Republican News · Thursday 28 November 2002

Drunken thugs attack homes in Waterside

Sinn Féin councillor Lynn Fleming condemned a sectarian attack on Catholic homes and vehicles in Violet Street at the bottom of Chapel Road in Derry's Waterside.

In the early hours of Saturday 23 November, a number of loyalists armed with metal traffic signs emerged from a laneway that runs from Dungiven Road into Violet Street and began attacking a number of Catholic homes and three cars, one of which belonged to a Protestant family.

Fleming told An Phoblacht that the loyalists had been drinking in a number of Protestant bars on the Dungiven Road before they launched the attacks on Violet Street. Residents also expressed their fears that gas cylinders, being stored in a laneway at one of the bars, could have been used in the attacks.

"A major problem is that this laneway provides an easy access and escape route for these drink-fuelled attackers. This has to be tackled immediately."

Meehan accuses unionist paramilitaries

trim Sinn Féin councillor Martin Meehan speaking outside the charred remains of Laverty's Bar in Randalstown County Antrim, has accused unionist paramilitaries of responsibility for an arson attack on the pub in the early hours of Tuesday morning 26 November.

"This arson is the most recent in a long series of attacks against perceived nationalist owned commercial premises and indeed the nationalist communities of both Randalstown and Antrim Town," said Meehan.

Phoblacht has learned that a resident of Randalstown witnessed an altercation between the PSNI and British Army fire-fighters, who accused the PSNI of not securing the premisses as a second fire broke out in the building some hours later.

The resident believes that the second fire was caused by an incendiary device the PSNI missed during their search of the pub after the initial fire was extinguished.

Meehan, refuted claims by unionist politicians and indeed the bar's owner, Sheila Hillen, that the attack was not sectarian.

He called on unionist politicians "to come down from their ivory towers and look at the reality of this situation. There have been 15 sectarian attacks launched by unionist paramilitaries on the Mariner's public house on the same street as this latest attack in the last year and a pipe bomb exploded at Laverty's bar in May of this year. Pipe bombs were also left at an old people's home on the same night."

The Sinn Féin man accused SDLP politicians of "burying their heads in the sand by refusing to tackle the scourge of sectarianism in South Antrim".

While at the scene of Tuesday's attack, Meehan was accosted by PUP representative Ken Wilkinson, who accused him of "political opportunism". He was also harassed by a member of the PSNI, who threatened to have him forcibly removed from the scene if he did not move away.

"I have been calling for a civic forum to be set up in the Antrim area so all political and community leaders can bring an end to the nightmare for nationalists in this area," said Meehan. "As usual, because Sinn Fein is calling for this forum, politicians of all sides are burying their heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge these pogroms are continuing. I have even asked Mediation Network to hold meetings about these problems and yet again the unionists are deafening by their silence."