NGBK
Allied troops conquered Iraqi cities as if marching through them in the
last Gulf war. The British army was particularly praised for its
tactics of taking contact with the local population. They had practiced
these tactics for decades in street fighting in Belfast. On the 5th of
October 1968 the first civil rights demonstration took place aiming
against the British supremacy as much as against Catholic frowst. What
began as part of a global movement was abruptly forced into the
military responsibility of paramilitary troops in Northern Irish Derry,
as police bullets bloodily smashed the march.
Since then Royal Ulster Police and the British Army have occupied
Northern Ireland as a British protectorate. Since 1998 there has been a
cease-fire with the "Good Friday Agreement". The promise of normality
has not yet been realised. In Belfast there are still clearly divided
residential areas, police and the military take cover in forts against
car bombs and Molotov cocktails. Based on historical pictorial material
Jochen Becker represents the progress and the "normality" of this
lengthy smouldering war.
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