30 APRIL

UK REFUSES TO PROSCRIBE THE UDA EVEN AFTER FINDING A LARGE CACHE OF WEAPONS On 26 May 1981, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) raided the headquarters of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and discovered a large cache of lethal weapons including a Thompson sub-machine gun, six Sten guns, a revolver and 550 rounds…

BRITISH SLAUGHTER THE ZULU WOUNDED AND BURN DOWN THE CITY OF ULUNDI [ 4 July 1879 ] On this day in 1879 British troops, part of a massive invasion force intended to subjugate the Zulu nation, slaughtered many hundreds of wounded warriors after the battle of Ulundi.  The Honourable William Drummond, an intelligence officer, tried…

LORD MANSFIELD – THROWING SLAVES OVERBOARD CANNOT BE MURDER. [ This piece has had its date changed to 22 May ] On this day in 1783, Lord Mansfied, the presiding judge at an appeal hearing, issued his verdict on the case of  132 men, women and children thrown overboard from a British owned slave ship the…

785 REFUGEES DROWN AFTER BRITAIN INSISTS TURKEY REFUSE THEM OVERLAND PASSAGE [ 24 February 1942 ] On 24 February 1942, the S.S. Struma, a small 240 ton vessel crammed with 786 Jewish refugees, including over one hundred children, was sunk by a torpedo in the Black Sea. All but one of the passengers drowned. JOURNALISTS FORBIDDEN…

WAZIRISTAN VILLAGES ‘UTTERLY DESTROYED’ – VILLAGERS LEFT TO FREEZE [ 7 February 1920 ] On 7 February 1920, a Reuters report from the North West Frontier described how British military operations in Waziristan ‘have now assumed a more punitive character, whole villages being utterly destroyed,’ adding that ‘the majority of the tribesmen are moving their…

BRITISH CAPTAIN TORTURES AND EXECUTES MAU MAU SUSPECTS At around 6 pm on 14 June 1953, Captain Gerald Griffiths began to interrogate two forestry workers suspected of taking up arms against British rule in Kenya. THE UK BLOCKS A U.N. INITIATIVE TO AVERT CONFLICT ESCALATION AND FAMINE IN YEMEN [ 14 June 2018 ] On…