TNAG-1022-FCO40-1272-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-United-Nations-1981 — Page 107

NORTHERN IRELAND

1.

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, It is HMG's

policy that it will remain so as long as that is the wish of the

majority of its people. But HMG recognises the need for stable

political institutions in Northern Ireland and therefore continues

to seek an acceptable way of transferring powers of government

currently exercised at Westminster to the locally elected repres-

entatives of the people of Northern Ireland. To facilitate progress

to this end the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced on 2 July his intention to set up a representative Northern Ireland

Council with an advisory role.

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2. The Government's security policy is based on the fair enforce-

ment of the law by bringing terrorists to justice through the

courts terrorists are prosecuted for criminal offences not for

their political beliefs and on developing the effectiveness of

the police to the point where military support is no longer

required. There is good cooperation with police in the Republic

of Ireland.

3. The Maze prison protest began in 1976 in support of the

prisoners' claim for special category status. There are now over

400 prisoners involved in the protest. They refuse to wear prison

clothing or to work and until earlier this year deliberately fouled and damaged their cells. In May 1980 the European Commission of

Human Rights declared inadmissible complaints by four of the protesting prisoners that they had been subjected to inhuman and

degrading treatment and rejected their claim to special status.

The Commission specifically recognised that the disgusting conditions

in which the protesters lived were self-inflicted and could be

ended almost immediately if they chose to abandon their protest.

In November 1980 the protest was taken to a higher level when

seven prisoners in HM Prison Maze started a hunger strike. The

Strike ended in December when it became clear that the Government

would not yield to their demands. The Government has introduced

more than a dozen improvements to the prison regime for all

Northern Ireland prisoners since early last year. For the most

part these have been rejected out of hand by the protesters.

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