| A LONELY WITNESS TO MASSACRE | | | | every fall on the machinations of a State and a slur on |
| Window to Hell. | | | | democracy, then this botch up of a security measure, |
| She stood elegantly before a hushed, restrained court, | | | | would hit the neon lights of international notoriety with |
| every inch the beauty Queen who had not asked to | | | | calculated aim. There is no need to go into a minute |
| be there. Her composure was on the brink of collapse. | | | | study of the events leading up to the killings, to know |
| She feared the worst but was determined to see it all | | | | that it was a politically motivated, vengeful act of |
| through after the years of threats, defamation, and | | | | hatred, of historic proportions. What must be |
| perhaps removal from the scene by sinister means. | | | | understood however, that the resulting outcry from a |
| Carmen, a young Gibraltarian housewife, whose only | | | | very vulnerable, unaided housewife, came from a |
| claim to this unusual stardom was standing at her | | | | heart provoked by two distinct sources – her |
| apartment window and seeing three people gunned | | | | passionate love of her community and her disgust for |
| down, in an act that challenged every nerve of her | | | | people who took lives so mercilessly. An additional |
| Christian mind. Carmen, an unduly sensitive woman | | | | factor, was the clear indication that the gunned figures |
| with an iron will of her very own, survived the | | | | had surrendered to the challenge by the armed |
| enormous ordeal of challenging the chicanery of the | | | | persons by putting their arms up and that shooting |
| very State and the woman who later said with gusto, | | | | them down was obviously unnecessary. Carmen was |
| “I pulled the trigger” . This woman who | | | | then unaware of the nature and motivation behind the |
| happened to be no other than the Iron Lady, Margaret | | | | killings, but was to understand to her horror, very soon, |
| Thatcher, in her unmistakeable manner, summoned | | | | when the packaged information, too slickly presented |
| every British sinew to support her every action in what | | | | with an overdose of lined up information, flashed on |
| she described as the fight for the integrity of the | | | | the television screen so neatly. She knew then, that |
| nation. The very President of Ireland himself, had no | | | | the victims included a young boy on holiday - that they |
| option, but to question that very intelligence when | | | | were all Irish Catholics and that Gibraltar was in very |
| asked to bale her out. “If it had not been done with | | | | grave danger of becoming a bloody battleground that |
| such lack of intelligence, I might have perhaps been | | | | could destroy hundreds if not thousands of innocent |
| able to help” or very similar words to that effect. | | | | local lives. The fact that it was Thatcher, the British |
| For the hapless, Carmen Proetta, the vision of horror | | | | Prime Minister behind it, who was in the front line, did |
| with bullet after bullet exploding horrifically inches within | | | | not mitigate a massacre of this scale, in a small, highly |
| the body surfaces and spouting human blood there | | | | exposed community, incapable of defending itself. |
| was nothing British about it. Cries of help from people | | | | A small community in a nightmare |
| with hands held up clearly above their heads were to | | | | The local fear was highlighted by denouncements of a |
| remain engraved forever on her mind. Innocent people | | | | critical few locally who were spurned by the rest and |
| in terms of presumed innocence, summarily mown | | | | thought that the act had been a necessary step in the |
| down, without help or jury to determine their guilt, were | | | | prevention of the explosion that would have taken |
| clawing the air for life, right in front of her very eyes. A | | | | place otherwise. Carmen like thousands of others who |
| fleeing victim, shot in the back and a soldier`s boot | | | | realised that the so called facts made little sense, had |
| smashing into a rib cage to stop that pumping heart, | | | | little choice, but to stand up and say, at least, what she |
| put the final authoritiative scenes into place and seen | | | | saw. Who, why and wherefore, was not her concern |
| clearly by another silenced, unwilling witness. The | | | | and at the end of the day, what she did, helped to |
| young, happily married main witness, a woman looking | | | | soften angry hearts determined to make every stone |
| forward to a life of glamour and sunshine frolics on the | | | | bleed in return, including those in the land where the |
| Costa del Sol where she had a second home, was | | | | lives had been taken. The chilling presence of the |
| spiritually dead. Her very life had just been forfeited in | | | | family of the slaughtered at the unreal petrol pumps of |
| that very instant as she became a witness for the | | | | the station where the lives had been taken, made |
| prosecution of the very State of Gibraltar and that of | | | | every local citizen experience an emotion never felt |
| Britain of which she was a noble citizen. What was to | | | | before. This lonely, brave citizen effectivley saved |
| follow eventually ended up in the Guiness Book of | | | | Gibraltar´s honour and unwittingly became an unsung |
| Records and hundreds of web pages to the effect. | | | | hero much taken to by Irish Catholics who followed |
| She won case after case against the hounding Press | | | | every step of her crucifiction culminating at the trial |
| - no doubt forming part of that trigger that tragically, | | | | which took place in Gibraltar – a book, a song, a |
| painfully and obscenely destroyed lives – lives which | | | | garland of lillies from a culture which took her straight |
| however perversive could not have merited such | | | | to its heart. There is no doubt whatsoever in the full |
| unconstitutional, fearsome, public executions. They | | | | meaning of the events, that the ugly petrol station in |
| were, after all, supposed terrorists – with an amount | | | | which three people lost their lives at the hands of |
| of apparent evidence with respect to one of them. | | | | others would have been the first of the many centres |
