From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
R
Subject: [Peoples War] Sinn Fein: AP/RN 15-17 Sept 2001
IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
Saturday-Monday, 15-17 September, 2001
1. HUME QUITS AS SDLP LEADER
2. SF redoubles efforts to rescue peace process
3. Taxi driver escapes loyalist murder bid
4. Attacks on Irish Muslims as world braces for war
5. Cork councillor barred by Irish naval authorities
6. Book Review: Lurgan Champagne and Other Tales
7. Feature: Making a difference
8. Analysis: Attacks: an affront to morality of freedom fighters
9. Analysis: Our children are not barter
10. Irish American Unity Conferece - Annual Convention
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> HUME QUITS AS SDLP LEADER
John Hume today announced that he is quitting as leader of the
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the second largest
nationalist party in the Six Counties.
His resignation comes as the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is once
again in grave jeopardy this week, with a new deadline this
weekends for the selection in the Assembly of a First Minister.
With little sign of a resolution of the outstanding issues in the
implementation of the Agreement, coupled with insatiable unionist
demands for IRA arms decommissioning, increasing chaos in the
peace process appears likely.
Although the resignation had been predicted for some time, the
announcement by the 64-year-old MP was not expected in such an
critical week for the North's peace process. The move raises
expectations that fresh Assembly elections may be the likely
outcome of the continuing stalemate in the political process.
Mr Hume has been leader of the SDLP since 1979 when he succeeded
Gerry Fitt, now Lord Fitt.
The veteran nationalist politician, who first came to prominence
in the 1960s as a leader in the civil rights movement, played a
key role in starting the current peace process.
With Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, he helped to formulate the
Irish peace initiative which kick started the process and led to
the historic IRA cessation of 1994.
The high point of his career was the award of the Nobel Peace
Prize in December 1998 (jointly with Ulster Unionist leader David
Trimble) following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement
earlier that year.
Last year, Mr Hume stood down from the Belfast Assembly due to a
heavy workload and increasing concerns about his health.
He is the second leader of a six county political party to resign
in the last two weeks after Sean Neeson's decision to stand down
as leader of the small moderate unionist Alliance Party.
The SDLP's veteran deputy leader Seamus Mallon is considered the
most likely candidate to succeed Mr Hume at the party's annual
conference in November, although the party might be tempted to
choose a younger candidate for the longer term.
The resignation, which had been expected for some time, follows
the results of the recent Westminster and local government
elections which saw Sinn Fein outstrip the SDLP as the largest
nationalist party.
Surrounded by his party's Assembly team at Stormont, Mr Hume
announced he was planning to retire as party leader at the SDLP's
annual conference in November.
He explained: "In recent years I have had serious health problems
and it is now necessary for me to cut down on my work load.
"It is my intention, however, to carry on my work, as a public
representative at European and international level."
He said it was "critically important" on an economic front that
the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was implemented fully.
"Economic development is central to our challenge of working
together in that Agreement of the people."
Mr Hume revealed he had been considering resigning for some time
but he had reached a final decision during the course of last
week. He denied that he was responding to pressure from within
his party for him to stand aside.
Mr Hume also appealed to all parties and the two governments to
do all they could to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement was
fully implemented.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> SF redoubles efforts to rescue peace process
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said his party has
rededicated itself to restarting the stalled peace process.
"We in the Sinn Fein leadership have rededicated ourselves to the
task of resolving the outstanding problems that confront us all
in our search for a lasting peace in Ireland," he said yesterday.
Mr Adams was speaking after his party's first Ard Comhairle
[leadership] meeting since the tragic events in New York,
Washington and Pittsburgh.
He called for the political parties and the two governments to
redouble their efforts to deliver a lasting peace to Ireland.
It is now almost six weeks since the suspension of the Belfast
Assembly following the resignation of Ulster Unionist party
leader, David Trimble. Talks are to take place tomorrow between
Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, on the latest efforts to put a deal together
to prevent a crisis in the institutions similar to that which led
to the previous suspension.
The MP for west Belfast said: "I told the Ard Comhairle that the
most fitting tribute that Irish people can make to the memory of
all those who were so tragically killed in the USA this week is
to redouble our efforts in making our peace process work."
