TERRORISTS
IN HIGH PLACES
Much is being made of the fact that Martin McGuiness, an ex commander of the terrorist organisation the IRA, was invited to a banquet (and accepted) by Queen Elisabeth. 20 years ago he was leading an organisation that was fighting and killing British troops. The thought, then, that he would sit at the same table as Her Majesty was literally unthinkable. Yet there he was tucking into a steak and chips with all the dignitaries in the land, and of course, the Irish President who was the guest of honour.
McGuiness
has transformed himself into an amiable, affable, yet very sharp
politician. You would think that two politicians like McGuiness and
Ian Paisley who were politically diametrically opposed could never
work together without serious repercussions and yet they did. Not
only did they work together but they sat together and were often seen
chatting and having a laugh together. Some people found that galling
and called them hypocrites. However, what was the alternative?
Northern Ireland had gone through thirty years of internecine warfare
where republicans and Catholics had fought Protestants and loyalists.
The people were tired and wanted peace but how do you get that
without talking. Some hotheads on both sides swore never to talk and
still try and carry the fight on. The more enlightened ones turned
themselves into 'peace' politicians and found that when they talked
to each other they had things in common and got on.
This
is not the first time, by a long shot, that 'terrorists' have
rehabilitated themselves and end up sitting in the highest seats of
power. Go back to the 50s in Kenya. The Mau Mau were terrorists, they
wanted in dependence from Britain and their leader was Jomo Kenyatta.
When captured there were many in the administration who would have
liked to hang him. He was tried and convicted of being a member of
the Mau Mau and imprisoned for 7 years. He was then sent into exile
in a remote part of Kenya till his release by popular demand in
August 1961. The rest is history. He became prime minister, then
President of an independent Kenya.
Archbishop
Makarios was another 'terrorist sympathiser' although he wasn't the
actual leader of EOKA the Greek Cypriot terrorist organisation, that
was George Grivas. Makarios knew and had contact with Grivas and was
sympathetic to the group but it was difficult to prove. So he was
arrested on his way out of Cyprus and sent into exile on Mahe Island,
near the Seychelles. He was only kept there for one year and then
released but banned from returning to Cyprus. He based himself in
Greece and in 1959 was elected president of an independent Cyprus.
There
are countless others who have made it to the top from murky
beginnings, Mugabe, Arafat, Begin, and even the saintly Mandela come
to mind. All of whom have been classed as terrorists at one time or
another and yet have become leaders and dined at the top tables in
Europe and the rest of the world.