A man has been shot dead and a second man injured in a gun attack in north Belfast.
It is understood the shooting happened at Wheatfield Crescent off the Crumlin Road at about 1740 BST.
A loyalist source has told the BBC that the shooting is part of the continuing loyalist paramilitary feud.
The BBC has also been told that the victim was linked to the Loyalist Volunteer Force. The police said their investigation was at an early stage.
UDA may try to buy concessions
By Brian Hutton
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
30 July 2005
UVF mural on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast - BBC
THE IRA statement that it is to end its 36-year campaign of violence is being treated as a “watching brief” by the two main loyalist paramilitary groups - the UDA and the UVF.
Both organisations will hold internal meetings in the coming days to discuss strategy in light of the development.
The UVF has already begun discussions on its future - similar to the internal IRA talks prior to its standing down - but these are on hold because of its deepening feud with the LVF.
A source close to the UVF told the Belfast Telegraph that “a high-level round of consultations” between the leadership and grass-roots members began 12 months ago.
The source said: “The UVF couldn’t make a comprehensive decision on its future due to the activities of the LVF.
“I’d say in a few months time that the LVF won’t be there anymore and once this problem has been dealt with the consultations will begin again.”
He added: “It was decided that if [the IRA] were going to go away the UVF were going to deal with some people before they went away too.”
Some elements within the UVF are trying to nurture community development and politics at a grass roots level.
Although discussions have yet to be concluded it is believed that in the event of “active service units” standing down the leadership would favour retaining some sort of civilian organisation.
One thing that seems certain from the talks to date is that verifiable decommissioning is a non-starter.
“It’s immaterial to what the IRA do because there is still a threat from other militant republicans.
“The arms would be put in the ground and would be left there in the same way the Official IRA did.”
The UDA is understood to be less steadfast on weapons but movement would be unlikely in the absence of UVF commitments. It may try to use decommissioning to ‘buy’ concessions, as it believes the IRA has done.
“If there’s a price to be had for those guns then it’s time for the government to take onboard loyalism’s concerns,” said Davy Nicholl, of the Ulster Political Research Group.
A senior loyalist, close to the LVF, said the group would come together to evaluate and analyse the IRA statement. “If there is no IRA then there is no need for loyalist paramilitaries,” he said. “But the problem is that people are in the paramilitary world today because it is their living.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Peter Hain has warned: “Loyalism will be left behind if it doesn’t step back from the self-destruct mode that it is currently engaged in.”
Zoe Tunney & Áine McEntee
click to view - Fort, Newtonhamilton, South Armagh by Jonathan Olley
The British government is intending to publish an updated schedule for further acts of demilitarisation following the IRA’s unprecdented statement to end the armed struggle.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has refused to state when a formal announcement will be made but well placed sources have indicated it could be as early as Monday of next week.
The British army yesterday started dismantling some of its most notorious outposts in south Armagh less than 24 hours after the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed it was closing and vacating its base in Forkhill, removing one of its observation towers at Sugarloaf Hill near Camlough and removing the ‘super-sangar’ from the PSNI station in Newtownhamilton.
Locals said work on all three sites began yesterday at 9.30am.
For decades, residents living under the scrutiny of the British army surveillance installations have campaigned to have them removed.
Residents have argued the British Army has abused its position and the surveillance equipment to spy on local people.
Campaigners also say they can link the increase in the incidence of cancers in the south Armagh area because of the radio and microwave equipment used by the British Army.
There are eight observation towers on six hilltop sites in south Armagh alone.
The MoD said the decision to remove the bases was part of the normalisation process for the North.
Lieutenant General Reddy Watt, the General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland, said the demilitarisation was taking place at this time because of the IRA’s committment to peace.
He said: “In light of yesterday’s developments, the chief constable and I have decided that a further reduction in security profile is possible.”
An MoD spokesperson would not, however, be pushed on whether the British Army planned future de-militarisation on the back of the IRA statement but confirmed no more military installations had been ear-marked for closure.
“The military situation in Northern Ireland and our role in supporting the PSNI in their security operations is constantly under review,” he said.
He also confirmed the British Army had no plans to pull out of the North completely.
“Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and there is no doubt so long as that is the case there will always be a British Army presence here.
“There will be a peacetime garrison just like every other part of the UK,” the spokesperson said.
There are currently 10,500 military personnel serving in 42 military sites across the north and the MoD said all three bases being pulled down in south Armagh were manned full-time.
Sinn Féin MP for the area, Conor Murphy said: “We’ve been here a couple of times before. The British government have to live up to their side of the bargain.
“This has been 11 years coming, since the IRA’s ceasefire. The landsape has been blighted by the British government for the past 30 years and local people are very keen to see these intallations go.”
Mr Murphy said it was imperative that the demilitarisation process was carried out fully and quickly.
He said: “This should have been done in 1998 at the time of the Good Friday Agreement. And it needs to be as front loaded as possible.
