third of ubber and fired since the deaths, ›us injuries by rubber s. There is but in the r-June-July reland hos61 serious doing, shooting our children in them from 1975) are supposed to be used as riot control weapons. to disperse crowds without serious injury.

There are regulations which are supposed to limit their use: that they should be aimed at a specific person, that they should be aimed at the lower part of the body, and that they should not be used at a range of less than 20 metres. But these regulations are often ignored.

Head

Belfast surgeons who did survey. of rubber bullet victims in 1970-72 found that more than half had been shot from less than 15 yards, and a third from less than five yards. Head injuries are common from plastic bullets. The bullets are pretty inaccurate, and even when they have been used in the midst of riots, nonrioters presumably in general less alert and able to avoid bullets - are often the victims.

Plastic bullets are thick, heavy cylinders some four inches long, leaving the gun at 160 miles an hour. Even at a range of 50 yards they have enough impact energy to fracture skulls, rip open bodies, or seriously damage internal organs.

And rubber and plastic bullets have frequently been 'doctored' by sharpening them, attaching coins or blades to them, or inserting torch batteries into rubber bullets.

Still no soldier or a julle ulangs oü adec4 died 13 Ma : 1987 the back of the head". man in Northern Ireland has ever been convicted for misuse of these bullets.

Soldiers and police have sometimes been prosecuted for killings with ordinary bullets - though much more often when the killings were done off duty than when they were on duty. But the killers have often been acquitted against all the odds.

Most of the trials are in no-jury Diplock courts -and just as the absence of a jury counts against Republicans in these courts, it counts for soldiers and policemen.

In July 1979, for example, two SAS men were found not guilty of the murder of 16 year old John Boyle. John was looking at an arms dump which he had discovered (and informed the police about, via his father), when the SAS men who had 'staked out' the dump gunned him down.

The Army initially said that John had pointed a loaded rifle at the soldiers.

Claim Likewise, when 16 year old Michael McCartan was shot dead by a RUC policeman as he ran away from a corner where he had been painting slogans, the first RUC story was that Michael was a gunman. When 12 year old Majella O'Hare was killed by a British soldier, the Army started off by claiming that the IRA had shot her. No evidence of the IRA being there was ever produced. Francis anniee, agedi 1974 Despite all this, the army and the police are still able to persuade the courts that they are reliable witnesses, and to get the killers acquitted if they are ever prosecuted at all.

The European Parliament has now called for the banning of plastic bullets (with only the British Tories dissenting). So has the Labour Party conference.

Issues

'Silent too long', the group that sponsored James Barratt's and Rona McConomy's visit, deliberately restricts itself to the issue of prosecution of soldiers and police respon sible for killings, and the banning of plastic bullets -feeling that it has a better chance on these limited issues than on a straight challenge to the presence of British troops in Ireland. At the press conference, Rona McConomy clearly felt that the campaign's immediate chances were slim even on the limited issues, "but you have to do what you can"

To ban plastic bullets would indeed be a first step. But why are plastic bullets still used, when the evidence of their deadliness is so clear?

They are weapons appropriate for forces trying to intimidate a whole population - a population determined and militant enough that lesser violence will not beat it down. They are weapons used by such forces in conditions where they cannot get away with straightforward indiscriminate gunning-down of civilians but they can get away with murder if a facade of "unfortunate accident" is constructed.

Root

Such is the situation of the British Army in Northern Ireland. Its objective is to suppress the Catholic community sufficiently to re-estabilise the sectarian partitioned state under British control.

Plastic bullets should be banned. But unless we go on to deal with the root of the matter, it will be like the "banning" of torture in the interrogation centres. Other methods will be found to do essentially the same job, because the British Army cannot operate and function in Northern Ireland without intimidating the rebellious Catholic community.

Not only the bullets should be banned from Northern Ireland, but also the force that fires them.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 7 October 1982 Page 5 ment in Britain, the EEC Lebanon and Zionist occup- tion with the Reagan Harry FORGING on relentlessiy, despite the recurrent shock waves from the Beirut massacre, Begin's Israeli government is planning its next steps in Lebanon.

The voices of opposition to the government's involvement in the massacre reached a crescendo last week in an unprecedented demand from over 100 top army officers - led by Chief of Staff General Eitan - for the resignation of Defence Minister Sharon.

The extent to which the military apparatus has been thrown into disarray by the Lebanese expedition in general and the Beirut massacre in particular was underlined by the fact that vocal criticism of Sharon came from the commander of Israel's key paratroops, who declared "I can no longer lead my men with a clear conscience" • And Sharon himself has admitted that a brigade of front line troops could not be sent into action because of their anti-war sentiments.

But the anger of top officers at the way Sharon shuffled off responsibility for the massacre by suggesting that the army was to blame appears to be something of an exception in the pattern of opposition to Begin.

The huge demonstration of 400,000 which followed refusal overnment's • inquiry initia into the massacre was reportedly composed largely of Western, middle class Jews, few of whom would have been Begin's supporters in the first place. would take over order' in Lebanon.

There is no way in which the imperialists, the Zionists or the Lebanese bourgeoisie can be entrusted with the task of defending the Palestinian people or the Lebanese l Muslim masses: they have proven their brutal readiness to slaughter them in cold blood.

It is the labour moveand the USA, and the working classes of the Middle East that must rally to the support of the oppressed Palestinian and Arab people in ied Palestine.

The struggle must be taken up against the reac'tionary Arab regimes seeking a framework for collabora"peace" plan, and for action by transport and other unions to boycott all trade with the bloody Zionist regime.

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Galatankeiy aq-d 12: ded 22 Man 1981 Stephen Gaddis açedto

bran Slewart, aged 3 died 10 October 1976

Paul Whinets aged 15. died 29 Apa 198!