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PROMINENT NONVIOLENCE ADVOCATE TELLS OF INTERNMENT
PAGE 3-March 23,1972
“When They Came In The Morning”
BY GRAY STANDEN
LONDON (NC) - “On Monday, Aug.
9, 1971, I was kidnapped from my bed
by armed men, taken away and held as a
hostage for five and a half weeks,” wrote
John McGuffin, a Northern Irish writer,
lecturer and prominent advocate of
non-violence in a recent issue of the
English Dominicans’ magazine, New
Blackfriars.
Entitled “When They Came in the
Morning,” McGuffin’s article has been
cited by the Catholic minority in Ulster
in their struggle against internment
without charges or trial, a government
policy now more than seven months old.
“It was 4:45 a.m.,” McGuffin wrote.
“As I opened (the door), I was forced
back against the wall by two soldiers who
screamed at me: ‘Do you live here?’
Overwhelmed by their perspicacity, I
admitted that this was so, whereupon
they ordered me to get dressed. I
foolishly asked why. ‘Under the Special
Powers Act we don’t have to give a reason
for anything,’ the officer said.”
Under the watchful eyes of eight
armed soldiers McGuffin was then
marched down the street to the army
lorry (a truck, often called a “pig”),
searched for the second time and shoved
into the back of the “pig.”
“Sitting shivering in the back of the pig
I began to try to work out what was
happening,” said McGuffin. “I had
known, as of course had anyone involved
in Irish politics, that internment was on
the cards, but had never expected to be
involved. For three years I had been a
member of the People’s Democracy, a
libertarian socialist group, and had
attended meetings, marches and pickets,
all perfectly legal. I had contributed
articles to their weekly paper, The Free
Citizens, again perfectly legal. My wife
and I had received compensation from
the government for being beaten up by
the (now disbanded police auxiliary) B
Specials.
“But the public had been told over and
over again by the prime minister, Brian
Faulkner, that only IRA (Irish
Republican Army) and Ulster Volunteer
Force men (members of an illegal armed
organization of ultra-right-wing
Protestant) would be interned. What
therefore were William (a friend also
arrested) and I doing freezing in a lorry
with Sten guns' covering us at this
ungodly hour?”
McGuffin, his friend, and two other
nen - with an escort of 10 soldiers -
vere taken to the Bridwood Barracks,
rhere, other trucks were disengorging
tastily dressed men and hustling them at
gunpoint into the barracks under the
shadow of a waiting helicopter. The men
were searched yet again, processed and
pushed into the gym hall.
“One hundred and fifty other people
(mostly young boys or old men) were
squatting on the floor,” McGuffin wrote.
“Many were in pajamas or shirtless.
Heavily armed soldiers walked up and
down, increasingly bellowing, ‘No talking,
you scum.’ ”
Later, during the first of his four
interrogations by the police, McGuffin
glanced through the window. “On the
lawn outside,” he said, “the helicopter
stood, engines still revving and blades
rotating. A dozen or so barefoot men
were being forced to run the gauntlet
between two rows of MP’s who were
-¥• -¥■ ¥ ¥ * -¥■
British Accused Of
Psychological Torment
By Ernest A. Ostro
LONDON (NC) - Amnesty
International, an organization that aids
political prisoners, accused British-backed
security forces in Northern Ireland of
psychological torment of Catholic
prisoners interned as suspected terrorists.
The Catholic minority in Northern
Ireland has been claiming that those being
interned under the government’s
imprisonment-without-trial order for
suspected terrorists have been brutally
mistreated.
The Amnesty International report
asserted that interrogation methods
admittedly practiced by the Royal Ulster
Constabulary’s special branch “constitute
a grave assault on the human mind.”
A three-man committee of inquiry
sponsored by the British government
earlier in March confirmed widespread
reports that methods such as the use of
black hoods, noice machines, prolonged
bread-and-water diets, and longtime
deprivation of sleep were used to extract
information from detainees.
Prime Minister Edward Heath told the
House of Commons that those
interrogation methods will not be used in
future against Ulster detainees - nor
anywhere else.
Since Aug. 9, 1971, nearly a thousand
Northern Irish Catholics suspected of
connection with the outlawed Irish
Republican Army or other
anti-government groups have been
detained without trial, appeal or any of
the other usual safeguards of British law.
Of this number, more than 800 are still
interned.
