32CSM warns on co-operation with PSNI

Hardline republicans in Derry are asking shops and businesses in the city urging not to serve members of the PSNI.

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement says letters will be sent to the premises highlighting what they describe as the “unacceptable behaviour” of the PSNI.

A spokesperson for the group said that, if businesseses continue to provide services to the PSNI, they will stage pickets to “name and shame” shops.

The spokesperson emphasised that the letter was not a threat.

“The Sovereignty Movement will be sending letters to businesses explaining our view on the RUC,” he said.

“It will explain the conduct of the police in terms of stopping and searching children and the families of republicans,” he said.

The spokesperson also said they have been contacted by workers who had concerns about having to serve members of the Crown forces.

“We are aware that staff in some shops have been put under pressure to serve policemen and have been forced to do so by their bosses,” he said.

The 32CSM spokesperson also said the letters could be sent to local schools “to highlight the fact that children area being searched on their way to school.

“This is not a threat and will be done in an above-board way. The letters will contain a contact number that people can call if they want more information,” he said.

SDLP MP Mark Durkan described the development as “appalling”.

“It is a return to the old, futile, sterile Provo-speak of the past,” he said.

“They are trying to tell people that if they engage with police in any way that somehow they are collaborators and that they will be subject to threats and intimidation.

“The people of Ireland, north and south, have rejected that approach and if they are the republicans they claim to be they should abide by the democratic will of the Irish people.”

Gary ‘Donzo’ Donnelly, a spokesman for the 32CSM, said reaction to the move had been “hysterical”.

“These who have a vested interest in upholding British rule whipped up an hysterical re action to a simple letter being sent to schools outlining our concerns about recent cases of harassment and intimidation of school children in Derry,” he said.

Mr Donnelly said the PSNI had searched his children, nephews and nieces.

His 16-year-old daughter Megan and her eight-year-old sister had been made to remain In a downstairs room while the PSNI using video cameras searched their bedrooms. The PSNI searched their schoolbags and told the eldest daugher they would arrest her if she did not stop phoning her father.

“He [the PSNI man] said: “I know who you are calling and he’s giving you bad advice’,” she said.

The incident followed a stop and search operation involving Mr Donnelly’s nephews last week.

Urgent Appeal