RUC attacks Saoirse rally
by Laura Friel
A 73 year-old pensioner and a mother with her 1 year-old child
were amongst a dozen people attacked by baton-wielding RUC
members during a Saoirse rally in Cookstown, County Tyrone at the
weekend.
One person's wrist was broken, a bone in his leg was broken and
his clothes torn from his body, as he was batoned and kicked by a
gang of RUC men. A second person's finger was broken as the RUC
seized his camera and destroyed film taken during the RUC
assault.
The attack happened on Saturday evening as around fifty people
gathered outside Cookstown's RIR base for a rally calling for the
release of all political prisoners. Peaceful protesters were
batoned as they attempted to assist a young man, Mark McKeever,
being brutally attacked by a gang of RUC officers. ``He was
calling out for help,'' said one eyewitness, ``four or five RUC men
were batoning and kicking him.''
The assault began when the RUC moved in to take a camera from a
man taking photographs.
During the vicious RUC attack, McKeever's jumper and shirt were
ripped off, leaving him stripped to the waist. They were still
beating him as he lay on the ground. Mark's wrist and a bone in
his leg were broken. He was arrested and, with a second man,
charged with assault by the RUC.
Local Sinn Fein Councillor Sean Begley described the RUC
behaviour as ``appalling'' and said the attack on peaceful
protesters was an ``open assault on the nationalist people of
Cookstown''.
``The RUC not only launched a brutal attack on people gathered for
a peaceful Christmas rally, they also attempted a cover-up by
destroying photographic evidence of their actions,'' he said.
In February of this year Mark McKeever rejected an RUC approach
to supply information on republicans. Since then he has been
constantly harassed.