Loyalist threat grows
Nationalists throughout the Six Counties are being warned to be
vigilant during the current upsurge in loyalist attacks and threats.
Arson and bomb attacks by the Red Hand Defenders - a flag of
convenience for members of the LVF - continue unabated. The UVF have
boasted that they have re-armed and Billy Hutchinson, their political
representative, has issued a veiled threat against tourists and
agricultural interests in the 26 Counties. In Portadown the loyalist
siege of the nationalist Garvaghy Road continues with attacks and
threats of an escalation over the next months.
These are the actions of people who resist the type of structural
change that is needed if peace and justice are to achieved.
The threats and violence are against a background of the continued
refusal by the Unionist political leadership to implement the Good
Friday Agreement. The hard-won negotiations charted a way out of
conflict, a transitional period when equality and justice could be
achieved. It seems now that those concepts are proving hard for those
who wish to retain a position of supremacy. The violence, threats and
intransigence are the working out of this attitude of supremacy.
Those who wish to turn the clock back must be faced down. The
position is clear. The Agreement must be implemented.
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