Extending his sympathies to the relatives of the dead, the Sinn
Fein leader confirmed that people he had met at an event at the
World Trade Center were thought to be among the thousands killed.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly and a party
delegation met Irish minister for foreign affairs, Brian Cowan
yesterday in Dublin. The meeting addressed Sinn Fein concerns on
policing and issues surrounding the forthcoming Criminal Justice
review and the imbalance of representation on the Human Rights
Commission in the Six Counties. He also raised the ongoing
blockade of the Holy Cross Primary school in Ardoyne.
Mr. Kelly was accompanied by Dr. Dara O'Hagan MLA Upper Bann,
Aengus O Snodaigh, Dublin South Central and Councillor Sean
Crowe, Dublin South West.
Speaking following the meeting Mr. Kelly said:
"The Good Friday Agreement requires a new beginning to policing.
That is a policing service which is representative, free from
partisan political control and accountable. The British
government Policing Act does not meet these requirements or the
requirements of the Patten report.
He pointed out that no party had claimed that the new beginning
had been achieved - "not the British government and certainly not
the Irish government or the SDLP". He said everyone accepted
that there was a gap to be closed, even if there was disagreement
on exactly what constitutes that gap."
"The British government Implementation Plan is designed to
implement that flawed Policing Act. It does not and cannot amend
the legislation. The Policing Board, the Chief Constable or
political parties cannot amend this legislation. The only people
who can amend the Act are the British government.
"The SDLP and the Irish government's support for the British
government's policing proposals have effectively sundered the
broad consensus that had emerged on this issue - based on a
desire to see the Patten recommendations fully implemented. This
is a matter of grave disappointment.
"I trust this will only be a temporary difficulty and while I
respect the right of both the government and the SDLP to take up
the new position they have now embraced, I believe that this is a
premature move. It would have served the national interest and
indeed the Good Friday Agreement better if the British government
had been faced with a unified demand for it to fulfil its
obligations on the issue.
"For instance Patten required that Human Rights abusers in the
RUC be dealt with. The British government has refused to create
a means for doing this. Instead they have granted a virtual
amnesty to those involved in torture, collusion and other abuses.
"Those who have abused Human Rights in the past simply transfer
wholesale into the new policing service. There are no powers to
weed out these people or to deal effectively with those who abuse
human rights in the future. Instead the British government has
chosen to formally given protection in the future to people like
Special Branch agents and the Special Branch handlers involved in
human rights abuses."
He said Sinn Fein would continue to highlight its "substantive
concerns" to get these issues resolved.
"We are committed and determined to achieve an acceptable and
accountable police service representative of the community as a
whole."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Taxi driver escapes loyalist murder bid
The UDA, using the cover name Red Hand Defenders, have claimed
responsibility for the attempted murder of a Catholic taxi
driver.
This latest attack indicates that loyalist murder gangs are
intent on maintaining a campaign of sectarian terror against the
broad nationalist population in the absence of any British action
against them.
The taxi driver was in his car at Parkmount Terrace on the Shore
Road in north Belfast on Saturday morning when a shot was fired.
The car was hit but he escaped unhurt.
The RUC were in the area but failed to apprehend the two men who
carried out the attack.
Loyalists lured the man to the area by a bogus pick-up call for a
taxi.
Taxi drivers have now been warned of the particular threat to
their lives from the activities of the UDA.
Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Danny Lavery again criticised the
British government for its failure to acknowledge the collapse of
the UDA's professed "ceasefire".
"While nationalists continue to undergo nightly attacks by this
organisation, the British Secretary of State John Reid continues
to maintain his silence on the state of the UDA's ceasefire," he
said.
RUC HARASS OBSERVERS
Loyalists have resumed a protest outside the Holy Cross primary
school in north Belfast as continuing efforts to broker an
agreement to the dispute took place at the weekend.
A major RUC operation was once again needed yesterday as Catholic
children and their parents were escorted to the school, which is
situated in the loyalist Glenbryn estate.
