William Matchett: War crimes are not unique to the Russians

In leaving the court two years later, they laughed. No wonder. Blair was prime minister. The 1998 Belfast Agreement had been struck. They were out in 16-months.

Notwithstanding spectacular British betrayal of its own security frontline, which had fought these terrorists, prominent in the 1998 Agreement was controversial amnesties and, after that, secret schemes such as On The Run, some of which are Harvey Weinstein ‘non disclosure’ shady.

Shifty politics emptied the prison and sheltered terrorists from murder prosecutions without causing a fuss among the ‘human rights and victims’ organisations, for which Northern Ireland is a Mecca.

The murderous Provisional IRA and its political arm Provisional Sinn Féin were an axis of deceit under a Brits-out banner.

A ‘Brit’ was more than cops and soldiers.

It was a Protestant census worker like Joanne Mathers, a unionist politician like Norman Stronge, a Catholic school teacher like Mary Travers, human rights lawyer like Edgar Graham, a German businessman like Thomas Niedermayer, a World War Two hero like Lord Mountbatten or whoever the Cali cartel-type crime bosses decided.

From 1969 to 1998, the aggressor was republican insurgency dedicated to destroying Northern Ireland, a country it claimed had no right to exist. It was the worst outbreak of violence in western Europe since Hitler.

The Provos waged insurgency, a type of war that can put a non-state actor in the Hague. Yet there seems to be little prospect of that for IRA leaders.

Loyalist terrorism was reactionary and paled in comparison. Just look at the fortunes of the two sectarian extremes. The Provos poured into a successful Sinn Féin party, whilst loyalists proved an electoral turnoff. Today, one is a political powerhouse, and one builds big bonfires.

Brits-out totalitarianism distorted right and wrong by legitimising unlawful homicide. It defined murder as non-crime and got Kalashnikov angry at people who disagreed.

IRA General Order No 1, which deals with treachery, was the ‘play God’ centrepiece of Provo policy.

PIRA bosses drafted the policy to sanction executing a ‘tout’ (a defamatory term by republicans for informer). Consider how that stain has influenced historical investigations by state organisations, and headlines to paint something wrong and unlawful (running of informers), when the opposite is true — it was lawful, it was the right thing to do, and it saved lives.

With Provos at large, to smile at a cop or soldier was enough to end up tortured and a half-naked lifeless image on the news. Suspicion of assisting the authorities carried the death penalty.

To their eternal credit, many did, and thanks to them, bigoted thugs from both sides packed the prison in almost equal measure, despite republicans committing twice as many murders. The security squeeze pushed the PIRA to sue for peace. The main demand, perversely – prisoner release.

You do not need to be in prison to be a prisoner. And many of these ‘touts’ were detained and beaten and tortured in the terrifying circumstances of knowing they would probably be killed.

Regardless of who or what they are, a prisoner is protected by the Geneva Conventions. Would a court in western Europe condone this kind of atrocity?

Sadly, yes.

In 1973, four off-duty soldiers in Belfast were abducted and then shot at point-blank range. One miraculously survived. A Dublin extradition court ruled the killings legitimate political acts, not murders.

Can Simon Coveney reconcile this in demanding “no impunity for Russia”?

Can Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald reconcile talking of the “revelation of these war crimes” in Ukraine with a PIRA beast that chewed up prisoners and spat them out as corpses in hoods and cable ties?

Or is Irish nationalism as blind to evil carried out in its name as Putin’s Russia?

‘Peace process’ Narnia created to shield the unrepentant and bolshy aggressor from prosecution and blame. No top Provo such as Martin McGuinness stood trial.

Nothing on systemic atrocities that constitute gross violation of human rights, humanitarian law and credible claims of war crimes.

No calls for a public inquiry or thematic investigation linking Provo propaganda and policy to prisoner executions.

Also absent, unequivocally clarifying that helping the lawful authorities was a good thing and killing people for doing so was a crime called murder.

Now, what self-respecting, ambitious tyrant would not be inspired by that?

• William Matchett is the author of Secret Victory: The Intelligence War that Beat the IRA