The March government report and last
fall’s Compton report, which
acknowledged “mistreatment” but not
“brutality,” dealt with physical abuse of
detainees. The Amnesty International
statement focuses on psychological
mistreatment.
“The procedures were designed to
disorientate and break down the mind of
the suspect by sensory deprivation, and
the infliction of physical injury was
ancillary to this purpose,” the Amnesty
report said.
“The fact that some of the prisoners
refused food and water, urinated in
inappropriate situations, refused to
urinate when appropriate facilities were
available, and kept the hood on when it
could have been removed supports our
finding that this treatment has serious
mental effects.”
Despite Heath’s pledge that “special
techniques of interrogation” would no
longer be used, Catholic minority
representatives hailed the Amnesty report
as further documentation of their
charges.
“It’s time that someone recognized the
long-range mental effects of internment
and interrogation,” declared Ivan Cooper,
a Catholic leader in Londonderry. “But
the effects go far beyond the
interrogations. It’s internment itself that
plays havoc with the minds and
personalities of the men at Long Kesh
and Magilligan and Maidstone (two camps
and a prison ship where the suspects are
interned).”
The Amnesty report was written by
Thomas Hammarburg, chairman of the
Swedish section of Amnesty
International; Dr. Herman va Geuns,
chairman of the Dutch section; and
Gunnar Lind, Norway’s assistant public
prosecutor.
clubbing them with Sten gun butts and
batons. Those who fell were badly
kicked. When they reached the helicopter
they were grabbed in and then thrown
out again almost immediately. The
helicopter drowned any noise of
screams.”
After questioning, McGuffin was taken
to a large room upstairs containing
hundreds of men.
Lack of sleep, the absence of decent
food, the lack of medical attention and
the evidence of brutality began to take its
toll on the men. “Uncertainty was the
worst enemy,” McGuffin said. “We had
little idea of time, what was happening
outside, where our friends were, what was
going to happen.”
McGuffin was questioned three more
times. His interrogators asked him
questions about socialism and one even
lectured him on the evils of atheism.
Other prisoners were told that the
streets where their families lived had been
burned, that their relatives had been shot,
sons arrested, their friends had “squealed
and told all about them.”
After 46 hours in the Bridwood
Barracks, McGuffin was moved to
Crumlin Jail.
Although the conditions in Crumlin
were appreciately better, he said, the
inmates were subjected to slander from
the politicians outside. “We were
powerless to reply,” wrote McGuffin.
“For weeks we couldn’t see a lawyer.
Actions for habeas corpus or bail were
curtly refused. We had to prove our
innocence - without even being charged
with anything. Wives and children
suffered even more.
Then, on Sept. 14, as suddenly as he
had been arrested, McGuffin was thrown
out of the jail into the rain. Five days
later 219 Crumlin detainees were interned
without charge or trial in Long Kesh, near
Lisburn, which McGuffin calls a
concentration camp.
His article ended with this fervent plea:
“This troubled country cannot hope to
see any lasting peace until internment is
ended and all repressive legislation
repealed. If the Unionists (the dominant
party in Northern Ireland) aren’t
prepared to do this, then Westminister
(the British government) must.”
Holy Week In Rome
Scenes similar to the above, which took place last year, will be repeated next week as
Pope Paul observes Holy Week. (Top Photo) Pope blesses crowd during Palm Sunday
ceremonies. (Lower Photo) Pope lights Pascal Candle on Holy Saturday. (NC
PHOTOS) v
Film Classifications
Report On NFPC Meeting
Section I — Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
Morally Unobjectionable for Adults Adolescents
Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A — Section II —
A — Section III -
DENVER (NC) -- In a meeting that its
organizers termed “low key/’ members of
the National Federation of Priests
Councils passed resolutions on issues as
diverse as the Vietnam War and priestly
celibacy.
However, the delegates also voted
128-70 “to continue to pursue change in
the celibacy law for priests of the Latin
rite.” The margin was considerably
smaller than the 9 to 1 vote in favor of
optional celibacy at last year’s NFPC
meeting.
urged to encourage their bishops to seek
married candidates for the priesthood.
While some delegates found its actions
too wordy and cautious, Father Frank
Bonnike, NFPC president called the
meeting a “step forward.”
A — Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B — Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C — Condemned
The four-day NFPC meeting here was
designed to focus on “peace and justice”
issues, and many of the resolutions
reflected these concerns.
