IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 August, 2000
(PART 1)
1. CALL TO UDA LEADERSHIP AFTER GUN ATTACK
* Bogus 'assassination bid' exposed
2. Bullet missed infant by inches
3. Councillor targeted by death-squad
4. Feature: When day breaks you think you're safe
5. Institutional abuse victim demands justice
6. Clonard recalls start of conflict
7. Success for Ardoyne commemoration project
8. Guatemala's missing children
9. Analysis: Bigotry in Ballsbridge
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>>>>>> CALL TO UDA LEADERSHIP AFTER GUN ATTACK
The loyalist UDA has been asked by Sinn Fein to declare whether
they have abandoned their 'ceasefire' and their political
representatives in the UDP are being urged to make clear whether
or not they support the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Fein's call comes amidst an upsurge in sectarian attacks
spearheaded by the UDA, with widespread intimidation and attacks
on nationalists homes.
Shots were fired at the homes of two Catholic families in north
Belfast yesterday morning in what is believed to have been a UDA
murder bid. No-one was injured in the attack on new homes in
Clifton Park Avenue, though one bullet struck a wall just feet
from where a two-year-old boy lay sleeping.
Earlier this week claims by Belfast UDA leader Johnny Adair that
he had survived a pipe bomb attack by Republicans were exposed as
a tissue of lies, apparently invented to provide justification
for the wave of attacks.
"We are not witnessing a series of 'tit for tat' attacks as some
have reported," said Kelly. "What we are seeing is a well
organised and orchestrated attempt to raise tensions and create
the conditions for attacks on Catholics. The motives for this are
unclear, but one certainty is the involvement of the UDA in these
attacks," said Kelly.
The UDP claim to support the Good Friday Agreement, said Kelly,
which includes the right of people to live free from sectarian
harassment. "In the light of recent events I think it is
appropriate to challenge the leadership of the UDP to say where
exactly they now stand with regard to their support for the
Agreement."
If the leadership of the UDP still support the Good Friday
Agreement then they must state this clearly and move immediately
to halt the attacks which have now spread from Belfast into North
and East Antrim, said Kelly.
"The UDA must also declare whether or not they are still on
ceasefire and these attacks on Catholic homes should stop now. It
is the UDA who are threatening violence and it is they who can
withdraw this threat and end the attacks," said Kelly.
Johnny Adair has claimed that shortly after midnight on Monday
that he was sitting in a car, "minding his own business" on
Beechpark Street , in North Belfast when someone threw a pipe
bomb at him. The device exploded, shattering the windscreen of
the vehicle.
However Adair undermined the credibility of his own allegations
by refusing to hand over the vehicle for forensic examination.
The car in question has now disappeared. Forensic experts who
examinned fragments of the device recovered at the scene have
confirmed that it was of a type used by loyalists.
This bungled attempt to shift the focus away from the present
upsurge in loyalist violence has further fuelled speculation that
attacks on Protestant homes in the Shankill earlier this week,
were also carried out by loyalists themselves. Gerry Kelly
described it as "a smokescreen", a crude and cynical attempt to
justify the UDA agenda of continuing sectarian attacks on
nationalists.
"I have conducted extensive inquiries in nationalist areas and
the claim that Republicans were behind a pipe bomb attack against
Johnny Adair is without foundation, as were earlier claims that
Republicans were responsible for attacks on loyalist homes in
Denmark Street," said Kelly.
"The facts are that the UDA has been involved in an orchestrated
campaign to increase tension since before Drumcree. This started
with street protests and continued with threats, intimidation,
shows of strength, attacks on homes and now the firing of shots.
In the light of this pattern there is now a very real threat
against Catholics and I would urge people to remain vigilant,"
said Kelly.
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>>>>>> Bullet missed infant by inches
A bullet passed inches from a toddler's head during a loyalist
gun attack on a north Belfast home yesterday.
A shocked father has said his two-year-old son could have died
when paramilitaries opened fire on two homes in Cliftonpark
Avenue in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Bullets struck the upstairs window of his home and the downstairs
window and front door of a neighbour's after an attack at 4am
which was believed to have been carried out by loyalists.
The father, who was too afraid to be named, said his family had
just moved into the house three months ago, adding that he had
counted five bullets on his property alone.
"We were asleep when we heard a bang," he said.
"The next thing we knew there was a hole in the bedroom window
where a bullet had entered and lodged itself in the bedroom door.
"The hole was just inches from where my two-year-old son was
sleeping. Thankfully no shots were fired at the window above ours
which was where our other four children were asleep."
