Irish Republican News · January 14, 2004

DPP man victim of intimidation

Dissident republicans in west Tyrone have targeted a member of the local District Policing Partnership (DPP) for the second time in three days.

A hoax device was left on the windscreen of SDLP man Eugene McMenamin yesterday afternoon.

The attack came after another device addressed to the nationalist politician was intercepted at a mail sorting office. It was one of four suspect packages addressed to District Policing Partnership (DPP) members in the north west.

Mr McMenamin said he had lost count of the number of times he had been targeted since the SDLP party voiced its support for policing and joined the DPPs.

“It must be over 20 times. I have had hoax bombs, I have had my home daubed with graffiti and last week I had a wreath left at my door. What do these people want,” Mr McMenamin said.

Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty has challenged those behind the latest hoax bomb attack to explain their actions.

“Everyone has the right to their political opinion and Eugene McMenamin and his family should not be the subject of such a squalid campaign of intimidation.”

In talks last month, Sinn Féin controversially expressed a readiness to also support the PSNI police and join policing boards as part of a comprehensive deal.

“At a political level, people are at a complete loss as to what the people behind these attacks on Eugene McMenamin and other DPP members are hoping to achieve,” said Mr Doherty.

“In terms of nationalist/republican demands for the creation of a policing service which is free from partisan political control, accountable, representative and all-Ireland in structure, these attacks are not only futile, but also completely counter-productive.

“They divert the focus of attention away from the core issue of the continued control of and manipulation of policing in the six counties by an assortment of securocrat agencies.”

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