Harassment increases
RIR and RUC harassment and attacks on Nationalists in Craigavon
have escalated in recent weeks.
Local man Eddie Breen was followed by an RUC landrover last
Thursday 4 June as he drove home. As the jeep overtook him an RUC
man fired a shot over his car. This was later confirmed by a
security guard at a nearby block of flats. Breen has been
intimidated and assaulted numerous times in the past by crown
forces. He explained that the latest incident occurred when he
was stopped in his car by a joint RUC/RIR patrol. When he
protested at this, an almost daily occurrence, an RIR man punched
him in the face.
Other acts of aggression include firing a plastic bullet in
Drumbeg North, near Lurgan last Thursday 4 June at a group of 8
to 10 year olds playing football. The British soldiers then
laughed and jeered as the children rushed out of their homes to
protest. The previous week another group of young children were
verbally abused by RUC men calling them `Fenian sluts.'
SF Upper Bann Assembly candidate Dara O'Hagan has called for
complete demilitarisation and the disbandment of the RUC. ``These
unionist militias have no positive role to play in the
development of a new inclusive, democratic society,'' she said.
Commenting on the harassment and forcible searching of her
Director of Election, Sinn Fein councillor John O'Dowd, on
Tuesday, 9 June, by a joint British army/ RUC patrol she added
that this treatment of party members is ``totally unacceptable and
will not be tolerated.'' She confirmed that O'Dowd had lodged a
complaint with his solicitor and would be taking the RUC man
involved to court for assault.
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