Around 100 protesters lined the route to the Holy Cross on the
Upper Ardoyne Road. A smaller number turned out to intimidate
the parents and children on Friday despite promises of a break to
mark the attacks in the U.S.
On Monday, the RUC harassed adults who were accompanying children
to the school. The RUC prevented one international observer from
accompanying parents to school, harassed another taking
photographs, and tried to stop a parent going back from the
school along the route she had come.
The RUC claimed to be acting on behalf of the loyalists who
objected to parents wearing sunglasses on their way to school.
Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan said the dispute was
"deeply traumatising" for the children.
She added: "There was no cause for this on the June 19 [when the
blockade started] and there is no cause for this today."
PETROL BOMBS
Meanwhile, a house in Lisburn, County Antrim, was attacked with a
petrol bomb on Saturday night. The kitchen of the house on Donard
Drive, which was unoccupied at the time, was extensively damaged
in the attack.
Meanwhile, in Craigavon a telephone warning which was received on
Saturday evening has been declared a hoax. The warning claimed
that a device was thrown into the rear garden of a house in the
town.
Suspicious objects planted by loyalists in Derry and Limavady
last week were also declared hoaxes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Attacks on Irish Muslims as world braces for war
The headquarters of the Islamic community in the North of Ireland
has been attacked, while Muslims across Ireland have received
death threats following the slaughter of up to 6,000 civilians in
last week's attacks on New York and Washington.
As the US and the Taliban government of Afghanistan continue
preparations for war, members of the 20,000-strong Islam
community in Ireland have come under attack.
Muslim parents are reporting rising intimidation against their
children at school, according to the president of the Belfast
Islamic Centre, Jamal Iweida.
Bricks were hurled at a mosque containing the offices of the
Belfast Islamic centre on Saturday morning. No-one was hurt in
the attack, but a number of windows were smashed.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the Islamic fraternity in Dublin said
attacks had also been taking place there, while the mosque there
had experienced an increase in abusive telephone calls.
The incidents came as Amnesty International warned of growing
evidence of attacks against Muslims and people from Middle
Eastern communities around the world.
Mr Iweida said Muslims were appalled by the immense loss of life
in America, pointing out that many Muslims were known to have
perished in the attacks.
Mr Iweida, who is married to an Irish woman, said: "We feel the
grief of the families involved as we know there are many Muslims
killed. When a terrible event such as this happens it does not
differentiate between Muslims or any other religion."
"Whether the criminals who attacked America are Muslim or not, it
is they who should be punished and not the whole world faith," he
said.
"The media is reporting that Muslim terrorists have carried out
the attacks. But other religions are responsible for terrible
atrocities throughout the world. In Kosovo Christians were
responsible for killing people, but they are not called Christian
terrorists. I'm sure the great majority of people here understand
our position. We feel that people who issue threats do not
represent society in Northern Ireland," he added.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Cork councillor barred by Irish naval authorities
Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member Martin Ferris has slammed the
actions of the 26-County naval authorities in barring two members
of Sinn Fein from working at Haulbowline and said he would be
raising the issue at governmental level. One of those barred is
Cork Corporation Councillor Jonathan O Brien.
"I find it difficult to believe in 2001 that the naval
authorities would behave in such a reprehensible way, depriving
two good workers of employment on Haulbowline because they are
members of Sinn Fein," said Ferris.
At the end of June, subcontractor John Callaghan submitted the
names of those who would be working on the contract. He commenced
work on Tuesday 21 August and and for the next week and a half
there were no problems. Then, on Thursday 30 August, the main
contractor was told that two men, John Callaghan and Jonathan
O'Brien, were not to come back on site again. No reason was
given. Subsequent inquiries by the men, their union (The
Operative Plasterers and Allied Trades Society of Ireland) and
the main contractor failed to elicit a reason for the men's
dismissal from Haulbowline.
"There was no problem with their work," said Martin Ferris. "The
only thing they have in common is their membership of Sinn Fein.
Jonathan O Brien is a very able Cork Corporation Councillor,
active on five important committees, yet the navy does not
consider him suitable to work on their base.