SUNDAY, MARCH 26 — 9:00 p.m. (ABC) --
JIGSAW - “World Premiere” television feature
stars James Wainwright as a big-city police
looey who gets framed for murder -- or was it?
Vera Miles, Richard Kiley, Edmund O’Brien
add weight if not depth to routine detective
thriller.
MONDAY, MARCH 27 — 9:00 p.m. (NBC) -
TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE (1969) -
Willie Boy (Robert Blake) was a Paiute Indian
on a California reservation at the turn of the
century who was caught between tribal
tradition and the white man’s law when he
killed the father of his sweetheart (Katharine
Ross). The ingredients for an engrossing
examination of an episode from our past would
seem to be here: the clash of two cultures, the
injustice of the dominant one, and the human
fallibility on both sides. They are largely left
unexplored, however, both on the Indian side
and in the abrasive relationship between the
fair-minded sheriff (Robert Redford) and the
socially advanced but personally frustrated
reservation doctor (Susan Clark). What emerges
instead is more or less routine Western chase
movie with an unhappy ending. (A—III)
9:00 p.m. (ABC) - WHEELER &
MURDOCK / THE NEW HEALERS - Two one
hour pilot films strung together as the Monday
Night Movie offering. WHEELER, etc., is a
shallow detective yarn starring Jack Warden &
Chris Stone; the other movie is more promising,
starring Leif Erickson and concerning ex-Army
medics trying to help a stricken mountain
town.
TUESDAY, MARCH 28 — 8:30 p.m. (ABC)
THE FORGOTTEN MAN
Made-for-television film about a P.O.W. (Dennis
Weaver) who tries to resume a normal life after
his release . . .thing is, his wife has remarried,
his daughter doesn’t recognize him, his business
has been sold, etc., etc. In other words, he has
plenty to keep him busy for the film’s
ninety-minute running time.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) - BESERK (1967) -- Joan Crawford is
durable but unconvincing in an equally
incredible, lurid circus melodrama about a
series of brutal murders that decimate Miss C’s
troupe of performers. The finger of suspicion
points to Joan as the publicity-minded circus
The delegates asked the U.S. bishops to
seek Vatican permission to ordain
married men, and local councils were
owner who milks the sensational headlines for
the sake of a hypo at the box office -- but don’t
worry, there is a twist ending in store to clear
things up. (-Ill)
FRIDAY, MARCH 31 — 8:00 p.m. (CBS) -
THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS
Appointment with Destiny special for Good
Friday presents an hour-long drama based on
the passion and death of Christ. The emphasis
here is on the human drama rather than church
teachings.
8:30 p.m. (NBC) - CAT ON A HOT TIN
ROOF (1958) -- Liz Taylor, Paul Newman, and
Burl Ives star in an adult melodrama set in the
sultry South. Newman plays an alcoholic
ex-star athlete who never quite grew up to face
his responsibilities, chief among them attending
to his smoldering shrewish wife, Miss Taylor.
Ives plays a semi-heavy “Big Daddy” type.
(A-lll)
SUNDAY, APRIL 1 — 12:30 p.m. (CBS) --
HAND IN HAND - A Children’s Film Festival
offering about the tender, innocent relationship
between a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl, who
discover (along with those around them) that
God is everywhere, watching over everyone. A
fine little film for everyone, but especially the
kids.
8:30 p.m. (ABC) - IF TOMORROW COMES
-- Original TV feature starring Patty Duke, Pat
Hingle, Frank Liu, James Whitmore, and Ann
Baxter. Get the picture: a young American girl
(Miss Duke) and her Japanese-American beau
(James Liu) find their California romance under
fire, literally and figuratively, when the
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941 - thirty years ago. This is what you get
when you cross LOVE STORY with TORA
TORA TORA.
9:00 p.m. (NBC) - CAST A GIANT
SHADOW -• (1966) - The gang’s all there:
Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Yul Brynner, Frank
Sinatra, and for decoration, Senat Berger and
Angie Dickinson. Who could ask for anything
more in a rip-snorting action-adventure flick
focusing on a WW II hero's efforts to whip a
ragged Israeli army into shape. Wayne is the
hero, natch, and Douglas is the main obstacle in
his path. (A-lll)
“Our 200 delegates, as a matter of fact,
delved into far more controversial issues
than ever before,” Father Bonnike said
following his election to a second
two-year term. “But the conservative and
liberal wings came to amicable
conclusions as a result of healthy and
open dialogue.”
