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BMA Mows in foreign jails
Page 9
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The sound of silence
Barry Proctor ponders th sharp contrast between howls of protest over pris( in Guantanomo Bay and deafening silence over Bri truckers trapped in foreigr on trumped-up charges
During George Bush's visit last week there was much talk the status of the British citizens interred at Guantanamo E Cuba. Will they be coming home for trial? Are they prison' war? Are they being treated correctly? Listening to the ha wringing liberals and civil liberties pressure groups bleat and on about this issue you begin to think that the men thi defending are angels. It seems to me that if the Taliban put themselves in that position then they've got to deal with the consequences —after all they're no great fans of our liberal democracy in the first place. This is what really annoys me. The people defending them woulc the first to be locked up if they were in power yet they'll rai. their voices and condemn the situation as a violation of hu rights until they're blue in the face.
In the meantime the number of British truck drivers stu( in foreign jails on dubious charges, or following trials of su( blatant unfairness that even the Americans would blanch, grows longer and longer. And Mere are those howls of lib protest for these prisoners? I don't recall hearing a single v from any of them for Tim Andrews or John Vasey, yet to my mind they are infinitely more deserving of our help.
Perhaps their cause is not fashionable enough. The bleeding-heart do-gooders are condemned by their silenc just as we must applaud the likes of Fair Trials Abroad for speaking out. These double standards apply equally to refugees and stowaways. While I have every sympathy for genuine refugees, it seems that the same groups are up in arms about deporting virtually anyone from this country, nc matter if they're here illegally or not, while blithely acceptinç crazy system of stowaway fines. We had 16 discovered in of our trucks following a ferry crossing between Greece an Italy; if this had occurred in Dover we would be staring cloy the wrong end of a £32,000 fine with no help from anyone outside the industry. It's one rule for them...
"The bleeding-heart are condemned by just as we must ap Trials Abroad for