The Hunger Strike in H-Block

Martyrdom raises fears of more sectarian violence

We are not criminals. We are ready and willing to meet an agonizing death to establish that we are political prisoners." So saying, seven inmates between the ages of 25 and 32, all of them convicted as Irish Republican terrorists (three for murder), went on a hunger strike on Oct. 27 in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison, 13 miles outside Belfast. As the prisoners passed the 40th day of their fast last week, there were increasing fears that one or more might die. If so, the troubled province could be in for a new round of bloodshed and sectarian violence. In sympathy, three women convicts at a prison in Armagh joined the fast, and thousands of supporters staged protest marches and torchlight rallies in Catholic districts of Belfast and Londonderry. On Saturday, nearly 25,000 demonstrators, led by Catholic Activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, a onetime member of Britain's Parliament from Ulster, turned out for a march in Dublin. But the British government remained unmoved. "If those people continue with their hunger strike, it will have no effect whatsoever," said Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. "It will just take their own lives, for which I will be profoundly sorry, because I think it's a ridiculous thing to do."

British officials insist that neither the hunger strike nor the terrorist actions of the I.R.A.'s Provisional wing are supported by a majority of Ulster's Catholic community. Initially, that judgment was probably correct, but Catholic political leaders are now troubled by a shift in attitude since the prisoners began their fast. If even one of the hunger strikers dies, warned Seamus Mallon, the moderate deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, there will be a new outbreak of violence. "It will make martyrs of those men," he said.

The test of wills between the prisoners and British authorities has driven another wedge of bitterness between Ulster's Protestant and Catholic communities. Most ominously, the Ulster Defense Association, a paramilitary Protestant organization, has threatened to "eliminate" activists supporting the prisoners. Last week, in what Scotland Yard conceded might be the start of a new I.R.A. campaign, two bombs exploded outside an army reserve center in West London. No one was seriously injured, but police warned Britons to be cautious. In the past, the Christmas season has been a favorite time for I.R.A. explosions and letter-bomb attacks in England.

The hunger strikers' principal demand is for restoration of the "special category status" that prisoners convicted of politically motivated crimes were granted by the Tory government of Edward Heath in 1972. At that time, several hunger strikers, who also came close to death, persuaded William Whitelaw, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to grant them the status of political prisoners. Whitelaw, who is now Mrs. Thatcher's Home Secretary, later said the concession had been a mistake. It was withdrawn in 1976, and as a result there is something of a double standard at Maze Prison. Those convicted before that time--some 360 inmates--are segregated in compounds according to their political allegiance and allowed to wear their own clothes, as well as to refuse prison labor and other regimentation. But Protestant and Catholic terrorists convicted of offenses committed after March 1976 are housed in concrete cell blocks (commonly called "H-blocks" because of their shape) along with "O.D.C.s," prison jargon for "ordinary decent criminals" whose offenses are unrelated to the troubles.

Two years ago, prisoners at Maze began what is now known as the "dirty protest." They refused to wash, shave or wear clothes, wrapped themselves only in their prison blankets and smeared the walls of their cells with excrement. Since then the protest has grown to include 468 men at Maze and 26 women at Armagh.

Last summer, the European Commission of Human Rights studied the prisoners' case, which rested partly on the fact that they are not handled as ordinary criminals by the courts. Instead, they are tried in special courts established under emergency antiterrorist legislation enacted by the British Parliament. The cases are not heard by a jury but by a single judge, and the conviction rate is said to be about 95%. The commission ruled against special status on the grounds that prisoners were not entitled to it under British law or under the European Convention. The commission did criticize the British government, however, for its "inflexible" approach.

Talks between Catholic prelates and British officials also failed to produce concessions on the prisoners' other demands: the right to wear their own clothes, to refrain from work, to have free association with each other, to organize their own educational and recreational facilities, to receive one visit, letter and parcel a week, and, finally, to have parole tune restored that was lost during the dirty protest. The government appeared to give a bit on the clothing issue, saying that prisoners would be allowed to wear "civilian-type" clothes. But they were to be issued by the prison, which was unacceptable to the H-block protesters.

The Maze Seven have now been moved to separate cells in the medical wing of the prison, where their condition is closely monitored by doctors. For nearly three hours each evening they are allowed to see each other, a privilege not granted other protesting prisoners. Their relatives are also allowed a weekly visit, again an improvement over arrangements for the "blanket-men." But none of the fasting prisoners have touched the food that is routinely prepared and offered, and their spokesmen continue to insist that their demands are nonnegotiable.

In a letter to the London Times, the Canon of Westminster, the Rev. John Austin Baker, implored the government to be more flexible. "Even at this late hour an attempt could be made to avert a new legacy of bloodshed and bitterness," he wrote, "and many people here in England are conscious of our responsibility not only in but for this tragic situation." At week's end Catholic Political Leader John Hume reported that "a door has been opened" in his talks with Ulster Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins. Most observers devoutly hoped so. If some room for compromise was not found, Northern Ireland, and perhaps England as well, seemed set for a Christmas season during which the message of peace and goodwill would be increasingly hard to hear.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.