Republican News · Thursday 7 November 2002

Sectarian attacks in Waterside

Sinn Féin councillor Lynn Fleming has hit out at unionist paramilitaries after sectarian attacks against Catholics in the Waterside area of Derry on Thursday 31 October.

At around 8.15pm on Halloween night, a 20-year-old Catholic man and his 16-year-old Protestant girlfriend sitting in a car had a gun pointed at their heads as eight masked men armed with golf clubs emerged from an alleyway at Winchester Park in the Kilfennan Estate.

The young couple suffered cuts when the windscreen was shattered and the loyalists then made an attempt to pull the young man out of the car. He escaped by driving at speed out of the area. It is understood the man had been previously threatened by unionist paramilitaries.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Waterside, a Catholic man had a lucky escape as two shots were fired at his Milltown Crescent home, also on Thursday night.

He was in his home when he heard activity in the back yard. As he went to investigate, two shots were fired into the house. Two bullets were later recovered from the interior.

increasing number of Catholic families have moved into the Kilfennan area of the Waterside in recent years.

Strabane mother treated like a criminal

A Strabane mother of four had a nightmare experience when a PSNI raiding party brought terror to her Ballycolman home. The 39-year-old single parent, who wants to remain anonymous, described how members of the PSNI kicked in her front door and men wearing boiler suits and rubber gloves ran up the stairs shouting "freeze, nobody move".

"When I asked why they didn't knock the door, they told me they thought no one was at home but the lights and television were on," said the woman.

She was ordered into the kitchen and was informed that her intruders had a warrant to search the house for drugs, money and documentation, but in the event, the PSNI quizzed her about guns and ammunition. "They didn't even have a policewoman in the house and I thought there should have been. It was a very frightening ordeal I felt like a criminal."

Sinn Féin councillor Brian McMahon said the raid was a very heavy-handed act against a young family. He said the PSNI had using the false pretext of looking for drugs when actually they separated the family and took them to different rooms to question them about guns.

"Is this the new police service we are being offered? It is the same RUC thuggish attitude to people," he said. "Those political parties who have told us that this is the beginning to policing are living in cloud cuckoo land."

PSNI harass community workers

The Derry-based Northwest coordinator of the Community Restorative Justice (CRJ) group has told An Phoblacht of ongoing harassment directed at members of his group by members of the PSNI.

Noel McCartney was on his way to a meeting with other restorative justice members in the Creggan area of Derry on Wednesday night 30 October when he was followed by members of the PSNI.

According to McCartney, the PSNI members spotted him in his car and immediately put on their sirens and flashing lights and signalled him to pull in to the side of the road.

"They asked me by name to show them my driving licence and insurance details and not once did they look in the car or anything," he said. "This is just barefaced harassment against members of the Community Restorative Justice group in Derry and are trying to humiliate and embarrass us by the continuing stopping our members for no reason at all."

A number of people have contacted the CRJ offices in Derry to register their disgust at the actions of the PSNI in relation to the harassment and have commented that nothing has changed for the nationalist people of Derry in this so-called new beginning to policing.

"This is a concerted campaign by the PSNI to try to prevent us from doing our work effectively and they are hoping to provoke a response from our members which would allow the PSNI to arrest and charge them," commented McCartney.

Council business must be transparent

Derry Sinn Féin Councillor Cathal Crumley has demanded that the City Council conduct its business in a fully public manner after information concerning the funnelling of grant aid from the local authority was leaked to the press.

The public and press are asked to leave for some elements of council business, but following a series of leaks of information, Sinn Féin is now calling for all business conducted in the council chamber to be open to the public.

"Derry City Council is a laughing stock when it comes to confidentiality and manages to have the worst of both worlds," said Crumley. "There exists a culture of secrecy that pervades the entire work of the Council, while at the same time you cannot open a paper without seeing another leak."

He said he understood some matters have to be kept confidential, such as employment records, tenders and suclike, "however we need to approach council business as being of interest to the public".