UVF link to brutal murder
The sectarian killing of 16-year-old James Morgan was one of the
most brutal to have taken place in nearly 30 years of conflict.
The teenager was found on 27 July, three days after he went
missing from his home in Castlewellan, County Down. His body was
dumped in a water-filled hole at Clough. He was mutilated beyond
recognition.
There is widespread anger in South Down at the way in which the
sectarian nature of the killing was initially masked by the RUC.
Nationalists in the area are adamant that the motive for the
murder was pure sectarianism. James Morgan was killed because he
was a Catholic. Yet the RUC at first said they believed the
killing was not sectarian. On Monday they modified this by saying
that they were investigating a number of motives including the
``theory'' that the killing was sectarian.
Local sources in South Down who have spoken to An Phoblacht have
linked the killing to people with UVF connections.
other cause for anger among nationalists has been the
relatively low-key media and political reaction to the killing.
Those who, if there is the slightest suspicion that republicans
might be involved in a violent incident, immediately call for the
exclusion of Sinn Féin from talks, and the reinforcement of the
decommissioning demand, were largely silent after the killing of
James Morgan. The continuing sectarian killings of Catholics have
not dented the policy of ``no claim, no blame'' in relation to
loyalist groups.
As in the case of Bernadette Martin of Lurgan, killed by
loyalists earlier this month because she was a Catholic in a
relationship with a Protestant, the nationalist community in the
Six Counties is being made to feel that their lives are worth
less both in human terms and in terms of the political price
demanded of those responsible for their deaths.
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