From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Ireland: Punishment Attacks At All Time High/ INLA Response To Loyalist Attacks - Irish Times IRISH TIMES 1) 2001 figures show 'punishment attacks' at highest level 2) The sad 2001 calendar of violent Northern deaths 3) INLA warns of strain of loyalist attacks 1) 2001 figures show 'punishment attacks' at highest level ======================================= Figures released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland show there were 331 such assaults and shootings in 2001; an increase of over 25 per cent on the 2000 figure. On average a "punishment attack" took place almost every day. In December, a Dublin man, 27-year-old Mr Derek Leneghan, bled to death after he was shot in the legs in what is believed to have been an INLA punishment attack. Although republicans were responsible for this death, loyalists were believed to be responsible for almost two-thirds of the attacks overall and were blamed for 121 shootings and 91 beatings. Republicans are thought to have shot 66 people and assaulted 53. Punishment attacks take place for a number of reasons. They are often carried out on those accused by paramilitaries or others of "anti-social activity" such as "joyriding" and robbery or drug dealing. At other times the victim may be a criminal or drug dealer who did not pay protection money to a paramilitary group. For most of the Troubles the most common form of attack was shooting but in 1995, assaults, which often involved objects such as breeze blocks, hammers and baseball bats, became the preferred mode. It was not until 2000 that shootings again overtook assaults as the most common form of attack. Last year's figures continued this trend with 187 shootings taking place compared with 144 assaults. Although the number of assaults only increased by 12, the number of shootings leapt by 51, an increase of almost 40 per cent. A police spokesman said the service could not explain why there had been such a large increase in the use of firearms in attacks. In May, it seemed as if the number of punishment shootings would be the highest on record but 1975 remains, by two incidents, the year most shootings occurred. This might not have been the case were it not for the events of September 11th, after which attacks attributed to the Provisional IRA dwindled to almost nothing for the rest of the year. The SDLP's North Belfast assemblyman, Mr Alban Maginness, said he believed the drop-off illustrated that they were centrally managed and had become an embarrassment to Sinn F�in in the new political climate after the terrorist attacks on America. "They were controlled because they wanted to support Sinn F�in and to take the pressure off the republican movement; post September 11th it does not go down well to have such attacks," he said. Although there have been punishment attacks by republicans since then, it is believed that these have been carried out by members of the dissident "Real IRA" and Continuity IRA groups as well as the INLA. Cllr Eoin O'Broin of Sinn F�in said that while he did not doubt the statistics, "any attribution of blame has always been speculative" and rejected Mr Maginness's claims. He said his party was against punishment beatings but blamed a vacuum caused by the lack of a police force acceptable to republicans for providing the environment in which they took place. Within loyalism the majority of attacks are said to be the work of the UDA, by far the largest and most active paramilitary group. Mr John White, chairman of the now defunct UDP, the party which had links to the UDA, said he could not say which groups were responsible for the most attacks. Mr White said he believed the large number of attacks in loyalist areas was due to increased lawlessness there, especially on interfaces with nationalist areas. He said that with an increase in robberies and "joyriding", people wanted "some form of retribution and some times the paramilitaries can deal with it a lot quicker than the police can". Meanwhile, two men were being treated in hospital yesterday after two separate paramilitary-style shooting incidents in Belfast. In the first incident, a 32-year-old man was shot in the leg in south Belfast at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The attack took place on the loyalist Belvoir estate. A man in his 40s was also shot in the legs in the north of the city. The victim was shot in the North Queen's Street area at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday. �The Irish Times 2) The sad 2001 calendar of violent Northern deaths ==================================== Last year much of the political focus was on achieving IRA decommissioning which, quite reasonably, could lead one to believe that most of the violence of the year 2001 was perpetrated by republicans. That was far from the case. The IRA indeed was involved in violence, including suspected murder, but most of the killings were carried out by loyalist paramilitaries. There were 19 Troubles-related deaths in 2001. Loyalist groupings were responsible for 13, while republicans killed four. The UDA in particular flexed its muscles last year, to such an extent that the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, felt he had no option but to declare that the UDA ceasefire dating back to October 1994 was a sham. During 2001 the paramilitary groupings at least paid lip service to their declared ceasefires. While the UDA was involved in many killings it tried to cover its tracks by using the Red Hand Defenders cover name in some of its acts. In a number of cases there was also some