Republican News · Thursday 15 July 1999

[An Phoblacht]

MP and observer harassed in Portadown

The British Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who was in Portadown as an observer during the Twelfth, has complained of being constantly harassed by the RUC.

Corbyn the MP for Islington North was in the town on Monday 12 July for a day long visit at the invitation of nationalist residents and complained that he and the international observer from South Africa, Heeten Kalan, were being stopped and questioned excessively at RUC checkpoints.

Corbyn, complained he had been stopped and questioned five times by mid-afternoon.

``On each occasion it has been very clear to me the police officers who've stopped me know exactly who I am and exactly why I am here.''

He added that while on a tour of the estate with members of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition he had been prevented from visiting St John the Baptist Catholic Church on the top of the road.

Kalan also claimed he had been singled out by British army personnel and subsequently questioned by the RUC three times over recent days.


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