Systematic discrimination against Republican prisoners in British jails is alleged in a report by a Belgian member of Amnesty International. Mr Piet de Pauw, a lawyer from Ghent, has produced a "personal" report, endorsed by the Flemish lawyers' section of Amnesty, cataloguing 11 fundamental abuses of prisoners' rights.
These include the failure to allow prisoners to serve their terms close to their families in the North, the use of particularly severe regimes for prisoners, harsher sentences without release dates, cruel and unnecessary search regimes, and the use of "repressive" legislation such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Powers Act. The latter Act allows British authorities to "do what they want" in Northern Ireland, Mr de Pauw said. He further claimed "physical and mental torture" was practised in Northern Ireland prisons and he drew an analogy between the existence of severe regimes in the jails and the actions of the SS during the second World War.
The report, based exclusively on interviews with and statements from Republican prisoners, was presented yesterday at a press conference in Brussels which was also addressed by spokeswomen for Sinn Fein's Prisoner of War Department.
Asked if Mr de Pauw had sought the views of loyalists, or of the British or Irish governments, a spokesman said that although they had met the lawyer of a loyalist prisoner "we did not see any reason to report on them as there is only discrimination against Republican prisoners".
The treatment of Irish prisoners in Britain could destabilise the peace process, the Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, told the press conference.
"The British government knows that the prisoners issue is fundamental to the peace process but it still treats Irish prisoners in a way that is discriminatory and vindictive." The promise that the prisons issue would be made a priority had been ignored.
The Northern Secretary had promised speedy progress on the transfer of prisoners from Britain to Ireland in July. No one has been transferred since Labour came to power, Ms McKenna said.
