British curfew: community punishment
Crown Forces in organised destruction and attacks
against Lurgan
nationalists
``They told us they would teach us a lesson and they certainly
tried to,'' was the view of Sinn Fein's Upper Bann representative
Bernadette O'Hagan when she spoke to An Phoblacht about the
virtual curfew imposed by British crown forces on Lurgan's
nationalist Kilwilkie estate for most of last week.
The curfew began at about 4.30am last Tuesday morning 11 February
1997 when over 1,000 RUC, RIR and British Army personnel moved in
and sealed the area off. At one point over 25 RUC and British
army jeeps were sitting in the car park of the local community
centre at Lurgantarry which they seemed to be using as a staging
post. In the saturation operation the gardens and backs as well
as outhouses in the 400 house estate were searched.
Jeeps sat on the corner of almost every street and the
checkpoints, set up on all routes to and from the estate, were
flashpoint areas as Crown Forces harassed and abused locals
constantly.
This state of siege was to last until around tea time on Thursday
evening. The RUC attempted to justify their anti-nationalist
operation saying they had been attacked in the area. A rocket had
been launched against an RUC patrol on Thursday 6 February and
during the massive search a rifle, pistols and a rocket launcher
were found. However none of this was found in any of the 12
houses raided, two of which were badly damaged. One is said to be
no longer inhabitable. Of the six people arrested none was
charged. All have made complaints about their treatment while in
Gough barracks.
Of the houses raided, that of a young woman who was one of those
arrested had walls dug out and holes dug in the floor. According
to neighbours we spoke to, the woman has been so badly affected
by the experience that she has not returned to her home and has
been getting constant medical attention from her doctor. She did
not want to be interviewed.
Malachy Toman, the brother of Volunteer Eugene Toman, who was
killed in an RUC shoot-to-kill operation in 1982, also had his
home raided.
Toman left home to bury his father Edward who died on Sunday
morning; as he was going to the funeral the RUC were
sledge-hammering their way through his front door and invading
his home. When Toman arrived home after the funeral and
complained about the raid he was informed by the RUC, ``we can do
what we want''.
Also raided was the home of Marie Toman where the Crown Forces
tore off the door to her fridge and ripped kitchen drawers apart.
Ms Toman's two sons Barry and Colm were arrested.
Linked to Portadown by the `new city' of Craigavon, Lurgan is a
medium sized town in North Armagh with a population of about
25,000. It sits on the edge of what was known, in the mid-1970s,
as the murder triangle. Not much has changed.
It was in Portadown where Catholic Michael McGoldrick was shot
dead by the UVF last summer at the height of the Drumcree crisis
although Lurgan has seen its fair share of sectarian killings
carried out mostly by the mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF.
Travelling to Lurgan this week we spoke to some local people who
were on the receiving end of the Crown Forces harassment - the
underlying mood was that of a community being punished and
deliberately so but determined nonetheless not to be bowed.
Young Barry Toman (18) was lifted from his home for the second
time in two weeks. First arrested two weeks ago, Toman was
brought to Gough barracks where RUC Special Branch tried to
recruit him as an informer. They named some local republicans who
they wanted Barry to watch. Released after a day and a half Toman
went to Sinn Féin who advised him to see a solicitor and register
a complaint.
The story did not end there, however. On Monday last, 10
February, Barry was in Lurgan town centre with some friends when
three RUC Special Branch tried to pull him into a white Toyota
car.
``I got separated from my friends at the Northern Bank and that's
when they moved. I heard a car door closing, turned and saw a
Branchman walking towards me. I walked away but they drove the
car past me and pulled in in front of me and the one behind me
tried to push me into the car, but I pushed him off and ran off.
They followed me and tried to get me at the Post Office but I got
away''.
When his family home was raided the next day Barry and his
brother Colm were both taken away and held for four days. Again
the Branch raised the question of informing with the young man
but not as convincingly as the first time. It seems they knew
they were wasting their time.
Barry's father Colie told us that his wife Marie was ``very
distressed at the arrests and worried because the RUC were
targeting Barry. It's a disgrace that they (RUC) can get away
with what they did here last week. We didn't hear too many
churchmen or politicians standing up for our rights'', he
concluded.
Barry Toman has since lost a job he was going for because of his
detention by the RUC.
Paul Gillespie was set upon by an RIR man last Thursday 13 as he
walked along Deeney Drive on his way to his mother-in-law's house
when he was stopped by two British soldiers (500 extra British
troops were brought in especially for the Lurgan operation). As
the British soldiers were asking Gillespie for his details and
were about to search him, ``an RIR man came from nowhere and told
me to open my coat or he'd take it off me. I was complying with
the search and he ordered me to empty my pockets. I put my hands
in to take out my keys and money when he headbutted me''.
Gillespie said the RIR man was wearing a helmet and when he tried
to hit him again he grabbed him in an effort to defend himself.
``Then one of the Brits kicked me on the back of the knee and I
went down, pulling the RIR man with me''.
During the attack the 34 year old father of two was punched on
the face and kicked. He was taken under military arrest to Lurgan
RUC barracks. He was later released without charge.
``A Brit who was in charge stopped the assault but a crowd had
gathered and he was afraid the situation would get out of hand,''
Gillespie said.
It was the role of the sectarian RIR that holds the most sinister
dimension to last week's raids as they threatened nationalists
and warned they would give their details to loyalist gangs.
Collie Duffy, who was released on appeal in September last year
after being wrongly convicted of killing an RIR man, was stopped
by the RIR and warned, ``the next time you see me I'll be wearing
a woolly [a mask]''.
Last Saturday week a taxi driver who has spoken to An Phoblacht
before about a campaign of harassment against him by the RIR, was
stopped and held for over an hour before the RIR then brought him
to the British army search bay at Long Kesh.
It was 5 o'clock on Sunday morning before the man, who wishes to
remain anonymous, was released. Then on Monday he was again held,
this time in William Street, Lurgan. His car was again searched
and the man made to stand in a snow shower for up to an hour.
``It's the same faces all the time and I'm worried about it. One
of them told me that, `one night the `right' man would get in the
back of my taxi,'' he said.
Dwyer Campbell, who was abducted by the RIR on 30 November 1996
and taken to a secluded spot on the banks of Lough Neagh where he
was threatened with death (see An Phoblacht 5.December.96) again
came in for some RIR treatment. He lost a tooth when an RIR man
headbutted him in the mouth.
``It is clear the crown forces were intent on punishing this
community'', said Sinn Féin's Bernadete O'Hagan. ``Despite their
threats to teach us a leeson it is they who need to learn,
nationalists in the Six Counties are off their knees and we're
not going back''.