"This is a clear example of political discrimination. Sinn Fein
will be using every remedy possible to have these men reinstated
and an apology made to them. Sinn Fein has been in the forefront
of the fight against discrimination in the Six Counties and we
will not allow our own members to be discriminated against in
Cork."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Book Review: Lurgan Champagne and Other Tales
Lurgan Champagne and Other Tales
Edited by Kate Fearon and Amanda Verlaque
The Women's Press
#4.99
Lurgan Champagne and Other Tales is the latest of three books
edited by Kate Fearon, political advisor to the Women's
Coalition, and Amanda Verlaque. This lighthearted offering
consists of 26 animated chronicles, all written by Six-County
women just out of their teens, and gives unique access to voices
rarely heard.
The stories are taken from all sections of the community and
illustrate how growing up amidst heated passions, militirisation
and violence has affected the lives of the contributors.
What you will find is strong opinions, though at times a little
disconcerting of how the next generation's views have been formed
by events. Young women tell their stories with a passion that
graphically demonstrate how the conflict continues to underpin
their identities, concerns and cultures." Like everywhere else,
normality is what you grow up with. Like seeing soldiers in my
back yard was normal."
What the book achieves is to move you to laughter at times with
bizarre juxtapositions of teenage drinking amid sniper fire. In
all, this presents a fascinating and useful social history of
first person accounts. Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Traveller,
disabled and others count themselves among the contributors. For
myself, I welcomed the fact that the age-old paradox of Catholic
and Protestant strife was expanded upon leading to a realisation
of the other existing maligned sections of the community in the
North. Ultimately it also helped to emphasis what ills still
exist in Six-County society.
BY GERRY KELLY
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Feature: Making a difference
BY CHRIS O RALAIGH
So there we were, amid the steady rain and blustery wind, braving
the elements for Ireland, for Sinn Fein and for the Turkish
hunger strikers.
Well, it wasn't quite that dramatic, but for a bunch of
supposedly street-wise Ogra Shinn Fein activists, we could have
picked a more protected environment for our 48-hour solidarity
fast.
The Dublin offices of the European Parliament were our target,
and after convincing building security that Yes, we did take his
threat of Garda intervention very seriously, we set up our
protest table. Steady as a rock was our little table; just don't
lean too hard on it when you're signing our petition please.
The suits looked mildly surprised at this gentle intrusion into
middle-class Dublin, but we remained unperturbed. "Sign our
petition" "Help save the lives of the Turkish hunger strikers!"
Suit No. 1 strolls past, pretending to check the time on his
watch in a desperate bid to avoid eye contact with these
idealistic youngsters. Suit No. 2 stops. "So what's this hunger
strike all about then?" I take a deep breath and launch into the
spiel that I'm to become all too familiar with over the following
days. The F-type prisons, inhumane conditions, 24-hour lock-up,
and isolation. I give him both barrels.
Visibly surprised, he signs our petition - "Fair play to youse
lads" - and then he drops a pound coin into my almost empty cup
of tea. And he's off, his fist clenched tightly around a leaflet
advertising the weekend's Turkish hunger strike rally.
This scene was repeated numerous times over the next 48 hours.
To be honest, I was surprised at the level of positive reaction
we encountered. After collecting our 300th signature, I started
to feel my spirits lifted. We were making a difference here. And
then I thought of the hunger strikers in Turkish prisons, the
life-blood, but never their spirit, slowly slipping away.
I looked around at the young faces next to me and I felt proud.
Proud to be a member of Ogra Shinn Fein.
By the time our protest was over, some of us hadn't eaten for
nearly two days, had hardly slept and were shivering with cold
and again I felt a sense of pride.
Hundreds of leaflets, hundreds of signatures and hours of
explaining and arguing had made difference. Of that I felt
assured.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Analysis: Attacks an affront to morality of freedom fighters
By Jim Gibney
Since the killing of thousands of innocent people by suicide
pilots in America last Tuesday week ago my mind has been
tormented in trying to make sense of it all. I don't think I am
alone in that regard. It has been a very depressing week watching
the horrific scenes on television and listening to the heart
wrenching tales from the relatives of those who were killed.
It has been the main topic of conversation everywhere I've been.
