SAOIRSE32

IOL

27 prisoners fail to return after Christmas releases

05/01/2005 - 08:28:42

Twenty-seven prisoners who were let out of jail for Christmas have reportedly failed to return to their cells.

Reports this morning said the 27 were among 297 inmates who were given temporary leave over the Christmas period ranging from a few hours to 10 days.

The missing prisoners have been reported to gardaí as “unlawfully at large” and could face fresh criminal charges for failing to return.

However, prison officials are reportedly confident that all those who had failed to return over the festive season will turn up in the coming days.

IOL

Johnny Adair to be released from prison next week

05/01/2005 - 12:32:54

Former UDA commander Johnny Adair is due to be freed from Maghaberry jail next week, according to prison sources in the North.

Security chiefs have refused to confirm when he will be released, but prison sources said he was expected to be freed on January 13 after serving two-thirds of his 16-year term for directing terrorism.

The feared loyalist leader had been released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, but this was revoked two years ago due to his continued involvement in paramilitarism, criminality and a vicious inter-UDA feud.

His former UDA colleagues have already expelled Adair’s family and associates from the North and have made it clear that they will target him if he fails to follow suit after his release.

IOL

Sinn Féin urges speedy return to talks

05/01/2005 - 13:17:09

Efforts to revive devolution in Northern Ireland must be picked up ahead of elections, ministers in London and Dublin were told today.

As unionists waited to see if Chief Constable Hugh Orde will accuse the IRA this week of the £22m (€31m) Northern Bank heist, Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin called on the British and Irish governments to move quickly to build on the progress made in talks involving the DUP last year.

“Sinn Féin are eager to get back down to the business of seeing a deal done and the progress made last year built upon,” he said. “This can only happen on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

“Sinn Féin are not interested in long fingering this process until after elections. We believe that the job can be completed and completed quickly if the necessary political will is there.”

Northern Ireland’s politicians are facing local government elections this year but a British general election is also expected in May.

The DUP and Sinn Féin hope to stretch their lead over the Ulster Unionists and SDLP in both contests.

The political climate at Stormont may also be further tainted if the IRA is blamed by police for the raid on the Northern Bank’s vaults in Belfast city centre on December 20.

Many unionists will be closely watching Mr Orde’s meeting with the chairman and vice chairman of the Policing Board, Sir Desmond Rea and Denis Bradley.

Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell is to table a House of Commons question next week asking the Government about the bank heist.

Mr Campbell’s colleague Sammy Wilson has said Mr Orde should clearly identify who was responsible regardless of the consequences for the talks.

“There must be no holding back by the Chief Constable for fear of the political consequences,” he said.

“If the IRA were involved then the public has a right to know and it is up to politicians to then decide what the political consequences for IRA/Sinn Féin are.”

Mr McLaughlin today said it was vital ministers in London and Dublin speedily re-engage with all of the parties to try and find a way forward.

“If the DUP are not up for this challenge then the process of change must move ahead without them,” he said.

indymedia.ie

**Posted by Amanda K - Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) Wednesday, Jan 5 2005, 2:50pm

arancampaigns@eircom.net address: Po Box, 722 Kilare, Ireland. phone: 087-6275579
dublin / animal rights / press release

For Immediate Release:
5 January 2005

Contact:
John Carmody 087-6275579

Public welcome to come out and support.