The man said he believed the attack on his family was carried out
by loyalist paramilitaries.
"Paint bombs and petrol bombs are bad enough but firing live
rounds and not just one but five bullets is a sure sign they
don't just want to scare but to kill," he said.
His neighbour, who also did not want to be named, said his family
was woken by screams coming from next door.
"We did not hear the shots but heard shouting and screaming from
next door instead," she said.
"It was only then we realised our home had been attacked.
"A bullet had gone in through the front window and through the
front door. I can't think of a reason why anyone would want to do
such a thing to us. What can a family of six young children do
that causes such offence?"
Sinn Fein councillor Cathy Stanton said the situation was
"particularly worrying" as live rounds had been fired.
"In recent nights north Belfast has seen bricks, stones, paint
bombs and petrol being poured through letterboxes and set alight
but not bullets," she said.
"It is very clear loyalists are trying to increase tension in the
area."
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>>>>>> Councillor targeted by death-squad
A south Belfast councillor has said he believes that loyalists
planned to mount an attack on him earlier this week.
Sinn Fein's Sean Hayes said three men sat in a parked car outside
his home in the Markets area for more than two hours on Monday
morning.
Not at home at the time, he recognised the men as "well-known
loyalists" who knew exactly whose home they were sitting outside.
"Given the recent activities of the loyalist death squads this
incident is particularly worrying," he said.
"I have only recently moved into the house after repeated attacks
on my previous address and repeated claims by the RUC of passing
my details into the hands of loyalists.
"It is clear the men were up to no good. They were clearly
planning to carry out some sort of attack, this only being foiled
by the fact I had not returned home that night."
But Mr Hayes added that loyalists had tried to intimidate Sinn
Fein members for years and the incident would not stop him
carrying out his work.
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>>>>>> Feature: When day breaks you think you're safe
by Laura Friel
A woman stands before her paint splattered front door and weeps.
For a moment I forget I'm a journalist here to cover a story,
hold her hand and offer a little comfort. But short of somewhere
else to live, or the right to live free from sectarian
harassment, there is no possibility of comfort here.
On Sunday morning an armed and masked loyalist mob drove into a
nationalist enclave off the Limestone Road in North Belfast and
attacked Ann's and her neighbours' homes. It was 7.30am and the
mob arrived in a minibus . The attack took Ann by surprise.
And Ann isn't weeping for her damaged front door, although it is
brand new and only fitted three weeks ago. And she isn't weeping
for the yellow paint despoiling the front of her home, although
the windows were only cleaned the day before. She's crying
because she's afraid for her life, and the lives of her children.
And she's right to be afraid.
Ann and her two teenage children, a daughter of 15 and a
seventeen year old son, had moved into Parkend Street just less
than a year ago. Years of municipal neglect has rendered the
property and prospect dreary. Built at the turn of the century,
the row of three storey red brick terrace housing overlooks a
derelict factory.
Beyond this forsaken no man's land lies loyalist Tigers Bay.
Across the Limestone Road adjacent to Ann's home, loyalist flags
and graffiti denotes the entrance to another loyalist estate. No
one, least of all a nationalist, lives in Parkend Street by
choice.
Like many of her neighbours, desperation drove Ann and her family
into accepting accommodation here. Chronic ill health had forced
the family to flee from squalid private landlord accommodation.
Homeless, the family had spent months in a hostel before being
offered accommodation.
The Housing Executive considered a house on Parkend Street as a
"reasonable offer", but, "we exchanged one nightmare for
another," says Ann. The metal grills fixed over Ann's front
windows bear testimony to the fact that her home is a constant
target for sectarian attack, as does the solid wooden door.
A heavy concrete block stands just inside the doorway. At night
and for most of every day, this block is wedged against the back
of the door. During last Sunday's loyalist attack, the mob
attempted to smash down Ann's front door with a sledge hammer.
The wood splintered around the lock and frame but the door could
not be forced.
Around the corner in Clanchattan Street, at about the time
loyalists were attacking nationalist homes in Parkend, Mary was
frantically pushing her two small children into an upstairs
closet.
Just a few moments earlier, realising her home was under
sectarian attack, Mary had thrown a hall table across the front
door. It was a desperate bid to stop the mob gaining entry to her
home.
Almost twenty years ago another mother, in those few frantic
moments before being attacked by armed loyalists, had tried to
hide her youngest child in a cupboard. In 1981 Bernadette
McAliskey and her husband were repeatedly shot and left for dead
by loyalists who smashed into their home.
