ARMY BRUTALITY’ Shankill inquiry report accuses British

military police of planned attack "TWO MILITARY POLICE SUDDENLY CHARGED INTO THE CROWD AND DRAGGED OUT TWO YOUTHS"; "THERE WAS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THESE ARRESTS"; "GREAT PROVOCATION FROM MILITARY POLICE"; ALLEGATIONS OF ARMY BRUTALITY INCLUDING THE BEATING OF A PREGNANT WOMAN; ALLEGATIONS THAT INNOCENT BYSTAND ‘ERS AND SHOPPERS WERE ARRESTED: THESE ARE SOME PHRASES FROM A SHOCK REPORT PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY.

The report shocks because of its precise description of British Army brutality, but it shocks even more because it was produced by two Unionists, one at present an M.P, and the other a former M.P. Only the strongest public indignation on the Shankill Road could have forced two 'loyalist' representatives to put their names to a report like this which is so highly critical of the forces of the Crown.

The report contains the findings of a Peoples Tribunal held shortly after the weekend's rioting during which the British Army launched a massive attack against the Shankill Road community. . The tribunal heard witnesses who told of the now~ familiar army attacks on everyone within sight.

"During that part of the route the military police continued to arrest indiscriminately, including women and men doing their weekly shopping and in no way concerned with the footballers or their followers, five such shoppers gave evidence at the inquiry: two ladies and three men. One lady, Mrs. Mer Clean, suffering from angina, shopping with her daughter, was at the corner of Hopeton Street. Her. daughter was with her. A load of military police in a Land Rover came up. At that time her daughter, who is an epileptic, took ill. Her brother put his arm round her and the second brother put his arm round his mother. A military police man grabbed her by the arm and another kicked her. She was knocked down and took a heart attack and became unconscious. ambulance was sent for.

graphs of the marks on her arm and leg taken on the following Tuesday. The daughter was pregnant and within six weeks of con‘ finement. up and arrested both sons. They tried to arrest the daughter and dragged her along. She took an epileptic fit and was left lying on the road. The ambulance arrived and the daughter was removed. On the following Tuesday she gave premature birth to her baby." NOT SECTARIAN idea. It enabled the people of afairly. (We have Frank Gogarty's word for that.) Even the British for some reason they declined to give evidence.

ia; indicating (as P.D. has often said) that fewer working class people on the Shankill are taken in port of the Peoples Tribunal is a good deal less concerned with secent publication of the C.C.D.C. "Law and Orders".

If it does nothing else, the report may jolt a few workers on the Shankill into seeing that the same type of military oppression has communities - like the Falls and Ardoyne. Perhaps after reading it, some Shankill workers will beBogsider.

"Mrs. McClean produced photoin Ireland.

The military police beat The Peoples Tribunal was a good community to discuss what had happened quickly, without red tape, and Army were represented - although The report has no sectarian hysterRTC. by Paisley's sectarian rantings than is often supposed. Indeed, the retarian attitudes to things than the rec side, also been carried out against other gin to sense what it is like to be a And if the report of the Shankill Peoples Tribunal helps to create a sense of working class solidarity against the inhuman force of the British Army, then (whatever the intentions of Messrs McCoy and Boal) it will have done a great service to the working class movement Keep this picture for your personal rogues gallery. It is of David Corbett who has just been appointed f as Assistant Chief Constable of the Corbett has figured prominently in several police riots: he was in | charge of police in Derry on January 4th 1969, the day of the Burntollet ambush when drunken police under his command ran riot in BogHe is also remembered for the fine way he dealt with Peoples Democracy in Enniskillen in June 1969, when he had 54 people arrested, including one who, Corbett alleged, | was causing a breach of the peace by carrying a placard - which had nothing written on it!

FREE CITIZEN 27th NOVEMBER 1970