Those conclusions took the form of
resolutions which:
-Asked the government to grant
immediate amnesty “to those who have left
the country or had been imprisoned
because of opposition to compulsory
military service in the Indochina war.”
-Asked local priests councils to raise
money for the defense of Father Philip
Berrigan and six other defendants in the
kidnapping and bombing conspiracy case.
-Asked the U.S. bishops to address
themselves to “the immorality of the
automated air war” in southeast Asia.
-Asked private clubs to accept
members of minority groups and asked
Catholics not to patronize clubs which
discriminate. The Elks, Moose and Eagles
were named in the resolution.
-Formed a task force “to develop a
model for a Christian ministry to
homosexuals.”
-Asked an end to the death penalty
and opposed any easing of legal
restrictions against abortion. The latter
resolution supported programs “aimed at
preserving, protecting, and nurturing the
life of every person, including the unborn
and their mothers.”
-Asked courts and legislatures to work
out ways of allowing the teaching of
religion in public schools.
-Supported “freedom of residence”
for priests and asked for “just
compensation” for such housing.
THE RA EXPEDITIONS (Interwest Films
Corp.) Thor Heyerdahl crosses the Atlantic by
raft. — Anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, that
intrepid, latter-day Viking adventurer who uses
Madison Avenue techniques to popularize his
scientific theories, has captured front page
space in newspapers around the world with his
voyages in primitive crafts across the Pacific
and Atlantic Oceans. His 1947 Kon-Tonki
Voyage from Peru to Polynesia in a wooden
craft demonstrated the possibility of migration
from South America to Oceania (and resulted
in an Academy Award documentary).
Heyerdahl’s recent voyage was from Africa
to the Americas in a papyrus reed boat called
the Ra, the name of an Egyptian god. Many
similarities between South American culture
and that of the ancient Middle East led
Heyerdahl to the supposition that there must
have been a sea link between the two. Using a
reed craft of early Mediterranean design,
Heyerdahl set off several years ago to see
whether such a ship could stand the long
voyage between Hemispheres. Ra I did not but
in a second boat, Heyerdahl proved that such a
voyage was feasible.
The documentary which he has made of
these two attempts, already nominated for an
Academy Award, is primarily a sharing
vicariously of this adventure on the high seas. It
is difficult to resist such a romantic quest as
this and carping about the inadequacies of the
film misses the spirit which animates it.
Whether one is interested in questions of early
cultures, and it is questionable how much the
expeditions contribute to answering them, no
viewer will miss the excitement of eatching men
pitted against nature. If any justification for the
journey other than this is necessary, then it is
Heyerdahl's discovery of how extensive and
destructive is the present pollution of what till
now has been regarded as the open sea. (A—I)
WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE (20th
Century Fox) — French FLIC flick is not quite
Hitchcock, but... WITHOUT APPARENT
MOTIVE is the newest addition to the ranks of
French detective thrillers which spend much of
their time paying obeisance to their American
models, be they the hack novels of Ed McBain
(from whose works this particular film is
derived) or masters such as Raymond Chandler,
or films of the sort that made a star (and more)
of Humphrey Bogart. This one has been
directed by Philippe Labro, who also served as
co-author with Jacques Lanzmann, and it is a
modest film that has, to paraphrase a famous
statesman, a good deal to be modest about.
The story itself is classic to the point of
being trite -- a tough, ruthless, and, deep down
inside, disturbed detective must flush out a
madman who has been going about the
picturesque city of Nice popping off one victim
after another with his sniper’s rifle. Nothing
turns up in the way of clues until a couple of
coincidences help things fall into place. One of
the victims, for example, carefully maintained a
little black book, and in it appears the name of
a girl who turns out to be (a) the detective’s
latest girl friend, and (b) one of the next
victims. From there it is only a matter of time
before the detective, played with a combination
of cynicism and timidity by Jean-Louis
Trintignant, figures everything out and sets the
trap for the sniper.
Unfortunately, Labro and his confreres have
chosen to dress the film up with an assortment
of MacGuffins (Dominique Sanda keeps turning
up significantly, but her appearances actually
provide only decoration, which is not
unwelcome but does not advance the story,
either) and a plethora of cute allusions. Like
Steve McQueen’s Bullitt, and, for that matter,
Charles Dickens’ Jagger in GREAT
EXPECTATIONS, Trintignant’s Detective
Carella washes his hands wherever he goes. And,
his girl friend gives him a little silver whistle and
says warmly, "If you need me, just whistle,” a
la Lauren Bacall. These devices, their cleverness
notwithstanding, seriously erode one’s ability
to sustain interest in the mystery itself.
