‘Refuse to defend Union’ call on nationalists ON February 27 Republican Sinn Féin in Belfast questioned news reports of figures given as to telephone enquiries made into the renamed RUC known as NIPS. "We don’t believe such figures are credible coming from a body that has the objective of setting up this renamed British paramilitary police force," the statement said. "The fact is a British paramilitary police force, should it be called RIC, RUC or NIPS, to the British is a necessary thing, necessary because this force has and will always be used and kept ready to keep this Six-County-statelet in existence. Republicans and nationalists will not take part in any such force; after all its they who have suffered the jackboot of such a force since our country was forced into partition. "We call on Republicans and nationalists to refuse to defend the Union." Contents Republican homes raided in north Leitrim ON February 28 three homes in the Kinlough and Glenade areas of north Leitrim were searched by dozens of 26-County Special Branch and police. Thomas Kelly from Kinlough was arrested and held for a short time in Manorhamilton barracks and the 26-County police seized a computer hard disk and documents belonging to the local community association of which he is treasurer as well as Republican documents. Republican material was also seized in a raid of Declan Curneen’s house at Glenade and the home of Séamus McGowan was also searched. Local people commented that in the present crisis over the foot-and-mouth epidemic and the efforts being made by the Dublin Administration to halt its spread into the 26 Counties that the 30 police used to raid these homes of Republican activists would have been better utilised elsewhere. Contents Boy (13) terrified after Para assault A COUNTY Armagh teenager was left severely bruised and in a state of shock after a vicious assault by a member of Britain’s Parachute regiment, it was reported on February 3. Fergal Hughes, a pupil of St Joseph’s High School said he was making his way to his home at Lismore, Crossmaglen when he came in contact with members of a routine foot-patrol. "I was cutting down the lane and whistling and one of the soldiers started making fun of me. He was saying things like ‘that’s really good whistling’ and he wouldn’t let me pass. "I tried to get past him and he pushed me into the lane and grabbed me round the neck. I was terrified but two fellows shouted over and he let me go," he said. A few days earlier an 18-year-old factory worker was knocked unconscious when he was attacked by members of the regiment. A short time later, four teenagers were said to have been involved in a fracas with members of the regiment in the town. Fergal Hughes’ mother, Alice, said she has since taken her son to the family doctor from where he was referred to hospital for treatment and has reported the assault to the British colonial police (RUC) at Crossmaglen barracks. "Fergal came home so terrified. He was really frightened. I think it was the fact that he was on his own that made it so frightening," she said. Alice Hughes added: "I will definitely be following this through." Contents

Finucane family say ‘no to deal’

AS constitutional nationalists seek to iron out a deal that would make a new British police force more palatable to their constituents, relatives of murdered human rights lawyer, Pat Finucane, have warned against accepting any watered-down inquiry into his killing as part of an agreement to secure their backing for new policing arrangements.

In a letter to Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fáil, Séamus Mallon, SDLP and Provisional leader Gerry Adams, the family say: "It would be unfortunate if the nationalist parties took the view that something less than what the families are seeking would be acceptable to their electorate."

Britain’s prime minister also received a copy of the letter circulated on February 24.

It follows reports that the British government was offering to set up its own probes into Pat Finucane’s killing in 1989, the murder of Lurgan-based lawyer Rosemary Nelson two years ago and the slaying of Portadown nationalist Robert Hamill in 1997 -- if nationalist parties weighed in behind the new-look RUC.

The family say that "nothing less than a full independent public judicial inquiry" will be acceptable.
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GSE meeting appeals to County Councillors to "stand by the people"

SPEAKERS at a public meeting on February 27 on Incineration in Galway, organized by GSE, appealed to Galway County Councillors to "stand by the people of Galway, and to reject the regional incinerator and ash super-dump planned for Galway in the failed Connacht Waste Plan"

"Let’s get real here. Incineration is anti-Recycling, it’s anti-Environment and it’s an unnecessary danger to our Health" said GSE spokesperson Peter Butler. "County Galway will suffer from dioxin contamination of our farming produce, not only from emissions to air, but also from emissions to water from the incinerator ash which will be landfilled in East Galway. We are appealing to our County Councillors to reject this plan again, when it is discussed on March 9th next."

