University of Arizona - Desert Yearbook (Tucson, AZ)

Page 26 text:

ENGLAND BESET BY VIOLENCE For Great Britain, 1984 was marked by tragedy. The year started with the IRA bombing of London ' s Harrods depart- ment store, and the rest of 1984 was of the same caliber. BELFAST Tensions between the IRA and the British gov- ernment had been high since the attack on the Royal Guardsmen in London in 1983, and observers were predict- ing that a showdown was imminent. In August 1984, a show- down occurred. The Publicity Director of the U.S. based Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), Martin Galvin, appeared at a rally in Ulster sponsored by the IRA. Galvin had been banned from Northern Ireland previously by the British authorities, and when the Royal Ulster Constabulary heard he would be there, they moved to apprehend him. While clearing a path to get to Galvin using truncheons and plastic bullets, one officer leveled his gun and shot a protes- tor with a plastic bullet, killing him instantly. The shooting, carried live on British and Irish television news, sparked rioting in Belfast and a furor in London. IRA proponents used the death to their benefit. NORAID director Micheal Flannery said the killing was a plus for us, advertising wise and everything else. BRIGHTON: The death in Ulster was followed by a retri- bution. In October, 1984, English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet arrived in Brighton for the annual Conservative Party Convention. As she prepared for the next day ' s activities, a 20 pound Frangex bomb in a seventh floor bathroom exploded, vaporizing one wall of the Grand Hotel, killing 4 and injuring 34. Many of the injured were top members of the Thatcher administration. Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Andrew Berry was killed, and House of Commons Chief Whip John Wakeham was left crippled after being buried in the rubble for six hours. However, the attack backfired on the IRA. The English me- dia began calling for the extermination of the pitiless Proves Popular support for the IRA in the U.S., usually high, plum- meted after the attack, and Scotland Yard began a mas- 1 sive roundup of suspected IRA agents in England. AFTER THE EXPLOSION, the Brighton Grand Hotel was left with a gaping hole in its side, and an army of embarrassed security offi- cials combing through the rubble. ROYAL ULSTER CONSTABULARY officers begin sorting through a Bel- fast crowd at an IRA rally, in an at- tempt to apprehend Martin Galvin. 22 NEWS

Page 25 text:

tt GANDHI ' S SON RAJIV lights his mother ' s funeral pyre in the Woods of Peace. Over 50,000 people, in- cluding dignitaries from many na- tions, attended the funeral. THE AFTERMATH OF A MURDER On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi left her residence for an interview with English actor Peter Ustinov. As she passed through her garden gate, two of her previously-loyal Sikh bodyguards lowered their weapons and opened fire, mortal- ly wounding her. She died after several hours of surgery to repair the 22 gunshot wounds she suffered. The news of her death sparked a massacre. Yelling Blood for Blood, mobs rampaged through the cities and country- side of India, killing Sikhs and looting or destroying their property. Indian Army Command ordered troops into the cities to stop the rioting, and gave them shoot-to-kill orders. Gandhi ' s body was burned in the woods of Peace, where the remains of Mohandas Gandhi and Indira ' s father Jawa- haral Nehru were also cremated. The pyre was lit by her son, Rajiv, who had been chosen to succeed his mother as Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi was born in 1918 in Allahabad, India. Dur- ing her youth, Gandhi was active in the Indian liberation movement of Mohandas Gandhi. In 1941, she married Fer- oze Gandhi, who was not related to Mohandas. She stayed with him until her appointment as official government hos- tess in 1947. She succeeded her father, Nehru, as Prime Minister in 1966. PRIME MINISTER GANDHI ' S body lies in state in New Delhi. Officials estimated over 2,500 people per hour viewed the slain Indian leader. INDIA 21

Page 27 text:

MINKS ARE THE IROH ' LADYS 4 LIBYAN DICTATOR MUAMMAR Khadafy addresses his nation dur- ing the standoff in London. British intelligence claimed that Khadafy himself ordered the attack. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Mar- garet Thatcher maintained her fam- ous Iron Lady image throughout 1984, despite attacks against her on the political and personal level. STRIKING BRITISH MINERS ' wives show their support for their husbands in a rally in Yorkshire. The coal miner ' s strike has been go- ing on since 1983. ENGLISH POLITICAL TROUBLES Thatcher ' s government was assailed by more than bombs in 1984. Strikes by coal and dock workers, questions about the 1982 Falklands War, and an abrupt face-off with Libya plagued Thatcher ' s administration. UNIONS: Two strikes threatened England ' s ecomony in 1984. A shortage of dock workers caused by a two-week walkout by the Transport and General Workers Union closed England ' s ports in the summer of 1984. The closing created traffic jams at the Channel Port ferry crossings and caused several tense confrontations between strikers and angry mo- torists. More damaging to England ' s economy was the Mineworker ' s Union strike. The strike, held in protest of government plans to close 20 coal mines, took 140,000 of England ' s 180,000 coal miners from their jobs. The strike, which began in May, 1984, contributed to a significant drop in the nation ' s ecomony, and promised a cold winter for England. BELGRANO: A commission investigating England ' s han- dling of its 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkland Is- lands released its report in September, 1984 causing a stir in Parliament. In May, 1982, the British Navy sank the Argen- tinian cruiser Belgrano, killing over 200 seamen. British Ad- miralty officials said the ship had entered the declared war zone, making it an acceptable target. However, investigation of naval logs showed that the Belgrano had been leaving the zone when attacked, allowing opposition party member to accuse Thatcher of condoning an unprovoked attack on the ship. LIBYA: An incident at the Libyan Embassy in London in April, 1984, caused a serious break in Anglo-Libyan rela- tions. A group of Libyan dissidents and students studying in England, supporting the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, gathered for an anti-Khadafy protest in front of the Libyan Consulate on Embassy Row. Suddenly, a burst of machine gun fire burst out from an embassy window, wounding several students protesters and leaving an Eng- lish policewoman lying dead in the street. Police quickly surrounded the embassy and removed the wounded, and a unit of the Royal Air Force used in the raid on the terrorist- held Iranian Embassy in 1980 was put on alert. However, according to the 1948 Geneva agreement, entering the em- bassy with troops would be a declaration of war on Libya. Wishing to avoid an escalation of the already-tense situa- tion, and fearing a massacre of the 8,000 British citizens in Libya, the English government was limited to expelling the Libyan embassy staff, allowing the killer to go free, much to the chagrin of the British press. UNITED KINGDOM 23