Irish Republican News and Information, 29-30 October 2002,
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
No acceptable level of loyalist violence - Adams
Loyalist gangs carried out a day of sustained attacks on
nationalists homes in the Short Strand of east Belfast on
Tuesday.
During a day of violence, a constant rain of missiles was
directed at nationalist homes but the violence intensified as
darkness fell and at least two blast or pipe bomb devices were
hurled into the nationalist enclave.
Local councillor Joe O'Donnell displayed a device, a huge
firework taped to a bottle of highly flammable cellulose
thinners, which had also been tossed into the Short Strand on
Tuesday.
O'Donnell explained that in the course of Tuesday loyalists were
attacking homes in the Clandeboye area with stones, nuts, bolts
and ball bearings but as the day wore on the loylaists began
throwing fireworks.
"As darkness fell the loylaists then began throwing bottles full
of flammable liquid, petrol and cellulose thinners, before
throwing lighted petrol bombs and fireworks with the intention of
igniting those homes that were doused with the flammable liquid.
"It was arond this time that the pipe bombs were thrown",
concluded O'Donnell, "luckily no one was injured".
ADAMS RAISES ISSUE
Visiting the area on Wednesday, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams
and party chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin called on the British
government to ensure the safety of Short Strand residents.
Street violence in sectarian flashpoints of Belfast must not be
treated as if it has reached an "acceptable level," Mr Adams
said.
The issue is being raised this Thursday morning address in Mr
Adams's first formal meeting tomorrow with the new British
Secretary of State, Paul Murphy.
The West Belfast MP, who met residents and surveyed damage to
their homes, said many were "living on the edge of despair".
"These attacks have been continuing day in, day out, night in,
night out and can come at any time - 7am, 1pm, 4pm or midnight.
"People are very angry at the projection of the problem in the
broad media that this is somehow tit-for-tat, that victims here
are also perpetrators.
"Four blast bombs were thrown into this area last night.
Residents have shown me devices - petrol bombs, inflammable
concoctions attached to fireworks, balloons full of petrol to set
roofs alight.
"The danger in all of this is in the face of sustained attacks on
a number of communities in north and east Belfast, there is
almost a tolerance of what is happening.
"It is unacceptable people are having to live like this. There
can be no acceptable level of violence and the British Government
must really address the problem of loyalist paramilitary attacks
on these areas."
Mr Adams said nationalist Short Strand residents had shown
remarkable restraint in the face of almost nightly violence since
May.
Calling on all parties to address the problem of street violence
together, the Sinn Fein president said: "Earlier in the summer
when there were talks at Hillsborough, we said the issue of the
interface violence was the most pressing issue for the British
and Irish Governments and the parties during the summer.
"Here we are well into the autumn and we are making exactly the
same case, that it is still the most pressing issue.
"Sinn Fein has been active in trying to collectively resolve this
and the Mayor of Belfast Alex Maskey in particular has been
trying to facilitate dialogue.
"Dialogue at a local level involving unionists and ourselves to
resolve this issue should take place rather than having people
swap soundbites."
PROMINENT REPUBLICAN TARGETED
The Red Hand Defenders -- a cover name used by the UDA and LVF --
have claimed responsibility in a telephone call to a Belfast
newsroom for an attempt to kill Brendan Bik McFarlane the OC of
IRA prisoners in the H Blocks during the Hunger Strikes in 1981.
A device was left close to McFarlanes Ardoyne home in North
Belfast on Friday night, and in a phone claim the Red Hand
Defenders named him as the intended target of the attack.
However, neither McFarlane or his wife were home at the time.
McFarlane said members of the PSNI visited his home on Saturday
and informed him that a pipe bomb had been discovered close to
his home "the device could have killed my three year old son or
20 month old daughter and a baby-sitter if it had exploded.
"The RUC/PSNI only informed us of the incident on Saturday
evening" added McFarlane.
The prominent republican went on to say that the RUC and PSNI
have visited him on four separate occasions to warn him that his
life was in danger and that he has lost count of how many times
he has been threatened by loyalists.
McFarlane blamed unionism, "for refusing to work within the Good
Friday Agreement. They have created a political vacuum in which
all nationalists living in North Belfast are seen by unionist
paramilitaries as legitimate targets.
"I am no different from any other nationalist in North Belfast
who have been told they are being targeted by loyalists" said
McFarlane.
UNIONIST REACTIONS CRITICISED
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly has described
the response to unionist paramilitary violence by all shades of
unionist politicians as "hypocritical and dangerous".
Kelly was speaking last Friday after he visited the home of a
Catholic family in Alliance Avenue in north Belfast. which had
been targeted in the latest sectarian pipe bomb attack on a
Catholic family, the fifth such sectarian attack in the area in
the past week.
In recent weeks loyalist politicians including a former Mayor of
Belfast Jim Rodgers said that a pipe bomb which injured a
fourteen year old boy in Bryson Street in the Short Strand area
of East Belfast was "green propaganda".
Also Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group,
which has links with the UDA, said loyalists were not involved in
the Bryson Street attack and that it was an own goal.
Rodgers also claimed that a PSNI member told him that
republicans, in the Short Strand, were staging attacks on their
own community for propaganda reasons, a claim dismissed by a
senior PSNI member who oversees operations at interfaces.
Responding Kelly accused unionists of burying their heads in the
sand and of trying to blame everyone but themselves, "we only
have to remember David Trimble attempting to link the killing by
the UDA of young Ciaran Cummings in Antrim to a drugs dispute".
Kelly added, "people are justifiably angry at being under
constant attack from unionist paramilitaries while unionist
political leaders are actively trying to redirect the blame for
loyalist attacks on the Catholic communities or attempting to
cover up these attacks.
"At a time when unionist leaders are sitting in talks with
loyalist paramilitaries in South Africa nationalists are accusing
unionist politicians of having an acceptable level of loyalist
violence directed at Catholics. This position is both
hypocritical and dangerous and only gives assistance and excuses
to those who carry out these nightly attacks" said Kelly.