RUC delays alerting nationalists
BY LAURA FRIEL
The lives of hundreds of nationalists are being put at risk because the RUC is dragging its feet about warning them that their names have been discovered on a loyalist death list discovered at Stoneyford Orange hall in South Antrim last week. Speaking at a Stormont press conference, Sinn Féin Assembly member Conor Murphy said that only a handful of people out of 300 named in the documents had been told by the RUC that their lives were in danger. The Assembly member said only a few people in Belfast had been informed and he knew of no one in South Armagh who had been contacted by the RUC in relation to the Stoneyford files.
The lack of urgency displayed by the RUC has been further compounded by the ad hoc nature in which even those who have been notified were informed. Gerard Loughlin said he had discovered his name and details were included in the Stoneyford documents after the RUC visited his ex-wife at an address where Gerard has never lived.
Of the few who have been warned, most have had the information relayed indirectly through a relative, ex partner or neighbour. Martin Walsh said the RUC had only spoken to his ex wife. Both men are former republican POWs, Gerard was recently released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Martin was released several years ago.
The details given to those who have been informed are ``scanty'', said Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillor Michael Ferguson. ``The RUC is reluctant to give any more information than confirmation that your name and details are included in the files,'' he says. ``What details they will not divulge.'' A further two Sinn Féin councillors have also been informed of the threat against their lives, Belfast's Alex Maskey and Seán Hayes.
Speaking at the conference, Seán Hayes said his home had been attacked on Thursday night last and he was informed by the RUC the following day that his name was on a death list. Seán said it was ``deeply worrying'' that his house had been singled out for attack only hours before the RUC informed his family that his name and details were in the hands of loyalists.
Meanwhile, Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, whose name is also on the hit list, has been told by the NIO that his life ``is not worth saving''. The residents' representative said the RUC had approached his family last Saturday to warn them of the possible risk to his life.
Four days earlier, NIO Security Minister Adam Ingram confirmed that Gerard's request to be included on the Key Persons Protection Scheme had been rejected. The request for security was denied on the grounds that Gerard Rice's death ``would not affect the maintenance of law and order''.
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