BLINDFOLDED ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST BENETTON OVER AUSTRALIAN ABUSE OF SHEEP

Activists Want Retailer to Stop Using Australian Wool Until Mutilation and Live Export End

Dublin- Wearing blindfolds and carrying signs reading Benetton: Blind to Animal Suffering, members of Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) will gather outside Benetton’s St Stephens Green store in Dublin to show potential customers the horrific abuse of lambs and sheep by Australia’s wool industry. The action is part of an intense international campaign launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to convince the retail chain to ban garments made with Australian wool until a gruesome procedure called mulesing (live flaying) and live sheep exports are banned:

Date: Thursday, January 6
Time: 1:15 p.m.
Place: In front of St Stephens Green shopping center

Mulesing is a crude mutilation whereby Australian farmers carve flesh from lambs’ backsides with a pair of garden shears and without painkillers as a cheap way to try to reduce flystrike ‘C’ which is when blowfly eggs hatch into maggots and eat away at the sheep even though more sophisticated, humane blowfly control methods exist. When their wool is no longer the best, millions of sheep are shipped to the Middle East through all weather extremes aboard open-deck, multi-tiered ships. Many sick and injured sheep, treated as mere cargo, are thrown overboard or ground up alive in mincing machines. Many of those who survive the grueling voyage are fully conscious when their throats are slit.

After repeatedly asking the Australian government to end these atrocities, PETA announced an international boycott of Australian wool in mid-October 2004 and has already won the support of prestigious retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and New Look.

The united colors of Benetton are turning to blood red, says ARAN Campaigns Coordinator John Carmody. “If Benetton wants to wipe the blood of millions of sheep off its hands, it must refuse to sell clothes made from Australian wool.”

Activists are urging consumers to boycott Benetton until it pledges to stop using Australian wool and is planning to bombard Benetton with ads and protests around the world to alert the public to the company’s support of cruelty. For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site UnitedCrueltyofBenetton.com.

Similar demonstrations will be taking place this month in Wicklow, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Galway, Sligo, Clare and Carlow.

http://www.unitedcrueltyofbenetton.com

BBC

Security alert at Stormont ends

Stormont parliament buildings

The packages were sent to Stormont
A security alert at the Parliament Buildings on the Stormont estate has ended.

Police took away a number of packages after the alert but they later described them as "non-suspicious".

The packages were removed for examination by army bomb experts about 1410 on Wednesday after the security operation which began about 1030 GMT.

The fire service was also in attendance during the alert.

The packages were not addressed to any specific person.

BBC

Anger over graveyard plans

Residents are opposed to plans for a new graveyard

Residents of a picturesque County Antrim village are angry at plans to build a new graveyard on their doorstep.

Between 200 and 300 people attended a public meeting in Drumbeg on Tuesday to discuss the planned cemetery and crematorium.

Belfast City Council proposes to site the development in the Lagan Valley Regional Park.

Nearly all of the Drumbeg residents are opposing the council’s plans.

“It seems to be very contradictory that the area has been designated as one of outstanding natural beauty and that the planners then come in and propose this mammoth graveyard,” said one resident.

“It is the sheer scale, it is going to be a massive cemetery and crematorium it is going to swamp the village completely,” said another.

“It seems quite contrary to good sense to designate a regional park and then to put what is about a fifth of a square mile of cemetery within its bounds.”

Speaking at the meeting, Tony Hegarty of Drumbeg Residents Association said: “The turn-out shows the depth of feeling of the residents of Drumbeg that this has suddenly arrived on our doorstep.

“We will be gathering a small sub-committee and making our submission to Bmap and we’ll be dealing with our councillors and MP to take this matter forward. This has to be done and submitted by 25 January 2005.”

Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP, who was at the meeting in the village’s parochial hall said the community was very much opposed to the plan.

“It’s a small rural community, practically every household was represented, there was 100% opposition to this proposal,” he said.

‘Vital green space’

“This area has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the boundary of Lagan Valley Regional Park has been extended to include this area.

“Surely it is a contradiction of that proposal to put forward a suggestion that a huge cemetery and crematorium should be relocated right in this area,” Mr Donaldson said.

“The Lagan Valley Regional Park is an asset not just for the city of Lisburn, but also for the city of Belfast. It is a vital green space in what is a very large urban district and we need to protect it.”

Mr Donaldson said that Lisburn should make its own cemetery provision and Belfast city council should find a cemetery somewhere that would not impinge upon the valuable asset which is Lagan Valley Regional Park.