"Every environmental organization in Europe, including Greenpeace, is opposed to Incineration. The only people who stand to gain from Incineration are those trying to secure 25 year, guaranteed-income contracts which would be on offer. And these people need Recycling to fail, for their business of Incineration to succeed."

GSE went on to criticise Frank Fahey and Bobby Molloy for supporting incineration in the face of the 22,000 individual signatures gathered against it. "Just who do these people represent, the people of Galway, or the international incineration industry, waiting in the wings to lodge a planning application in Galway ?"

Peter Butler particularly criticised Bobby Molloy’s comments about the "safe" incinerators that he saw in Japan, on RTE’s Questions and Answers on Monday night. "A United Nations Environment Program report from 1999 found that 80% of the cancer-causing chemical dioxin in the Japanese environment was due to waste incinerators. Is this what Minister Molloy wants to bring to Ireland ?"

The proposed 180,000 tonnes per annum Incinerator will produce 9,000 tonnes of Fly-Ash every year which the EPA has said will be classified as Hazardous Material needing perpetual storage (because of the amount of cancer-causing Dioxins in the Fly-Ash).

"We are talking about creating another stockpile of lethal material here, in the same way that the nuclear industry creates spent-Plutonium, except that we have the choice not to.

Much is being made of so-called modern Incinerators, which try to reduce the emissions of Dioxins into the air, but that just leads to an increased concentration of Dioxins in the Fly-Ash and bottom-ash. It’s a nobody-wins-except-the-operator-of-the-Incinerator situation" said Peter Butler.

The public meeting was addressed by Gerry Murray, Fianna Fáil member of Mayo Co. Council, Gerry Browne, a Veterinary Surgeon and Organic Farmer in Roscommon and Peter Butler of GSE.
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Nationalists ‘easy targets’ for pipe-bombs

IN A report on a bomb attack on nationalist homes, Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, north Belfast on Sunday, February 11 a spokesperson for Belfast Republican Sinn Féin told SAOIRSE:

"A pensioner whose home was damaged in the bomb attack and who was still very shaken, told us that around 1.30am on Sunday morning she heard a noise which seemed to come from the back of the house. ‘I got up out of bed to see what it was and went into the back-bedroom,’ she said. ‘I looked out of the window but couldn’t see anything. I turned to leave the room. As I did so, there was a flash and then an explosion which blew windows in.

" ‘My grandson who was staying with me jumped out of bed in panic. It was only luck that it was just my house was damaged and no-one was hurt or worse.

" ‘We have had a lot of trouble down the years with petrol bombs, paint bombs, stones and bottles but this is the first time they have used a bomb in this area in recent years anyway. We live here on the border-line. The loyalist area is just behind us.’

"The pensioner said that she has lived in that area far too long to move from her home. ‘At my time of life I at least expect to be able to live in peace. People are living in fear. It’s terrible. Where is the peace we hear so much about?’

"Other people living in Alliance Avenue told us that they ran out on hearing the explosion. Two houses had been damaged at the back where nationalist houses back on to the loyalist area. There were nails everywhere, embedded in wood frames etc. We were told that ‘the place is wide open’, loyalists have an easy target — ‘very easy’.

"A young man living next door to the old lady said his home took the full force of the blast. People in both houses had been very lucky.

"There was an RUC Land Rover sitting just about a hundred yards away on the Berwick Road in Ardoyne. When the people went and told them what happened RUC members in the Land Rover said they didn’t hear anything. Yet people over half a mile away on the Old Park Road heard the blast!

"Who is suffering? Only the nationalist community so who really cares? Ethnic cleansing is an everyday thing here. Its a bad thing to say but its just commonplace for nationalists to be attacked. There’ll be no meetings at the United Nations over it.

"Everyone we talked to had more or less the same story to tell. We found a feeling of hopelessness; as one woman said: ‘At the end of the day we are forgotten people, not even a three-day wonder!’

"We were taken behind the houses and shown the damage. It was hard to believe that no-one was hurt in the attack. The damage was very bad; windows blown in and doors blown off. Nails were embedded in frames and trees.

