`Spypost' to be demolished
A demonstration against British military bases at Cloghogue
checkpoint outside Newry on Sunday will include the demolition of a
`spypost'.
The large mock-up spypost will be demolished in a spectacular
demonstration of people's feelings against the British bases which
cover the area.
The demonstration is organised by the South Armagh Farmers and
Residents Committee and speakers include the Chairpersons of Louth
County Council and Newry and Mourne Council, Micheál O'Donnell(Fianna
Fáil) and Brendan Curran(Sinn Féin).
Other speakers include Sinn Fein TD Caomhighin O'Caolain, Kate Fearon
of the Women's Coalition, Bernard Moffat, General Secretary of the
Celtic League and an expert on health risks associated with low level
radiation, as will Declan Fearon, Chairman of the SAFRC.
Marchers are to assemble at Killeen Bridge on the main Newry to
Dundalk road, at 2pm.
According to Toni Carragher of SAFRC Cloghogue was chosen as the site
of the demonstration because ``last year Mo Mowlam and RUC chief
Ronnie Flanagan announced to the media that the Cloghogue checkpoint
was coming down. In fact at the meeting with our group Mowlam told us
that `as we speak' the checkpoint was being dismantled. This was for
media consumption but the reality is that except for a corrugated
shed the checkpoint has not been dismantled.
``Indeed there has been a marked increase in the number of British
Army/RUC patrols on the ground and in the number of mobile
checkpoints and helicopter flights,'' Mrs Carragher said.
Declan Fearon said there has been 3379 helicopter flights into
Glassdrummond Lookout Post between 20 July 1997 and 16 January 1999.
South Armagh remains the most heavily militarised area in Western
Europe. In an area just 15 miles by 10 miles there are more than
twenty British Army bases and spypost supporting constant military
patrols and hundreds of helicopter flights. Currently, South Armagh
Farmers and Residents Committee are examining evidence that clusters
of cancer cases are being found in the areas around these bases.
South Armagh's 23,000 inhabitants are ``the most stopped, searched and
spied-upon people on earth,'' said Declan Fearon. ``And all this is
happening nine months after the Good Friday Agreement heralded a new
dawn of peace in Ireland. Under the terms of the Agreement the
British Government is supposed to have published their strategy for
demilitarisation. Instead, construction work on spyposts is
continuing and the people of South Armagh continue to suffer the ill
effects of the British military presence.''
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