The enormous loss of life is incomprehensible for people. It
seems as if the human mind can't absorb the reality that in
downtown New York, a fun city for most people, there is a mass
grave with 5000 bodies inside it.
The impact of this outrage is immeasurable in human terms, in
terms of grief and coming to terms with it. We lost over three
thousand people in the last thirty years of conflict in this
country.......thirty years.....in less than sixty
minutes.....sixty minutes....almost twice as many people were
killed in New York and Washington. And although north America has
a population of 250 million people and Ireland's population is
roughly five million the fact that we witnessed live on TV the
death of 5000 people means that each one of us is personally and
directly involved and affected.
We didn't personally know most of those who died in the conflict
here. We learned of their deaths through the media. We may have
seen their funerals on TV but we didnit witness their deaths.
That is not the case with those who died in America.
In the comfort of our own homes we experienced one of our worst
nightmares unfolding on the little black box in the corner;
control of one's life being brutally taken away by complete
strangers, while trapped in an aeroplane travelling at hundreds
of miles an hour into a tower block filled with thousands of
people, helpless, in the face of imminent and gruesome death.
There is nothing that I have lived through and participated in,
in the last thirty years of conflict, which can be used as a
reference point to help me logically and sensibly understand the
motivation of those who planned and carried out the attack.
It's not that I am not broadly familiar with the arguments. In
simple terms Washington's foreign policy, in the Middle East,
particularly in Israel/Palestine is the backdrop against which
those who planned and carried out this attack think and act.
But that is not an acceptable argument to me. The attack last
Tuesday was an act of calculated mass terrorism, which
principally targeted and deliberately used innocent and
unsuspecting people who are not at 'war' with those who carried
out the attack.
During the war in the six counties people on all sides were on a
'war footing' at least in psychological terms. As a society our
defence mechanisms were in place and came into play at times when
shocking events occurred and there were many. Had those Americans
who died and their relatives been at 'war', they would have had
extreme difficulty dealing with the human consequences of this
attack. It will be even more difficult for them given the
normality of their society.
I am very firmly of the view that the actions and the results of
those actions in New York and Washington have no place in the
world of resistance to oppression. Those who carried out the
attack, whatever their background, have no grounds on which they
can justify their actions. Those who carried out the attack,
whatever the condition of their lives, and the lives of the
people on whose behalf they acted, have stepped outside a moral
frame for resistance movements. Those who planned and carried out
the attack, whatever their ideology, have done a grave disservice
to the cause they believe in and to genuine causes around the
world.
They have provided a platform for people who will divide the
world up into 'baddies and goodies'; those who stand for
'democracy', however unworthy it is and those who stand for
'terrorism'.
Never before in my experience and understanding of people
struggling for their liberation over the last century, whether it
was on the continents of Africa and Latin America, in Asia or
closer to home, have the power elite been in such a position as
they are today, courtesy of people who claim to be freedom
fighters.
I've supported the IRA all my life. Not unconditionally,
especially at times when I thought the IRA stepped over what for
me is an acceptable moral line. Because I believe there has to be
a moral code for those involved in wars of liberation. And as far
as I am concerned those who fight to end injustice and are forced
to use arms to end that injustice must ensure that the moral
context within which they operate is of a higher standard to the
ethos of those they oppose. Even if that means the tactics they
employ are restricted thereby delaying the day of liberation for
the oppressed. That is a preferable outcome to the one visited
upon the world on Tuesday 11th September.
I am opposed to the argument that the 'end justifies the means'.
And I know that the experience of history teaches us something
entirely different. But no one irrespective of what cause they
serve and no matter how noble a cause it is, should debase
themselves or others to the point where innocent people are the
deliberately chosen targets... where innocent people's lives are
used as the primary vehicle through which a cause is advanced.
There were many occasions during the last thirty years of
conflict when the IRA unintentionally killed innocent people.
Their willingness to accept responsibility for these killings and
to apologise to their relatives helped to create the moral
context for republican activists and supporters within which the
IRA primarily operated. Of course to the relatives of those
killed this matters little. They had lost a loved one at the
hands of the IRA. That is all that mattered to them and correctly
so.