In a statement, a spokesman for Belfast City Council said it had been looking at a number of proposed sites for new cemetery spaces.

“Two sites were put before the Department of the Environment for consideration under the Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan,” he said.

“The department has indicated, in the draft plan, that Drumbeg would be its preferred site and this is now subject to the BMAP consultation process.”

IOL

Ireland observes three-minute silence for tsunami victims

05/01/2005 - 11:57:44

Thousands of people throughout Ireland have taken part in a three-minute silence for the victims of the St Stephen’s Day tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

The initiative, which was part of an EU-wide silence, took place at 11am.

Almost 150,000 people are known to have died in the December 26 disaster, but thousands more are still missing and feared dead.

The body of one Irish person, 27-year-old Dubliner Eilis Finnegan, was found among the dead in Thailand last night. Another three Irish nationals are still missing in the south-east Asian country.

The International Red Cross has estimated that the final toll could reach around 187,000.

Belfast Telegraph

Uproar over cash for feud victim families

By Mary Fitzgerald
mfitzgerald@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
05 January 2005

A government victims’ fund is to pay the families of those killed in internal paramilitary feuds and those killed by the IRA-linked Direct Action Against Drugs group, it can be revealed today.

The decision by the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund has been criticised by some victims groups as an “appeasement to paramilitaries”.

The Belfast Telegraph has obtained a letter outlining the move which was signed by the organisation’s secretary Carolyn McCormick and sent to victim support groups throughout the province.

“Following the recent consultation with victim support groups the fund held strategic planning days on December 2 and 3 to look at the issues raised by the groups,” the letter says, before listing the decisions made by the fund’s board of directors.

These include:

internal feuds: the board decided with immediate effect to ‘pay the families of those killed in internal feuds’;

DAAD deaths: the board decided with immediate effect to pay the families of those killed by DAAD.

The self-styled Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD) group - a cover name for the Provisional IRA - killed more than a dozen alleged criminals and drug dealers in the 1990s.

Willie Frazer, of the south Armagh-based victims group FAIR, slammed the decision to include the families of those killed in paramilitary feuds as a “disgrace”.

He said: “Given that we have lobbied the fund for ages to help genuine victims and have been told that there’s nothing available, this appears to be nothing more than an appeasement to paramilitaries.”

The DUP’s Ian Paisley Jr called for the Government to show ‘proportionality’ in dealing with victims’ families. “If the Government is going to assist in controversial cases like this involving people who may be seen as questionable victims then it must show fairness across the board and ensure that the families of innocent victims are taken care of too,” he said.

The Northern Ireland Memorial Fund could not be reached for comment.

Since being set up in 1999, the fund, which is assisted by the Government as well as corporate and private donations, has received more than £6m in Government aid.

Belfast Telegraph

Orde set to go public on bank raid

By Jonathan McCambridge
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
05 January 2005

Chief Constable Hugh Orde could be poised to break his silence over the Northern Bank robbery, it emerged today.

Speculation is mounting that Hugh Orde is to speak publicly for the first time about the heist in which £22m was stolen after the families of two bank officials were taken hostage.

Police sources indicated today that it is likely the Chief Constable will make a statement in the “near future” but nothing has been organised so far.

Mr Orde has faced growing criticism for his low profile since the robbery.

Yesterday the Belfast Telegraph revealed that the Chief Constable will address a meeting of the Policing Board on January 20 where it is expected he will face tough questions about the police response to the raid.

The Chief Constable will also brief Policing Board chairman Sir Des Rea and vice-chairman Denis Bradley before the end of this week.

The briefing will also be attended by Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid, who is heading the inquiry into the Northern Bank robbery.

A police spokeswoman said the Chief Constable had kept the Policing Board chairman informed about the progress of his investigation on a regular basis.

The robbers stole millions from the vaults of the bank’s headquarters at Donegall Square West on December 20.