Also unfortunate is the way Labro has
reduced nearly every encounter in the film to
one in which that ol’ debbil s-e-x simmers just
under the surface. Carella has antenna for this
sort of scent, and, indeed, as the film builds
toward a climax and resoltuion, sex provides all
the keys. This in itself is not objectionable, but
it reduces the film to a predictable and
wearisome level. It is so obvious, and makes
things too easy for the detective and for us, the
audience. It also places an otherwise innocuous
film in an adult context. But adults, especially
movie buffs, demand a lot more from their
product. (A—III)
I WANT WHAT I WANT (Cinerama)
Self-consciously serious film deals with a
controversial problem - transexuality and sex
change - in a non-controversial way. Anne
Heywood stars in both the “before” and
“after” parts as a young man confused
emotionally and biologically, who lives life as a
woman and eventually undergoes a surgical
procedure to “correct” his problem. The film
carefully avoids exploitation and
sensationalism, but it unfortunately also avoids
meaningful confrontation of the medical,
psychological and moral questions it raises. For
adults and older teens. (A—III)
J.W. COOP (Columbia) Cliff Robertson stars
in a film he also wrote, produced, and directed
-- a mighty big wad for any feller to chew. The
story is an interesting one, revealing much
about our national character and our changing
times by viewing the “new” America through
the eyes of an ex-convict rodeo star, out of the
pen and back on the Rodeo Cowboy Assoc,
circuit after a ten-year stretch. The things he
sees, the people he meets (among them a young
hippie girl with whom he forms a romantic
attachment open nis eyes and, ultimately,
destroy him - literally and symbolically. The
themes run deep, but grow sometimes hazy.
But Robertson is a fine actor, with plenty of
interesting moves, and his supporting cast,
including Christine Ferrare as the young girl
and Geraldine Page as his senile mamma, are
excellent and authentic. The rodeo action
footage, too, is superb, but the climactic scene
is as gory as any seen recently. (A—III)
GEORGIA, GEORGIA (Cinerama) This is,
according to publicity notes, the first feature
“written by a black woman,” in this case, Maya
Angelou. Shot in neutral Sweden and focusing
on two interrelated stories, one about a black
singer’s inability to reconcile her color with her
role as a woman, and the other about the plight
of self-exiled awol American G.I.’s, the film
also fails to come to grips with its themes. It is
interesting none-theless despite its many
cop-outs and dramatic pratfalls which include
absurd references to homosexuality and a
clumsy black-white love scene. Yet Diana Sands
as the singer proves once again that she is one
of the most talented and beautiful women on
the screen today. Her pain-wracked
performance, in fact, surpasses the material she
has to work with and becomes a personal
triumph. If anything, GEORGIA shows that the
color of the creative forces behind any film has
little or nothing to do with itsultimate success
or failure as cinema. (A—IV)
TALES FROM THE CRYPT (Cinerama)
British horror-flick veteran Freddie Francis
herein assembles an upsy-downsy quintet of
short horror tales depicting the sordid lives and
evil times of five tourists who get
supernaturally waylaid whilst on tour of a
monastery crypt. For fans of the genre, the
classic touches and homage to standard devices
will prove delicious. And thanks to an
enthusiastic cast, especially Ralph Richardson,
Joan Collins, Patrick Magee and Peter Cushing,
TALES will elicit anything from gasps to
squeals from most young adults on up. (A—III)
SILENT RUNNING (Universal) Bruce Dern
has been given the assignment of preserving the
earth’s last forest in a giant space ship sometime
not far removed from the present. When orders
come to terminate the project - seems natural
beautand natural foods are no longer priorities
in the world of tomorrow — Dern rebels and
does in the other astronauts who are heartlessly
willing to carry out the command. Poor Bruce
goes crackers watering his dying flowers and
talking to robot drones as the untended ship
plummets through deep space. A sci-fi flick
directed by Douglas Trumbull with a social
message (conservation, anti-pollution), SILENT
RUNNING has better than average special
effects, but unfortunately they fail to make up
for a limp story line and a basic moral
confusion on the part of the hero between the
values of human nature versus plant life. (A—II)
T. V. MOVIES