"We were also shown where a window in an empty house in the loyalist area had had its glass window removed during the week; the back upstairs window over-looked where the attack took place. There’s not much doubt that this played a part in the bomb attack; anyone in that upstairs room could very easily watch both houses and would also have known their targets were at home and in bed.

"A very easy target indeed. "
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Attacks aimed at ‘softening-up’ nationalists to accept renamed RUC

A DROP-OFF in the number of pipe-bomb attacks against nationalist homes in February can be seen as proof that the UDA/UFF pro-British death squad had a large part to play in the campaign.

In the first six weeks of the year more than 50 pipe-bomb attacks were reported.

On February 14 the leadership of the UDA told journalists that it was not involved in the pipe-bombings and called for "whoever was involved" to stop the attacks.

To coincide with this the UDA leadership is reported to have threatened to kill any of its members involved in the pipe-bombings. This action by the UDA leadership could be seen as an exercise in bringing its members under control the majority of the UDA is now believed to be opposed to a cease-fire while the leadership still supports it.

In the week following the UDA announcement one nationalist family in Lisburn was targeted by two pipe-bombs.

Meanwhile the discovery of a pipe-bomb ‘factory’ in a UVF stronghold of Belfast in February has led to the belief that they were also involved in the campaign.

It must be cold comfort to nationalists that their lives and property are at the mercy of the internal power-struggles of loyalist death squads.

In the wider context the pipe-bombing campaigns served a purpose for the British government by "softening up" the nationalist population to accept a renamed RUC.
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Amnesty slates Brits new Terror Act

ON February 19, Britain’s imperial government formally introduced her new Terrorism Act 2000.

The Act updates and strengthens the powers of Britain’s police and intelligence services both in occupied Ireland and the imperial heartland itself and replaces the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Amnesty International immediately denounced the act on the date of its introduction. An Amnesty spokesperson said:

"This act effectively takes emergency powers that were conceded to deal with the situation in Northern Ireland and puts them permanently into legislation."

According to Amnesty, the Act shifts the presumption of innocence to the presumption of guilt in situations where a person has been arrested in possession of materials that might be of use to combatants.

"We published our concerns regarding the Act when it was first drafted last April," the Amnesty spokesperson said.

The organisation expressed "serious concern" over the extension of stop and search powers given to police in Britain and the Six Counties and the extension of the amount of time a suspect can be held without access to a lawyer form 36 to 4 hours.

"However, many of our concerns -- notably the extension of police powers -- what we see as a threat to the right to a fair trial, and the possible violations of the right to assembly contained in the Act have not been addressed.

The spokesperson added that Amnesty "will be watching closely to see how it is used".

It is apt to remember that the British parliamentary act which re-established Stormont states that final authority remains in her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

This aligned with the new Act means that British rule in the Six Counties and British judicial/police terror are now permanently established in British law and the ‘new’ RUC will be enforcing that rule and law.

Provisions of the Act allow British police to force journalists to hand over to the police information in their possession which the police claim "may be useful to their investigation".

Amnesty Internaitonal pointed out that similar emergency laws have been used in the past to intimidate journalists from pursuing certain lines of inquiry which may be embarrassing for the authorities.

"These cases have mainly involved investigative journalists who have refused to hand over information which was obtained in confidence from their sources or who have refused to reveal the name of their source.

"These journalists were expressing possible human rights violations by agents of the State and the attempts by the autholrities to force journalists to reveal their sources or confidential information could have a chilling e ffect on freedom of expression," Amnesty said. Amnesty concluded by expressing concern that pro visions of the Act contravene Britain’s obligations under international human rights law.

"Furthermore, many provisions are open to abuse by law enforcement officials and the Act fails to provide safequards against such abuse. The Guardian newspaper on February 19 pointed out that the Act made it a "criminal offence to possess any ‘article’ or ‘information’, including photographs, in circumstances which give rise to a ‘reasonable suspicion’ they would be used for‘terrorist’ purposes -- a clause which has serious implicaions, not least for journalists.

"The Act reverses the burden of proof -- it will be up to the accused to prove their innocence, in other words, to prove a negative."
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