Activists confront IMC ‘smear’

An anti-drugs community group in north Belfast have met with the so-called ‘Independent Monitoring Commission’, widely considered to be a mouthpiece for British propoganda.

The Tuesday meeting was agreed after the Concerned Families Against Drugs (CFAD) was labelled as “vigilantes” in its last report.

The IMC said CFAD was involved in violence, including using pipe-bombs.

Spokesman for Concerned Families Against Drugs, Martin Og Meehan, said the group was angry that it had not been spoken to by the IMC before inclusion in the report.

CFAD member Paul Carson was among the delegation of three men who met commission representatives.

“We told the commission a more sinister motive lies behind CFAD being named in the IMC report,” he said.

“CFAD don’t fit in with Sinn Fein’s current agenda and we have mobilised in response to a complete void of policing in our community where drug dealers were acting with impunity.

“On behalf of our community we made no apologies for campaigning but we totally and utterly refuted any allegations that we we’re involved in pipe-bombings or any other attacks.

“Yes, we did picket the homes of known drug dealers and we did so openly

“My own son was attacked because of my involvement with CFAD.

~Drug dealers don’t like being challenged,

“If the well-paid community workers and the police were doing their job right we wouldn’t exist and yet rather than address this we are attacked politically in this way.”

He said it was important to challenge the “smear” as not to do so would have been seen by some as an admission of guilt.

“We hope that the commissioners took on board what we had to say,” he concluded.

Urgent Appeal