But for the IRA activists, particularly those who were young, the
IRA leadership established an acceptable moral framework within
which the IRA conducted itself. There was of course times for me
when the IRA stepped outside its own framework, and on these
occasions the pressure of an angry people, many their own
supporters, forced them to abandon such tactics.
There were also occasions over the last thirty years, especially
at times of great repression from the British Crown forces in
the early years of the conflict, during bouts of intense
sectarian attacks from loyalists on Catholics and during the
hunger strike of 1981, when republicans were demanding excessive
action by the IRA.
But wiser council prevailed. And the IRA displayed the leadership
expected of them. That is what the people, on whose behalf
liberation movements act, expect and are entitled to.
Liberation struggles will of course continue because, as the
famous phrase goes, 'all politics is local' and therefore all
struggles are local and contain their own dynamic, but in the
aftermath of the attacks in New York and Washington it will be
easier for those inclined to bracket those who struggle for
freedom, justice and real democracy as 'terrorists'.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Analysis: Our children are not barter
By Gerry Kelly MLA
Since the start of the new school term the entire globe has
watched a single image of Belfast. In every corner of the world,
translated into every language, people witnessed what can only be
described as one of the most frightening and depressing episodes
of the last 30 years.
School girls between the ages of four and 11 and their parents
were physically and verbally assaulted, and made to run a
gauntlet of sectarian hatred and violence. Stones, bottles,
curses, whistles, air horns and a blast bomb were the ammunition.
The objective? To harass, intimidate, injure and, in the case of
the UDA, kill Catholic school children and their parents. And if
anyone was in any doubt about this, the UDA, acting under the
name of the Red Hand Defenders, issued death threats.
After two weeks of sectarian hatred and violence on the Ardoyne
Road, much of it orchestrated by loyalist paramilitaries and
defended by some within the unionist political establishment, we
have been promised that this morning the blockade will continue.
Once again Catholic children have to run a gauntlet of bigotry in
an attempt to access their school.
None of what is happening on the Ardoyne Road is very
complicated. It doesn't take long sociological or economic
explanations. It is not a puzzle looking to be solved. It is a
clear and simple case of sectarianism in its rawest and most
unpalatable form.
The blockade against the children is legally, politically, and
ethically wrong.
There is no argument which can be used to justify it, and no
explanation which can be sought to underpin it. Protesting
against school children and their parents is wrong.
If all politicians recognised this, then they should call on the
blockade to end. Anything short of that lets the bigots off the
hook and provides them with political cover for their attacks on
young children. This is a matter of protecting the human and
civil rights of children. Such rights are paramount.
This blockade began at the end of the last school term. Following
a week in which the parents and their children were prevented
from entering their school through the front door by loyalists
and the RUC, an 11-week summer holiday period ensued. During this
time a number of different channels were opened up between the
nationalist and loyalist communities in an attempt to resolve the
dispute.
Parents engaged with loyalist residents through the Mediation
Network for seven weeks. Cross-community contact was initiated
between community workers from Ardoyne and residents in Glenbryn.
Sinn Fein used our contacts in the loyalist community for five
weeks in an attempt to produce some resolution.
In the end, all of these efforts failed, although not for lack of
sincerity or accommodation on the nationalist and republican
side.
Nonetheless, despite the constant failure of discussions to
produce a solution, and despite a series of attacks on the
children and parents in Ardoyne, all sections of the nationalist
community haveput on record their willingness to enter into
dialogue as a matter of urgency. Community leaders, parents,
political representatives and ordinary residents are all saying
the same thing - dialogue is the only way forward to end the
blockade and must resume sooner rather than later.
Many unionist politicians have sought to justify the blockade by
referring to the levels of deprivation, social exclusion and
marginalisation in Glenbryn.
This, coupled with allegations of a continuous assault by
republicans on the homes and people of this community, was
offered as an excuse for verbal and physical attacks on young
children.
We have been told that the violence was wrong but it was a
product of a siege mentality, of a community under attack, in
decline, in retreat.
The arguments offered by unionist politicians from all parties
not only side-stepped the issue of the blockade on the children
and their parents, but actually created the space within which
the blockade and indeed violence could continue.