The two families had to spend Christmas away from their houses in Poleglass, near Belfast, and Loughinisland, in Co Down, after they were preserved as crime scenes.

The PSNI has said the possible involvement of paramilitaries is a “key line of inquiry”.

But the IRA has denied involvement in the robbery.

The police have carried out a number of searches in west and north Belfast.

Detectives now have a full list of all the stolen notes.

Belfast Telegraph

RIR jobs axe ‘to fall on former UDR men’
McNarry says cuts may start in weeks.

By Chris Thornton
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2005

An Ulster Unionist Assembly member has accused the Ministry of Defence of planning to sack up to 600 Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.

In spite of Army assurances that the RIR remains “an essential component” of security force operations, Strangford representative David McNarry claims the MoD has “scandalous” plans to scrap the soldiers’ contracts.

Mr McNarry said serving RIR soldiers have told him the Army could start the cutbacks in the home service units as soon as February.

And he says only former UDR soldiers will be hit. Mr McNarry claims the contracts lined up for termination were those handed to UDR soldiers who were transferred into the RIR when their former regiment was scrapped.

The MLA claims Army resettlement officers have been told they could be preparing up to 300 soldiers to change their jobs within a single month. He said as many as 600 soldiers could be affected.

“We’re talking about a quarter of the regiment. If those men and women go it could leave us very vulnerable to any terrorist act,” Mr McNarry said. “It would kick the bottom out of security.”

An MoD spokesman said: “The Home Service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment are an essential component of the Army’s support to the police and will continue to be for as long as the police require counter-terrorist or public order support.

“As far as the longer term is concerned, the Government has not come to a final conclusion as to the future of the three battalions.”

Mr McNarry said he is particularly concerned that former UDR soldiers could see pension payments reduced if their contracts are terminated.

He said those soldiers were guaranteed 22 years service when the UDR was dissolved, but said many are still three or four years short of qualifying for a lump sum.

Mr McNarry added that he would be contacting the MoD this week to hear their plans for the future of the regiment. “I will seek assurances from the MoD that these men and women will be able to see out their 22 years of service, ” he said.

Derry Journal

UDA Deny Pipe Bomb Attack

Tuesday 4th January 2005

The UDA last night denied responsibility for leaving a pipe bomb at the home of a Co. Derry Sinn Fein member.

The device was placed outside the home of a Sinn Fein election worker in Kilrea in County Derry.

The man, his wife and three teenage children and several other families who lived nearby had to leave their homes during the alert before the device was made safe by army bomb disposal experts.

Sinn Fein councillor Billy Leonard said the family had a lucky escape.

He said: “The information we have got is that there was a fuse which was burned out.

“It looks to be the genuine article, a real pipe bomb. Obviously we could have been looking at a fatality or injury and that is very, very disturbing and a dreadful start to 2005 in the north.”

East Derry SDLP Assembly Member John Dallat also condemned those who left the pipe bomb.

He said: “Over the years there have been many pipe bomb incidents in the Coleraine Borough. “On occasions these lethal devices have exploded and wrecked homes, leaving people homeless as well as traumatising young children.’

He continued: “Bombs of any kind have no place in any civilised society and I utterly condemn anyone who believes that their use will heal the hurt which has caused so much division and mistrust over many years.”

He concluded: “Anyone with any information about this or any other incidents should give their information to the PSNI without delay.”

In a statement to the ‘Journal’ the UDA denied being responsible for the attack.

The Ulster Political research group who advise the UDA also called on those behind such attacks to stop.

They said: “Violence only serves to bring loyalism into disrepute and gives succour to Sinn Fein and other republican groups who seek a platform for their own cause.”

The loyalist group also rounded on Councillor Billy Leonard who they described as ‘a Lundy, former police officer and Sinn Fein/IRA collaborator’ and said he was in no position to condemn anything as he had said that there was no need for further proof of IRA decommissioning.