Republican News · Thursday 21 February 2002

Renewed threat to Derry postal workers

Eleven Derry postal workers have been threatened by loyalists. A letter sent to Communications Workers' Union (CWU) spokesperson Charlie Kelly, himself a postal worker, and signed by the 'Young Waterside Loyalists', warned six Catholics and five Protestants that they would be targeted if they came into the Waterside area of Derry. Two of those threatened are Royal Mail managers.

All eleven are named in the letter, which was posted in Derry at the end of January but as it was wrongly addressed, was sent to the returned letter centre in Mallusk,outside Belfast, where it lay for two weeks.

Just before the letter was sent, another Waterside postal worker had been threatened in a call to the Samaritans.

The letter read: "To all Fenian postmen... We don't care what the UDA guarantee to you (a reference to a UDA claim that it had nothing to do with the initial threat to Derry postal workers). We will target any Fenian who dares come into our area. We know that you are all Sinn Féin sympathisers and we will not tolerate being spied on. We know your names. We know your families. We know where you live. Be warned."

Although the RUC/PSNI and some unionist politicians have released statements saying they believe the threat is a hoax, Charlie Kelly of the CWU has called for the threats to end immediately.