Constant harassment in Lurgan
``Where's fucking Rosemary Nelson now?... She'll not fucking get
you out of this.'' These words were spoken by a member of the RIR
as he dragged Lurgan woman Cristín McCauley from her car late at
night on 7 October.
She was driving home when she was stopped at the RIR checkpoint.
``It was a frenzied attack,'' she said. ``One of the RIR dragged me
from the car. He was screaming, he kept going on about my
solicitor Rosemary Nelson. They made me stand at the side of the
road and refused to get the RUC or give me a `gold card' (a unit
identification card) when I asked for them.''
When at last the RUC did arrive Christín was allowed to go. She
has since made a statement to her solicitor and a formal
complaint about her treatment.
Coincidentally on the same night, Christín's solicitor Rosemary
Nelson was stopped at another RIR checkpoint and harassed. She
was returning from a meeting in a car driven by a friend when the
car was stopped.
Ms Nelson will meet with UN Special Rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy
this Friday to detail incidents of threat and harassment she has
faced as she represents her clients.
Since the events on Garvaghy Road on 6 July the 3rd Battalion of
the RIR, stationed in the North Armagh area, has been involved in
numerous incidents of harassmant against the nationalist
community, mainly in the Lurgan area.
One law firm alone has recorded over 30 complaints including
serious assaults. One of the most serious occured on 8 July when
a man from the Kilwilkie area was set upon by members of an RIR
patrol.
That same night the RIR were going around Kilwilkie shouting,
``where is the wee bastard whose eye we shot out''; a reference to
13 year old Gavin McKenna who was almost blinded when in April
this year a British soldier shot him in the face with a plastic
bullet.
On 20 August a car belonging to a Lurgan republican had its tyres
slashed while it sat in the grounds of Craigavon area hospital.
An RIR patrol was in the area at the time.
One man who spoke to An Phoblacht, Paul Gillespie, said that he
was stopped and detained for no reason on Saturday 11 October as
he drove into Charles Street. A RIR foot patrol spotted the
Lurgan man who has a history of harassment from this regiment. In
February of this year during a week long curfew in Lurgan's
Kilwilkie estate Gillespie was set upon by an RIR man who
headbutted the young man in the face.
``There was no checkpoint,'' maintained Gillespie. ``One RIR man
spotted me and signalled to one further up the street to stop me.
They held me for about 30 minutes saying that I had not answered
their questions properly. Although I had, and had complied when
they searched the car''.
When the RIR refused to get the RUC and refused to return his
license Gillespie drove home. Shortly afterwards the RUC arrived
at Gillespie's home to return his licence.
Meanwhile both the RUC and RIR have targeted Collie Duffy since
charges of killing two RUC men in Lurgan were dropped three weeks
ago.
Duffy has been stopped and P checked a number of times and his
car searched, but the most serious incident happened on Thursday
9 October on Lurgan's main street when an RIR man spotted him and
walked into the road to block the car.
The RIR searched the car and then asked to carry out a body
search which went without incident until the soldier doing the
search ``yanked up my trousers by the belt. It was pretty sore
around the testicle area,'' said Duffy.
Duffy's wife, daughter and a nephew who witnessed the assault
were in hysterics especially as the car was surrounded by RIR,
with another three manhandling Duffy.
Duffy was arrested and taken to Lurgan RUC barracks and held for
two hours before being released.
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