Plastic bullets fired indiscriminately
In Derry on Sunday evening young people challenging the RUC at
Butcher Gate were attacked, with upwards of 1000 plastic bullets
fired. Witnesses described seeing the RUC firing indiscriminately
into the crowd, with most of the injuries occurring before the
serious rioting took place. Nine were admitted to Altnagelvin
Hospital with plastic bullet injuries. Some 30 others, injured
but too frightened of arrest to seek hospital treatment, were
treated in first aid houses. Others went to Letterkenny Hospital
in Donegal.
One young lad of 16 was accidentally injured by a huge stone
thrown by another young person. But it was no accident when eight
RUC men dragged him away and kicked and beat him senseless. Left
with a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and shattered facial bones
amongst other injuries, he was on life support for some time
afterwards. Four people are seriously ill and one may lose an
eye. An eyewitness described seeing one man not involved in any
rioting shot in the eye. ````The side of his face was completely
torn away, and he seemed to just slump to the ground.'' Several
others sustained serious head injuries. As usual most of the
injuries were above the waist, in direct contravention of the
rules governing the use of such lethal weapons.
Councillor Cathal Crumley called again for an immediate and
complete ban on the use of plastic bullets. He said, ``The RUC
fired more plastic bullets on Sunday in Derry than they did in
the whole of their confrontations with Loyalists last year. ``
To further humiliate the nationalist community, the RUC and
British Army worked throughout the night to seal off the City
Centre, blocking all access to it except via Shipquay and
Ferryquay Gates with huge concrete-filled skips welded to every
gate. Traders were outraged - streets traders at Magazine Gate
rammed the blockade there with a vehicle before the concrete set
and temporarily re-opened access. The atmosphere in Derry was
electric. People, denied access to their own city centre, milled
around outside in angry groups, talking to their neighbours.
Older people remembered the pre-Civil Rights days with outrage,
commented with contempt on the prospects of the SDLP in any
future election, and said ``No ceasefire ever again'' to any
republican within earshot. Once again the city could be
identified from a distance by clouds of black smoke rising on the
horizon.
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