Republican News · Thursday 28 March 2002

Doherty slams Para harassment in Tyrone

West Tyrone Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty has hit out at the antics of the Parachute Regiment at a roadblock near the village of Greencastle in County Tyrone on Tuesday 27 March. Omagh District Sinn Féin Councillros Seán Begley and Seán Clarke were among a large number of local people stopped and harassed by a large contingent of the British Army's infamous Paratroop Regiment

The local MP spoke out after the pair were detained for 25 minutes, preventing them from conducting their daily constituency business and after other local people faced similar delays.

"People in the area are incensed that this unwanted regiment brought traffic to a virtual standstill on this road and conducted what can only be described as a vindictive exercise of intimidation of the local community for a long period," said Doherty.

"Members of this regiment ordered my two Sinn Féin colleagues out of their car so that they could carry out a full search. The councillors were in the middle of dealing with constituency matters and saw this as a blatant case of politically motivated harassment. A stand off developed and the Paras said they would be calling the RUC/PSNI to carry out the search. No members of the force materialised and the Paras eventually let the councillors go on their way after 25 minutes. Other local people had similar experiences at this roadblock that was manned by up to 20 troops.

"People in this area are rightly asking what purpose the presence of heavily armed and aggressive members of this infamous regiment in this rural part of Tyrone serves, other than to antagonise the local community.

"This once again highlights the need for genuine demilitarisation to take place instead of highly publicised tokenism."