环球英语 15 Facing the Truth
Voice 1
Hello. I’m Mike Procter.
Voice 2
And I’m Marina Santee. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Imagine someone you love is the victim of a murder - a close family member for example. For years you think bad things about the murderer. You cannot forgive him. Then, one day, you are invited to meet this killer. You have to face him. You have to talk to him.
Voice 2
Well, this happened - in Ireland in March 2006. The history of Ireland is complex. Ireland has two parts - Northern Ireland and southern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. Southern Ireland is an independent country - a republic. Many people who live in Northern Ireland would like the North to join with the South. They are ‘Republicans’. But the majority of people in the North would like it to remain part of the United Kingdom, they are ‘Loyalists’. There is a history of tense relations between people holding these two opinions.
Voice 1
In the early 1960’s, the tension grew worse. For most people there was just bad feeling. But some people on both sides formed violent extremist groups. The Republican and Loyalist groups used violence against each other. The British government sent in soldiers to help keep the peace. But the soldiers represented British authority, so they too became targets. Republican groups especially saw the soldiers as enemies. The Provisional IRA was one such group. It sent terrorists into Great Britain to plant bombs. Many people were killed or injured by bombs in different cities in Great Britain.
Voice 2
After many years of talks, political leaders in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland signed a peace treaty. This happened on Good Friday, 1998. Then the Republican and the Loyalist groups decided to stop fighting. This process took many years. And there are still many problems that need solving.
Voice 1
One problem is that people who have been hurt in the conflict find it very difficult to forget, or to forgive. In March 2006. Bishop Desmond Tutu helped to organise some meetings. Some of the victims of violence were to meet the men who had killed people and planted bombs. Bishop Tutu had experience of this sort of meeting in his own country, South Africa. Bishop Tutu said:
“I think we must learn that very few people like to keep on hating each other. We need to let it go. I hope that people will discover how good it is to have someone to listen to them. God created us to be together. Not one of us can be completely alone. People do want to speak. They want to say things that they have not been able to say before. Then they feel better. The people I met all said they were happy that they had come.”
Voice 2
People all over the United Kingdom watched the meetings on television. Here is one story.
In 1988 the IRA were planning an attack on British soldiers. But the plans went wrong and three IRA members were killed. Many people attended their funeral. Suddenly, a man attacked these people with a gun and bombs. He killed three people and injured more than fifty. This man was Michael Stone. He was a Loyalist. A year later Stone’s group killed a man named Dermot Hackett. Stone later said that there was evidence linking Hackett to the IRA. That is why Stone’s group had killed him. But Hackett’s family strongly deny all such links.
Voice 1
Dermot Hackett’s wife is called Sylvia. In March 2006, Sylvia agreed to meet Michael Stone. Dermot’s’s brother went with her. Bishop Desmond Tutu was there. So also was Lesley Bilinda. Lesley’s husband died in the terrible killing in Rwanda in 1994. Lesley had tried to find the people who killed her husband - to learn the truth about his death. So she knew how Dermot Hackett’s wife and brother felt.
Voice 2
Bishop Tutu and Lesley Bilinda asked questions. In this way they helped Sylvia and her brother and Michael Stone to listen to each other and understand each other. Silvia said that her husband had not had any links at all with the IRA. She told Stone that he had ruined her life and killed her husband. She said that he could have killed their child, too, since she had been pregnant at the time.
Voice 1
Michael Stone said that he had been afraid of seeing anger in Sylvia’s eyes. He had not done the murder himself. But he said he was responsible because the man who had done it was a member of Stone’s Loyalist group. Stone had come to believe that Mr Hackett was a member of the IRA. Stone said that he did not like to kill people. He said he could only do it if he thought of his victims as if they were not humans.
Voice 2
Later Sylvia got up and took Michael Stone’s hand. It was a sign that she had forgiven Stone - that she did not wish him any harm. She later said that she felt she should show Stone that she is a Christian. But the handshake was difficult for her. Afterwards, she ran from the room! The Guardian newspaper later said ‘(Forgiveness) is a painful, practical step taken by those (people) who want to end the killing.’ Michael Stone later said that he too found it difficult when Sylvia took his hand. He said that he had become a Loyalist fighter when he was very young. He had spent time in prison. He felt he had never been able to know his nine children. He wished the events in Ireland had never happened. But he said that the meeting with Sylvia had helped him.
Voice 1
It is a sad fact that in many countries people are killing each other. Does this have to be? If you did not agree with somebody, would it not be better to go and talk to that person? Or would you want to kill that person instead? Bishop Desmond Tutu said this about the people of Ireland:
“They are wonderful. They have big hearts. They have a great sense of humour. I want them to show us that they can come out of their terrible suffering as better people. I want them to show us that it is possible for enemies to become friends.”
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