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今日主題:Britain Northern Ireland-- The bones of the past / 英國北愛爾蘭--歷史的遺骨

康康精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題,堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
康康幫你準備好中英文稿了:

中英文稿:
Britain Northern Ireland-- The bones of the past
英國北愛爾蘭--歷史的遺骨


Another troubling reminder that Britain, at times, plays dirty
又一令人不安的提示:英國不時使陰招


Mrs Finucane guards the flame
斐努凱恩夫人守護愛人


David Cameron has proved adept, in dealing with historical issues arising from the conflict in Northern Ireland, at employing the simple but effective tactic of declining to defend the indefensible. His handsome and forthright apology over the Bloody Sunday killings by British forces in 1972 earned him much kudos in Ireland.
在處理由北愛爾蘭的爭端引起的歷史議題時,大衛卡梅隆證明自己擅長使用簡單而不是強詞奪理的有效策略。他關於英國軍方在1972年造成的血腥星期日的深刻而坦率的道歉令他在愛爾蘭備受讚譽。


This week, after an official report detailed wrongdoing by British intelligence officers more than two decades ago, he went to the House of Commons and described it as “shocking” at least four times. “It is really shocking,” he said, “that this happened in our country.”

本周,在一份官方報告詳細描述了四十多年前英國情報官員的不當行為之後,他前往下議院演講,並至少四次用駭人聽聞形容這一事件。這樣的事件竟然發生在我們的國家,他說,這簡直駭人聽聞。


He was speaking about the murder of Pat Finucane, a Catholic solicitor gunned down in 1989 by assassins who resented his effectiveness in representing republicans. The gunmen were members of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a collection of brutal backstreet gangs, but immediately after the murder rumours circulated that they had been directed by British security personnel. Those allegations, which many thought far-fetched at the time, have now been formally confirmed.
他所說的是對派特斐努凱恩的謀殺。死者是一名天主教律師,他在北愛爾蘭共和主義者中具有卓爾不凡的號召力,也因此招致仇恨,在1989年被暗殺。槍手是阿爾斯特防衛團的忠實成員,該團是一幫野蠻的街頭流氓,但在暗殺之後流言蜚語四散,表示他們是受英國安全人員指派而行事。這些在當時看來站不住腳的指控如今已被官方證實。


The report by Sir Desmond de Silva, the lawyer commissioned by Mr Cameron to go through the papers in the case, lays out in meticulous detail how senior army and police intelligence officers colluded in the killings of Finucane and other republican sympathisers. This included helping to identify, target and murder the lawyer, supplying a weapon and facilitating its later disappearance, and deliberately obstructing subsequent investigations. On three occasions Finucane was known to be on UDA death lists but police, with the approval of the army and MI5,Britain’s domestic intelligence service, gave him no warning. The very idea of killing him was probably suggested to a UDA member by a police officer, Sir Desmond concluded. There was a flow of security-force information to the UDA: perhaps 85% of its intelligence came from official sources.
律師戴斯蒙德席爾瓦受卡梅隆先生委託,調查這起案件的公文。他的報告纖毫畢現地陳述了軍方高級官員和警方情報人員合謀殺害斐努凱恩和其他共和派同情者的事實。這包括了幫助確認身份,定位並暗殺律師,提供武器支援,並在之後藏匿,想方設法阻撓後續調查。知情人士三次得知斐努凱恩在阿爾斯特防衛團的死亡名單上,但警方在軍隊和英國國家情報局MI5的授意下沒有警示斐努凱恩。戴斯蒙德總結道,刺殺斐努凱恩的想法極有可能是一位警方官員授意給阿爾斯特防衛團的。阿爾斯特防衛團接受到源源不斷的安全情報,其中可能有85%是官方來源。


It also seems that two British agents working in the ranks of the UDA were involved in Finucane’s actual murder. One, planted there by the army, had gathered information on him and carried out a reconnaissance of his home. The second, working for the police, held guns for the UDA, and handed to a “hit team” a weapon used in the attack on Finucane. His handlers knew someone was to be shot: the de Silva report concluded that police could have acted to prevent the murder.
也有證據表明兩名在阿爾斯特防衛團臥底的英國特工參與了斐努凱恩的謀殺。其中一名受命於軍隊,收集關於他的資訊並實行了對其住所的偵查。另一個受命于警方,為阿爾斯特防衛團掌管武器並將武器提供給行動組,最終在暗殺中得到使用。他的幕僚知道有人將被暗殺。席爾瓦在報告中斷定警方本可以採取行動防止謀殺的發生。


A third loyalist, who drove the gunmen to the solicitor’s home, was not an agent at the time but later told police he had been involved. Detectives wished to pursue him for the murder but, in a move Mr Cameron described as “extraordinary”, a Special Branch superintendent intervened and instead ordered his recruitment as an agent. The investigation was effectively dropped.
第三個是一位忠實成員,他開車把槍手送到律師的住所。當時他並不是一位特工但事後告訴警方他也涉及其中。警探希望能通過他接近謀殺的真相但一位特別部門的員警長插手干預,並招募他為特工。這一招在卡梅隆看來精妙絕倫。調查也就此中斷。


One of the few notes of consolation for the government was the finding that there had been no “over-arching state conspiracy to murder Patrick Finucane”, and that ministers were genuinely in the dark about the murkier aspects of intelligence work in Belfast. The report did, however, accuse successive governments of “a wilful and abject failure” to provide guidelines on how agents should be handled within the law—a criticism that will resonate today in police forces in England whose undercover agents have got up to no good.
僅有的幾條讓政府慰藉的記錄之一就是尚無決定性的證據指向謀殺派翠克-芬努凱恩是國家陰謀,以及大臣們確實對貝爾法斯特迷霧重重的情報工作一無所知。然而,報告指責蓄意卑鄙的歷屆政府提供給特工們如何在法律範圍內行事的行動指南——這也是對今天英國員警部門的秘密特工所做壞事的側面批評。


Much has changed in Northern Ireland since 1989. The army no longer patrols the streets ofBelfast, though a diminished UDA is still out there, rioting in recent weeks in a dispute over flags. The peace process, and the shared government it led to, are rightly seen as a towering success.
1989年以來,北愛爾蘭發生了天翻地覆的變化。儘管殘餘阿爾斯特防衛團的勢力仍在作祟,在關於國旗的爭端上引發了騷亂,但軍隊已不再巡視貝爾法斯特的街道。和平進程以及由此引出的自治政府被視為令人矚目的成就。


But bits of the unburied past from time to time come to light, and require response. Geraldine Finucane calls this report into her husband’s death a “whitewash”. Mr Cameron is resisting demands for a public inquiry into his death. Enough has already emerged to move Sir Menzies Campbell, a Liberal Democrat veteran, to declare to his fellow MPs that “in the more than 25 years for which I have been a Member of this House, I cannot remember a statement from the Dispatch Box that has filled me with more revulsion and horror.”
但歷史的遺骨不時暴露在聚光燈下,並亟待回應。傑拉德靈斐努凱恩稱這份關於他丈夫之死的調查掩飾真相。卡梅隆拒絕了對斐努凱恩之死展開公開調查的訴求。這一切足以讓門西斯坎培爾惱怒不堪。這位自民党元老向他的同僚宣稱在我當議員的25年多的生涯裡,不曾在下議院聽到過更令人噁心而恐懼的語言。 

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