| They were supposedly (and inexplicably under the | | | | of such depravities that would have taken place in the |
| circumstances), about to blow up a car in the middle of | | | | small tinder box of this British piece of territory. |
| nowhere or just when a parade was about to go by. | | | | Crammed tight with local citizens, including descendants |
| Whatever, future evidence and indeed instant appraisal | | | | of the very Irish themselves and raw navies in every |
| by those with a bit of British common sense, showed | | | | construction placement, this Catholic stronghold, would |
| clearly that the whole scenario was a minutely planned | | | | have suffered an unworthy fate. Whether or not |
| exercise designed to produce a viable, publicly | | | | Carmen had stood up, the ex Governor of Gibraltar |
| acceptable, shoot-to-kill decision. | | | | shot down some time later, would have been hit in any |
| An assault on the senses | | | | case but the bomb that was apparently diffused in a |
| For Carmen however, none of this had anything to do | | | | Main Street shopping arcade and to which site the |
| with the numbness and terrifying assault to her senses | | | | local authorites were guided, would have been the first |
| (and that of many others effectively silenced) that the | | | | of a great many that thankfully, never came. |
| scene from hell produced. Neither was she aware of | | | | An unexpected heroine. |
| the complete bag of tricks that would be thrown at | | | | Carmen, did not set out to be a heroine and certainly |
| her to deter her from her sense of duty, which her | | | | not a prophet in her own land, but it must be assumed |
| British and Gibraltarian supported scale of values made | | | | that it takes guts, very strong guts to challenge the |
| quite clear. Any mere mortal would have succumbed | | | | very State that feeds and protects you. That |
| at the very first signs of public hatred whipped up by a | | | | protection was removed. The status in which she is |
| manipulated British Press. What Margaret Thatcher | | | | held by those who understand what she stood for, is |
| and the various departments of state involved in her | | | | however, worthy of one who shows us all up when it |
| own, very exclusive manner of swatting irritants, did | | | | comes to deciding between creature comfort and |
| not know, was that Carmen Proetta, of diehard, | | | | principles supposedly bred into Christians and British |
| Genoese descent, was as unbendable even to her | | | | citizens, on those laps for which the State pretends to |
| own family, as any mere mortal could be. Carmen, | | | | be so responsible for. Whatever the bloody prelude to |
| possessed with the spirit and confidence of a naturally | | | | the event and the outrage that they produce in the |
| intelligent woman with a photographic mind, equalled | | | | minds of those brought up on ethical values shaken by |
| the Iron Lady, in every respect except her loathing of | | | | terrorism, the convenient removal of those values |
| lies and manipulated truths. It was this that was to later | | | | under the guise of social interests, for similar pursuits, |
| make her such a champion of British legal victims of | | | | makes little sense and only helps to further erode the |
| the Coast. Thatcher had met her match and every | | | | despair of the young, clinging to flimsy reasons for |
| attempt to destroy Carmen´s credibility fell on the | | | | staying alive. Today, top social experts and writers |
| very rocks that parody the part of the Peninsular itself. | | | | agree that terrorism is a symptom of an underlying |
| For Carmen, the lives destroyed had to be accounted | | | | malady which has to addressed before political action |
| for and every sleepless night, and admonishment, from | | | | can be justly applied. Whilst this is not always possible |
| terrified members of her own family, fell on those | | | | in the short term, at medium and long term level the |
| selfsame pillars which kept her alive, meaningful and | | | | results of transparent dialogue on both sides thems |
| happy. | | | | often dictate the next course of mutual decisions. |
| In her early life, Carmen had always been a beauty | | | | What happened in Gibraltar was a clear indication of |
| Queen by right. Her leggy, voluptousness, much made | | | | calculated terrorism of its own variety born of |
| of by the sleezy press, gave her instant access to the | | | | vengeance and lack of genuine intelligence involving |
| lights and critical appraisal of the glamour crowd. Kim | | | | thousands of innocent accomplices. Nobody seriously |
| Novak was a close pale copy, if character was | | | | well informed with respect to the event, believes it to |
| anything to go by. Anyone meeting Carmen head on, | | | | be anymore than a hamfisted scenario planned well |
| knew what that meant. Her walkouts when unfairly | | | | before its D Day. |
| challenged and misunderstood, paid tribute to a | | | | Today, a tired but happy Spanish Court interpreter with |
| stubborness that only Thatcher would have identified | | | | hundreds of British families grateful for those special |
| with. The pity lies in Carmen´s lost opportunities as | | | | privileges and advise received outside line of duty, is |
| her future lay in potential ruin with sick cries of | | | | grateful to be alive to be able to perform them. Her |
| prostitution, Mafia connections and accusations of sly, | | | | close family, still a target of a frustrated and sick few, |
| behind the scenes payments, for standing against her | | | | carry on regardless, convinced that their high |
| national heritage. A long story which ended with the | | | | standards of education, principles and public |
| first of the realistic evaluations of the massacres by | | | | acceptance, are due to her creative authority. This |
| the Television analysis, “Shadow on the Rock”, | | | | authority is shared with the same husband/father Maxi |
| was crowded with every attempt to dissuade her | | | | who lived those concerns for so long and some say, |
| from standing up and being counted. If shame should | | | | perhaps, with greater protective intensity. |