WikiLeaks: Thatcher considered reintroduction of internment
The British Government privately refused to rule out reintroducing internment to Northern Ireland in the late 1980s, leaked cables reveal.
According to a confidential US terror report, the highly controversial option remained a possibility as late as 1988, but only if the security situation dramatically worsened.
It came in the wake of public comments from then Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King that a return to internment was “under review”.
Privately, US diplomats were briefed that the option had not been ruled out, albeit it was dependent on a serious escalation in terrorist activity with the Thatcher government wary of handing the IRA a “propaganda victory”.
The scenario is detailed in a confidential briefing entitled ‘Northern Ireland — controlling the violence’, which was sent to diplomats in Washington.
The document also noted how:
- Mr King was privately criticised by NIO officials after an overly optimistic assessment of IRA capacity, which may have fuelled more attacks
- Six years before the first ceasefire, the UK and US governments could see “no near-term solution” to the Northern Ireland issue
- The IRA were forced to postpone attacks planned for mainland Britain after the killing of the Gibraltar Three.
Internment — detaining terror suspects indefinitely without trial — was one of the most controversial policies of the Troubles and is widely believed to have inflamed sectarian tensions. It was introduced under Operation Demetrius in August 1971, and was not repealed until December 1975. During that time 1,981 people were interned, including Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
The revelation that the Thatcher government was still considering the option as late as 1988 — outside the worst cycle of violence — will cause surprise. Some 104 killings were listed as “conflict related” that year, but the death toll was considerably lower than the bloodiest period of the early 1970s.
One of the worst attacks came on August 20, when eight soldiers were killed and another 28 were injured by an IRA roadside bomb near Ballygawley in Co Tyrone.
The unmarked bus had been transporting 36 members of the Light Infantry Brigade to a military base in Omagh when the 200lb device was detonated.
In the wake of the attack, Mr King warned that the Government was considering reintroducing internment. The briefing paper quotes Government contacts as saying the option was under review, but IRA attacks would have to be more serious to warrant the move.
“HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) knows that adopting internment would be a propaganda victory and a recruitment boon for the IRA,” it states.
It also warned internment was unlikely to work unless adopted simultaneously by the Republic, which it added was “extremely unlikely”. The cable was written by the US ambassador to the UK, Charles Price.
