Massive march planned
The South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee has said that plans
are well advanced for a major demonstration to demand
demilitarisation in the area. The march, on Sunday 7 February, will
be to the Cloghogue Checkpoint on the main Belfast-Dublin road
outside Newry.
South Armagh is the most heavily militarised area in Western Europe.
In an area just 15 miles by 10 miles there are 25 British Army bases
and spyposts supporting constant military patrols - in armoured
vehicles and on foot - and hundreds of helicopter flights every week.
South Armagh's 23,000 inhabitants are the most stopped, searched and
spied-upon people on earth. Land has been taken from farmers and from
Crossmaglen GAA, one of the most famous - and most successful -
gaelic football clubs in Ireland, in order to build spyposts which
bristle with the very latest in hi-tech surveillance equipment.
d all this is happening nine months after the Good Friday Agreement
heralded a new dawn of peace in Ireland. Under the terms of that
Agreement the British Government is supposed to have published their
strategy for demilitarisation. Instead, construction work on spyposts
is continuing - at Drumuckawall mountain on the Louth-Armagh border
building materials were airlifted in just two weeks ago to fortify
the spyposts there and the people of South Armagh continue to suffer
the ill-effects of the British military presence:
- Constant helicopter noise
- Health concerns about the spy equipment used in the British bases
- Invasion of people's privacy
- Thousands of animal deaths caused by low-flying helicopters
- Harassment by British forces of people going about their daily
business
- Detrimental impact on tourism and inward investment
The protest march will include community groups from the border
region and people from throughout the Six Counties, as well as pike
men and women from Wexford and Fermanagh.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)