Bloody Sunday Para leads troops into battle

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday March 20, 2003 11:42 by PFC - Pat Finucane Centre pfc at iol dot ie

career officer with murky record

As British troops prepare to invade Iraq it is only appropriate to remind readers of some aspects of the career of the most senior British military officer in command of British forces in the Gulf, General Sir Mike Jackson.

According to Jackson’s written statement to the Bloody Sunday Tribunal:

He attended Sandhurst Military Academy in 1962/63 and joined the Intelligence Corps in 1963. Later he was seconded to the Parachute Regiment which he then joined on a permanent basis in late 1970. Jackson was then posted to the notorious Palace Barracks in Holywood Co Down, centre of numerous allegations of torture of internees after the introduction of internment in August 1971. Jackson took over as Adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment in the Spring/Summer of 1971.

According to the Sunday Times of 17 October 1971,

Internees were "…flown by helicopter to an unknown destination-in fact, Palace Barracks. During the period of their interrogation, they were continuously hooded, barefoot, dressed only in an over large boiler suit, and spreadeagled against a wall-leaning on their fingertips like the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle. The only sound that filled the room was a high pitched throb, which the detainees usually liken to an air compressor. The noise literally drove them out of their minds…"

The Sunday Times went on to claim that the "interrogation at Palace Barracks was organised, as far as we were able to ascertain, by men from the Joint Services Interrogation Centre. The actual questioning appears to have been carried out by members of the RUC Special Branch."

On October 24 1971 the Sunday Times carried a further story on the allegations that torture was widespread at Palace Barracks. The story claimed the "British Army’s involvement seems to go beyond simply being the centre’s landlord." Soldiers were involved in the actual torture of detainees according to witnesses. In response 425 Catholic priests, 80% of the clergy working in the North, released an unprecedented statement condemning the "brutality, physical and mental torture and psychological pressures inflicted on men" arrested during the internment swoops. The priests went on to single out the "barbarities…still being inflicted on innocent people…at Palace Military Barracks, Holywood…"

In 1978 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the so-called five techniques used in interrogation, usually by RUC Special Branch officers trained by the British Army, constituted inhumane and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3. There is no evidence to suggest that Mike Jackson was involved in the torture practised at Palace Barracks. He was a senior officer there at the time the torture occurred.

Bloody Sunday

On January 30 1972, Bloody Sunday, Jackson describes his own role as that of a ‘gofer’ for the Para commander on the ground, Lt Col Derek Wilford. "I was one of the group of people around Derek Wilford and that is where my memory properly kicks in." Jackson describes moving into Rossville St and having the impression of "coming under fire." In his statement to the present inquiry Jackson claims that the Support Company "had become involved in a firefight." He adds, "I have absolutely no reason to suppose that any of 1PARA would have been using their weapons had there not been incoming rounds." Extraordinarily Jackson maintains that, though surrounded by soldiers apparently coming under fire, he "… did not see any soldiers firing their weapons."

Following the murder of 14 men and boys and the attempted murder of many more Jackson admits that he would have been "involved in the administration of the statement taking exercise." In anticipation of the overwhelming evidence that there was then a cover-up Jackson states that, "…there is absolutely no question of briefing soldiers as to what they should say. Such a suggestion is absolutely outrageous." Indeed.

Within hours of Bloody Sunday the British Army put out a statement claiming that a number of the victims were on the wanted list, others had been carrying weapons while yet others had nail bombs. General Sir Mike Jackson, Commander of British forces in the Gulf, was the Unit Press Officer in Derry that day though the statement was released at a more senior level within the chain of command.

Official documents supplied to the Tribunal quote Jackson as describing the Parachute Regiment’s activities on the day as ‘first rate’. Other comments attributed to Jackson that suggest that the Paras should go in "hard and ready" and "inflict casualties" give a "misleading impression" according to his recent statement. Jackson’s recollections of the events of Bloody Sunday will come under close scrutiny when he gives evidence to the Saville Tribunal

More recently Jackson was the most senior British Army officer sitting on the Army Board which ruled that the two soldiers convicted of the murder of 18 year old Peter Mc Bride were fit to continue serving in the British Army. They also are now serving in the Gulf.