While unionist politicians have every right to raise and seek to
debate the broader social, political, economic and cultural
conditions of life for all sections of the community in north
Belfast, doing so in an attempt to justify or excuse attacks on
young children is wrong. Furthermore it undermines their own case
and demonstrates to the world that they are indeed using school
children as bargaining chips and leverage in an attempt to seek
the resolution of other issues.
The one indisputable fact in all of this is that school children
from Holy Cross are not and cannot be seen as responsible for any
issue of concern to residents in Glenbryn.
The blockade is not some tit-for-tat sectarian dispute, involving
two warring communities.
This is about grown adults mounting a violent blockade against
young children and their parents.
There is no equivalence between what the children are
experiencing and the problems experienced by residents of
Glenbryn. These are two separate matters. Only those seeking to
justify the blockade are mixing them together.
The blockade on Holy Cross primary school is wrong and must end.
All politicians must support this call.
There is no right to protest against children. There is no right
to harass children. Nor is there any right to use children as
political hostages in arguments about other political or economic
issues.
2001 is the European Year of the Child.
The European Convention of Human Rights clearly places the rights
of children above any right to protest. The Holy Cross blockade
is in breach of the European Convention and is thus illegal.
It is now up to unionist and British politicians to recognise
this legal fact and to use their influence to end this
unjustifiable blockade at Holy Cross girls' primary school.
I started to write this article before the horrendous attacks in
America.
It is true to say that these attacks have affected every Irish
person. People could be forgiven for thinking that what is
happening to the children of Holy Cross is minuscule by
comparison.
The American attacks cannot become a yardstick. Instead of the
UDA/RHD trying to de-escalate the situation, they have attempted
to murder a Catholic taxi driver and have threatened all other
Catholic taxi drivers in north Belfast.
This makes the task of putting public pressure on the UDA to
remove such death threats to taxi drivers, parents and children
all the more urgent.
We wait to hear the voices of the British government, and all the
unionist and loyalist public representatives, who have been
ambivalent or silent up until now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> Irish American Unity Conferece - Annual Convention
Irish and Irish American activists will gather at the Washington
Court Hotel for the 18th Annual Irish American Unity Conference
(IAUC) Convention to review the British Government's failure to
insist upon the immediate implementation of the Good Friday
Agreement as voted on by the people of Ireland and to fulfill
their obligations in the critical areas of police reform and
de-militarization. A few of the other important questions that
will be addressed at the convention are:
* WHY are the British Government and the Ulster Unionists intent
on undermining and attempting to re-negotiate the Good Friday
Agreement as voted on by all the people of Ireland?
* WHY does the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) inform us that the
loyalist cease-fires remain intact? Their own figures indicate
there have been 257 pipe and petrol bomb attacks on nationalist
homes, schools and churches in the north of Ireland this year,
compared to 89 for the same period last year.
* WHY is the U.S. Media unwilling to report the truth in Ireland?
* WHY are the editorial columns in American newspapers saturated
with misinformation directly fed to them by the British
Information Service in New York?
* WHY are they ignoring the activities of the Loyalist Death
Squads?
We will explore these issues with some of the most prominent
experts on the matter - including residents in the communities -
in the hope that the discussion will be the springboard for
actualizing these, goals. Some of the invited speakers include
author Tim Pat Coogan, former Ambassadors Jean Kennedy Smith and
Michael Sullivan, Dr. Richard Haass, key Congressional members,
Professor Dermot Walsh, Professors Brendan O'Leary and John
McGary, Anal McConnell, Mark Thompson, and representatives of
nationalist and unionist community groups.
IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE 18th ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION
2001 October 5th - 7th
" What could be - for all of the people in the north of Ireland -
if the Good Friday Agreement is fully and properly implemented "
WASHINGTON COURT HOTEL - Washington, DC Call the IAUC National
Office at 1-800-947-4282 for Details or http://www.iauc.org
c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
RM Distribution
Irish Republican News and Information
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
PO Box 160, Galway, Ireland Phone/Fax: (353)1-6335113
PO Box 8630, Austin TX 78713, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
