UVF behind Strand attacks

As the loyalist marching season is coming closer the loyalist UVF is stepping up violence against neighbouring nationalist enclaves. In the past months this violence has mainly be orchestrated by the rival loyalist UDA and therefore been limited to interfaces near UDA strongholds. East Belfast, a mainly UVF stronghold has been quite. Last week UVF gunrunners were caught in Scotland, on Saturday, May 11, 2002 they attacked the small nationalist enclave "Short Strand" in East Belfast. Nationalists have to come out to defend their homes themselves - no hope the police would turn against the attackers. The police acted in the same way as usual - against the nationalists. There are many cases reported where the police were beating up those on the nationalist side who try to calm people down. A victim of a police baton had to go to hospital:

Andersontown News, Mai, 16, 2002, http://www.irelandclick.com/

So What's New?
- PAGE ONE OPINION -

On July 16 1969, the RUC battered their way into the home of 42-year-old Samuel Devenney and beat him to a pulp in front of his family. The father-of-nine died of his injuries. At the weekend, members of the PSNI invaded the Short Strand – already under siege from loyalist gunmen and bombers – and smashed batons down on the head of 40-year old Patrick Devenney, who is pictured here after undergoing brain surgery.

SHORT STRAND: A COMMUNITY UNDER SIEGE
The two incidents have more than just the surnames of the victims in common. They both bear eloquent testimony to the nature of the force which is nominally tasked with policing us, but which in fact is fundamentally incapable of doing anything other than brutalising our people. The Police Ombudsman and the SDLP now have one hell of a job convincing us that anything has changed.
A week of terror in the Strand
It has been one of the most traumatic weeks on record for the people of the Short Strand. The week of terror began on Saturday when relations between the two factions broke down.
This resulted in attacks on Catholic homes and a heavy- handed army response creating a climate of mistrust that will take years to mend.
Trouble first broke out on Saturday May 11 when a Protestant interface worker claimed to have been attacked by nationalists.
Nationalist community workers spent the next few hours working flat out to try and defuse the situation, however at the last hour were told by loyalist interface workers that it was too late to stop the trouble.
On Saturday evening a crowd of 100 loyalists attacked the area. Five pipe bombs were thrown causing extensive damage to a nationalist home in Strand Walk.
Sinn Féin chairman Patrick ‘Pod’ Devenny suffered serious head injuries as a PSNI riot squad move in.
Local witnesses say they saw Pod Devenny being viciously beaten by a riot squad officer. He was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery.
Mr Devenny was rushing to check on his elderly mother after a loyalist pipe bomb exploded just feet from her Madrid Street home.
After a tense weekend, at 4.30 on Tuesday afternoon the British Army and PSNI moved into the small nationalist enclave of Short Strand and began to raid nationalist homes.
Eight homes were raided with extensive damage to the houses in the heavy-handed operation.
Community workers struggled to contain the situation as local anger reached boiling point. The British army and PSNI opened up with plastic baton rounds. Ten people were hit, including a 16-year-old girl and a member of the press – 36 people received injuries.
At an emergency press conference in the Short Strand community centre yesterday, Sinn Féin chief whip Alex Maskey said: “This community has been under attack since Saturday. The UVF and PSNI are going to kill members of this community if they continue.”
We dread the run-up to the marching season every summer
East Belfast’s tiny nationalist enclave of the Short Strand is only made up of a handful of streets, but over the last thirty years residents have borne a disproportionate burden of intimidation and attacks.
Over the past few days the people of the Short Strand have found themselves under fire yet again, this time from pipe bombs and petrol bombs thrown by loyalists – and plastic bullets fired by the PSNI and British army. Mother-of-two Selina Kelly has lived in the Short Strand for five years and is well used to life in the front line.
“Every year I dread the run-up to the marching season and what trouble it will bring to our community. This year it started out of the blue,” said Selina.
“I went to bed around 11pm on Saturday and woke up about an hour later to the sound of screaming and shouting in the streets outside.
“Immediately my first thought was for my little girls Rebecca and Ashley, but mercifully they were still fast asleep.
“I got dressed as fast as I could and ran outside to see the streets in uproar. “Five loyalist pipe bombs had been thrown into the Short Strand, one had badly damaged a home in Strand Walk.
“People were terrified, they didn’t know what was going to happen next.” But more was to come for the beleaguered nationalist community.
On Tuesday the British Army and the PSNI began raiding nationalist homes in the Short Strand.
“I was in the house on my own with the girls when I saw the SWAT teams pulling into the area.
“It was pandemonium. I ran round to a neighbour’s house and we tried to get out of the area but it was under curfew.
“The girls were terrified and I think they have definitely been traumatised by what is going on around them.
“I’m going to send them out of Belfast this weekend. I don’t want them to have to suffer this any more.”
And Selina said the Short Strand community feel under siege all year round. “We can’t do a simple thing like go out to the shops or the post office without encountering abuse and intimidation from the other side. “We feel hemmed in and this new security fence which is now going up is only going to make matters worse.
“People here are very angry after the events of the last few days and they are terrified someone will be killed.
“I love the Short Stand and the community here but my little girls shouldn’t have to grow up in constant fear.”
Journalist: Staff Reporter