blurring of the edges as to whether certain murders were carried out by the UDA or by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) or both, operating in a loose ad-hoc coalition and using the Red Hand Defenders guise. The IRA and the INLA were blamed for four killings, two by each grouping. The IRA, possibly under the cover of Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), killed Paul Daly from Knockbracken in south Belfast in front of his wife and 13-year-old daughter in May. He is believed to have been involved in drug-dealing, as was Christopher O'Kane (37), who was shot dead near his home in the Waterside in Derry in April. Again the IRA is believed responsible, although there was no admission in either case. Another leading drugs figure in Northern Ireland, Frankie Mulholland, was shot dead in December. The Red Hand Defenders admitted the killing, but the UDA is seen as the main suspect. Security sources believe that the INLA, which in its New Year message reasserted that it was on ceasefire, killed Charles Folliard in Strabane in October as he was visiting his Catholic girlfriend. In December Derek Lenehan (27), from Dublin, bled to death after he was tied and shot in both legs at Forkhill, in Co Armagh. Another man survived. The INLA is understood to have carried out the shootings. The first victim of 2001 was 37-year-old George Legge, who was reputed to be heavily involved in the drugs trade. A UDA member, his decapitated body was found in a field in south Belfast on January 6th last year. The UDA was also linked to the death of 49-year-old Trevor Lowry, who was attacked and badly beaten in Glengormley in north Belfast in April. He was a Protestant, but it is understood that his assailants mistook him for a Catholic. In June John McCormick, a 26-year-old Catholic from Coleraine, Co Derry, was shot dead in front of his four children. He had been advised about his personal safety two days before his murder, and again loyalist paramilitaries were blamed. In July the Red Hand Defenders killed two people, one a Catholic and the second a Protestant it thought was a Catholic. On July 4th 19-year-old Catholic Ciaran Cummings from Antrim was shot dead at Greystone roundabout as he was waiting for a lift to work. At the end of July 18-year-old Gavin Brett, a Protestant from Glengormley, was gunned down as he stood chatting with a group of mostly Catholic friends. While the Red Hand Defenders claimed the murders the chief suspects were UDA members. The Red Hand Defenders claimed its most high-profile victim in September. Martin O'Hagan, a Sunday World journalist, who spent much of his career exposing the sectarianism and drug dealing of loyalist paramilitaries, was shot dead as he was walking towards his home with his wife. In this case it is believed that the real culprit was the LVF, whose operations Mr O'Hagan had regularly highlighted. Another highly publicised murder was that of former UDA quartermaster and RUC Special Branch informer, William Stobie. He believed he had been given UDA clearance to remain in Northern Ireland. The still running LVF-UVF dispute claimed two victims. Adrian Porter, aged 34, was shot in a house in Breezemount Park, Conlig, Co Down, on January 13th. One month later Graham Marks (37), from Tullyhugh, Tandragee, Co Armagh, who was said to have UVF connections, was shot dead after gunmen burst into his home. �The Irish Times 3) INLA warns of strain of loyalist attacks ============================= In a statement released yesterday, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), the paramilitary group said it stood by its decision to go on ceasefire in 1998 but said it "viewed with increasing concern the escalating attacks on the nationalist working class by hate-filled loyalism". There have been increased sectarian tensions recently in a number of parts of the North , especially north Belfast where there have been regular riots this summer. " We warn that such attacks put an impossible strain on republicans. Unless there is a halt then a republican response is inevitable," the statement said. It was not possible to contact the IRSP last night but Mr Alban Maginness, SDLP Assembly member for North Belfast, said the message was menacing. "It seems to me that it was a threat that in certain circumstances they would take what they term as military actions." The INLA also called for the release under the Belfast Agreement of Mr Dessie O'Hare, one of its most senior and well-known members. Mr O'Hare, at one tome known as "the Border Fox", is serving 40 years for the kidnapping and assault of the dentist Mr John O'Grady. Mr O'Hare has claimed that as a member of the INLA he should qualify for early release under the agreement but his case is still under review by the Release of Prisoners Commission. The commission advises the Minister for Justic which prisoners should be given early release under the agreement. The INLA criticised unionist leaders for "allowing the Protestant working class to be marginalised by the political process". "We call on community activistsand trade unionists withing the Protestant working class to moblisie within that constituency and seize the political leadership from the drug-dealing loyalists of the UDA." The group said it commended the restraint its volunteers "particularly in North Belfast have shown over the least year. They have not been found wanting in defending working class communities. The disciplined and controlled response to provocative and murderous attacks is to be commended." �The Irish Times _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