Of all the detail of the horror of that particular day, the
description of Bernadette hiding her child remains one of the
most chilling descriptions of terror. Two decades later and
loyalists are still terrorising nationalist families and their
children. Mary's husband spoke of his family's ordeal.
"I was woken by shouting and when I looked out of the bedroom
window, I saw about thirty men, most of them were masked and one
of them was brandishing a sub machine gun. Another was carrying
a hand gun tucked into the waistband of his trousers."
Martin watched as the mob broke down the front door of the first
house opposite. Finding the property unoccupied members of the
mob attacked the second house and then the third." They were
trying to break down doors, smashing windows, throwing paint
bombs and trashing cars parked in the street," says Martin.
The mob smashed the front window of Martin's home, threw white
paint over the front and kicked in the windows of the family's
car parked just outside. But this is not a story of broken glass
and damaged property, but of shattered nerves and damaged
lives.
Unable to breathe and experiencing chest pain, Mary was rushed by
ambulance to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Mary's four
year old son watched as his mother was "taken away." He didn't
want to sleep, the child later confided to a relative, because,
"bad men came to our house".
This is not the first time Martin's home and family have been
attacked by loyalists. During a previous attack, Mary had been
hit by a brick as she sat in her own front living room. She was
able to identity her assailant but the RUC took no action.
In hospital Mary was treated for shock and allowed to return
home. Back in Clanchattan Street, she packed clothes for her
children and herself and left to stay with relatives. "We're
moving out," says Martin, "you can't rear children in a place
like this."
A family across the road has already gone, other families have
requested rehousing but the Housing Executive is unlikely to
offer them a transfer. Some of the properties are owned by a
housing association, those tenants have almost no hope of moving
out.
Once the furniture and other belongings have been sorted, Martin
plans to join his family. Their prospects are not rosy. At the
very least they face a lengthy stay in hostel accommodation ,
perhaps for several years, and then another "reasonable offer"
from the Housing Executive.
Across the road from Martin and Mary, Bridie was minding the
house for her daughter. The family were away on holiday. On
Sunday morning when the loyalists launched their attack, Bridie
was making tea in the back kitchen. Upstairs her teenage grand
daughter was woken by the noise of breaking glass.
Now in the tiny front living room of her daughter's house, the
media presses to take photographs of broken glass and paint
spattered furniture including a new three piece suite and
recently laid wooden flooring. Bridie answers their questions
with quiet composure.
No, there was no one in the room at the time. Yes, her daughter
had been told of the attack. She'd seen members of the mob
"dancing" on the top of cars, smashing the vehicles windows and
covering them with paint. She didn't know what the family would
do now.
Ten minutes later and the media has left. Bridie sitting with a
cup of tea on a garden bench at the front of the house is framed
by yellow paint and boarded windows. So calm in front of the
cameras, her eyes now fill with silent tears.
The residents of Parkend and Clanchattan Street have little or no
faith in the Housing Executive addressing their plight. They have
even less faith in the RUC. Predictably the RUC arrived after the
mob had left.
One resident said an RUC mobile patrol had passed masked
loyalists walking down the Limestone Road but failed to stop.
Another resident described the RUC as 'reluctant" to take
statements from residents.
Amateur video footage taken by a local resident during the
immediate aftermath, shows groups of loyalists, some of whom
residents suspect were involved, standing across the road. The
RUC make no attempt to question them. They are not even asked to
move on.
Speaking of her ordeal, one resident had made a throwaway
comment which said it all. It spoke of fear and intimidation, of
sleepless nights and endless worry. "When day breaks," she had
said, "you think you're safe." For Northern nationalists living
in vulnerable areas, systematic persecution is a way of life.
In Nazi Germany in the autumn of 1941 Jewish people were ordered
to wear yellow insignia, an arm band or badge. Yellow was the
colour chosen by their racist persecutors to signal the non
citizen status of Jews ascribed as inferior by a brutal regime.
I doubt if the loyalists who daubed their particular brand of
hatred on the homes and property of North Belfast Catholics this
week, cared what colour of paint they used. I doubt if it held
any significance beyond the convenience of stealing paint from a
DOE road maintenance yard.
The colour may be incidental but for Catholic residents whose
homes have been attacked, the message is much the same. It is as
plain as the yellow paint daubed on their windows and doors. And
as well as turpentine, there's a stench of fascism in the
air.
(At the request of those interviewed, some of the names have been
altered in this article)
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