Punishment Beatings (Hansard, 12 December 1996)

§ 5. Mr. Barnes
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on punishment beatings and killings in Northern Ireland since the end of the IRA ceasefire. [7319]

§ The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Sir John Wheeler)
Between 1 February and 8 December 1996, the RUC has recorded 274 so-called punishment beatings. Of these, 149 are attributed to republican and 125 to loyalist terrorist gangs. These attacks are intended to intimidate parts of the Northern Ireland population and are without any justification. There have also been 14 murders this year arising from the security situation.
In a majority of cases, victims of this kind of attack are reluctant to co-operate with police inquiries, and the groups who perpetrate these atrocities do not claim responsibility, making it difficult for the RUC categorically to apportion responsibility and carry out investigations. However, at least 20 people have been charged.

§ Mr. Barnes
Is the Minister aware that, yesterday evening, there were three other sets of punishment beatings in Northern Ireland? One took place in Newry, where four young men were beaten and given 24 hours to leave the country. Another was in Derry, and an executive member of Families Against Intimidation and Terror in Northern Ireland was also attacked. Two of the attacks 393 seemed to have been carried out by the IRA and the other—against the Families Against Intimidation and Terror member—by Protestant paramilitary groups. Are not so-called punishment beatings running at an unprecedented level, as are recruitment to the IRA and its production of mortar weapons?

§ Sir John Wheeler
The hon. Gentleman's analysis is correct. The level of these attacks has been rising in recent months and throughout this year, and every 24 hours brings one of those attacks from terrorist gangs from either side. The Provisional IRA uses these savage and vicious attacks as a strategy of social and political control. The attacks are evil, without any justification and cost the people of Northern Ireland a great deal of money, as well as grief.

§ Rev. William McCrea
In the light of the increase in the number and the brutal nature of so-called punishment attacks, will the Minister tell the House how many persons have been brought to court and how many have been found guilty of such activities? Does the Minister believe that all paramilitary organisations have been involved in such attacks, and would that not be a breach of the Mitchell principles?

§ Sir John Wheeler
I cannot give precise information on the number of successful prosecutions. Unhappily, they are few and far between, for the reasons I have already given. People are intimidated and are frightened to give information to the RUC to enable it to carry out the investigation. The hon. Gentleman is right. Attacks are made by so-called loyalists as well as by republican terrorist gangs and are without any justification.
As to the Mitchell report recommendations, representatives of the smaller parties in the talks forum are committed to the Mitchell principles and have so declared themselves.

§ Dr. Hendron
The Secretary of State is aware that the McLaughlin family in west Belfast were nearly wiped out recently by joyriders and that Mr. McLaughlin's mother-in-law had her leg smashed. I am sure that he is also aware that we have a massive law and order problem, not only in west Belfast but far beyond it, and that we have a problem in nationalist areas with police acceptability, especially in the post-Drumcree situation?
Having said that, does the Secretary of State agree that there are no circumstances in which it can be justifiable for a young man aged 16 to be tied upside down and have his legs smashed, as happened in my constituency recently? Does he also agree that the message must go out to the Provisional IRA that, when it calls its ceasefire, as I believe it probably will just before the forthcoming general election, it must include a total and absolute cessation not only of murder but—I will not use the words "punishment beatings", as that gives the wrong implications—of brutalities?

§ Sir John Wheeler
I am aware of the case to which the hon. Gentleman refers. It is an example of the extreme horror that we endure every day in Northern Ireland. I say this to Mr. Adams and his cronies in the Provisional IRA-Sinn Fein: if they intend to bring about a ceasefire, these evil attacks on ordinary people in Northern Ireland must end if it is to have a scintilla of credibility. The 394 attacks are without any justification. The RUC polices the whole of Northern Ireland. There is no street and no part of the Province to which it does not have access, and it will continue to police Northern Ireland and seek to bring these perpetrators to justice.
So far this year, the 300 or so punishment attacks have cost the people of Northern Ireland nearly £3 million from their expenditure—money that would otherwise have been spent on the health service and education. That is the extent of the evil for which every person in Northern Ireland has to pay.

§ Mr. Robert McCartney
Does the Minister agree that, in view of the increase in this barbarous behaviour and its political effect, it was strange that punishment beatings were not mentioned in the Prime Minister's policy statement of two weeks ago on Northern Ireland and the terms on which Sinn Fein might come in? Is it not both illogical and ironic that some of the parties represented in the talks on the so-called loyalist side, or the organisations that they are fronting, have been responsible this year for some 125 punishment beatings? Can those parties be allowed to continue in the talks, if the beatings are attributable to organisations that they are said to front and represent?

§ Sir John Wheeler
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made it clear in his statement that all terrorist activity had to cease. That is made clear in the Mitchell commission report. Whatever the activity—whether it is targeting, preparing to fire mortars, the use of guns, or the savage and brutal attacks on individuals—it would have to end. They should not occur now. The so-called loyalist politicians in the talks process have signed up to Mitchell and it is a matter to be dealt with in that process. The hon. and learned Gentleman can pursue it there.