Sir, - We warmly welcome the restoration of the IRA ceasefire and hope that this opportunity will be used to secure a just and lasting peace. Trust and confidence can't be built overnight and many problems need to be resolved. One important one concerns prisoners in England who are serving sentences in connection with the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Some of these have already spent over 20 years in jail and still don't know how much longer they will have to serve. Others have spent years in what human rights lawyers have described as "concrete coffins", the so-called Special Secure Units (SSUs).
During the last IRA ceasefire, conditions for these prisoners in England, instead of improving, actually deteriorated significantly. New restrictions were imposed and the regime became even harsher.
Sixteen months into the IRA ceasefire a Fine Gael parliamentary delegation visited these prisoners in England and concluded in their report (January 1996): "Since our last visit we have noted a marked deterioration in the conditions of those held in Special Secure Units. Their treatment is both cruel and inhumane."
"The prisoners' issue," the report noted, "must be central to the peace process. It is with regret therefore that we conclude the current Home Office treatment of prisoners is actually damaging and destabilising of the peace process." Parliamentary delegations by the Irish Labour Party and Fianna Fail came to similar conclusions.
Earlier this year an Amnesty International report also confirmed these findings: "Amnesty International is greatly disturbed by the conditions in the SSUs. Many aspects of the SSU regime violate international standards. The conditions, which have led to serious physical and psychological disorders in prisoners, constitute cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment."
Urgent attention to the prisoners issue is vital, if political progress is to be secured. A first step would be the immediate and permanent repatriation of all prisoners connected with the northern conflict to the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland according to their choice.
The procedures for this are already in place. Both governments have signed up to the European Convention for the transfer of prisoners. Actual progress, however, has been far too slow.
We call for the immediate closure of the SSUs and the repatriation transfer of these prisoners without further delay. - Yours, etc.,
Petra Schurenhofer
on behalf of Dublin Peace and Justice Group, Dublin; Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre, London; British Irish Rights Watch, London; Centre for Research and Documentation, Belfast; Committee on the Administration of Justice, Belfast; Irish Commission for Justice and Peace, Co Dublin; Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas, Dublin; Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Dublin; Laois Justice and Peace Group, Portlaoise; Liberty (National Council for Civil Liberties), London; Pat Finucane Centre, Derry; The Table Campaign, Dublin.