“For example we don’t want them to start taking down bits and pieces all over the place, they should be able to move on as many fronts as possible.”
Eamonn Houston
click to view
A British Army spytower perched on Derry’s historic walls is to be dismantled in response to the IRA’s statement, it emerged last night.
The watchtower has presided over the city’s Bogside for many years and was known as a base for British Army snipers scanning the area.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Sinn Féin party chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin welcomed the move, but also demanded the removal of the largely unmanned PSNI base in the Rosemount area of the city.
“I welcome the fact that the British government has moved quickly to implement the process of demilitarisation so quickly after the historic announcement of the IRA,’ he said.
“Demilitarisation is a major part of the Good Friday Agreement and the British government must fulfill their commitments as soon as possible.
“The news that Masonic British Army barracks is to be removed is welcome indeed and this will get rid of the last British Army installation from the west bank.
“This post overlooking the Bogside is notorious, especially the part on the bastion that was known as ‘murderer’s corner’.
“It was from this post that several people were shot dead by British army snipers, the majority of them civilians.”
A British Army spokesman declined to speculate on the claims last night, but said that everything was being kept under review in tandem with the PSNI.
A fire at a County Down school is thought to have been started deliberately.
The blaze erupted at St Colman’s Primary School in Kilkeel at 0730 BST, and two classrooms were damaged.
Graham Crossitt from the Fire and Rescue service said a number of tables had been set alight in the corridor.
“Two classrooms were smoke logged,” he said. “We believe the fire was started deliberately but this is being investigated by police.”
Local Sinn Fein councillor Martin Connolly condemned those responsible for the arson attack.
“The people responsible for this despicable attack on St Colman’s Primary School have deprived the people of Kilkeel of a vital amenity,” he said.
“Effectively school children who would be entering their final year of primary school in September will be the ones who must suffer.”
30/07/2005 - 12:24:34
A prayer service for the three men murdered in the Miami Showband massacre 30 years ago is being held in Dublin city centre today.
Fran O’Toole, Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty were killed by a UVF gang after a performance at a dance in Banbridge this day 30 years ago.
A number of showbiz celebrities are expected to attend today’s inter-denominational service in the Pro-Cathedral.
A concert to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy will take place at Vicar Street on August 1.
A west Belfast man has appeared at the city’s magistrate’s court charged with rioting in north Belfast on 12 July.
Michael Cole, 20, of Glenside Road, was charged with riotous assembly at Ardoyne.
About 100 police officers were injured as trouble erupted after the return leg of an Orange Order parade. Seven members of the public were also hurt.
Mr Cole is the fourth person to appear in court on charges related to the riot. He was remanded in custody.
During the trouble, petrol and blast bombs were thrown and the police fired plastic bullets for the first time in three years.
Detectives have been studying more than 20 hours of video footage of the disturbance, taken from security force cameras.
30 July 2005
MILLTOWN murderer Michael Stone was at the centre of a gun-toting controversy today after posing for a series of chilling photographs.
These exclusive pictures show the loyalist killer-turned artist standing in a back yard holding a replica armalite.
In another photograph he is pictured with a SA 80 rifle.
One of the photographs shows him aiming the armalite as if he is about to fire.
In a bizarre publicity stunt, Stone sent the photographs, taken in 2004, to the Belfast Telegraph to “highlight the plight of loyalist prisoners being pressurised to turn informer”.
He also claimed the pictures were part of an arts project entitled “Presumed Guilty” and said he had been willing to be arrested and interrogated by the PSNI to draw attention to the alleged attempts to recruit loyalist informers.
Stone, who claims to have turned his back on paramilitary activity, was convicted of six murders, including the three at Milltown Cemetery on March 16, 1988.
But in July 2000 he was released on licence, 12 years into his 800-year sentence.
The disturbing new photographs - the latest twist in the Stone saga - have prompted calls from politicians and angry relatives of his victims to review his licence.
Mark Thompson, spokesman for Relatives for Justice, branded the photographs “distasteful and upsetting” and accused Stone of “brazenness”.
“Stone is drawn to publicity like a moth to the lightbulb but each time something like this happens, it has terrible consequences on the relatives of the people he killed and those he tried to kill,” he said. “These pictures are distasteful and upsetting and will be very traumatic for the families of those affected by his deeds.
“We are engaged in legal proceedings at the moment to stop him from making profits from his book None Shall Divide Us. He’s never shown any remorse for what he did, he’s just tried to make money from his actions.
“While the photos of him posing like this are not surprising, they are very upsetting.”
Alex Attwood, the SDLP’s Policing and Justice spokesman, described the pictures as “shocking”.
“If these pictures are genuine, and I must stress the word if, then there needs to be an investigation and review of his licence,” he said.
“Anyone out on licence posing with a firearm, either real or imitation, has serious questions to answer. Any individual out on licence must be seen to be fully complying with the law and to be on their best behaviour.
“These pictures, if genuine, are shocking and should be passed onto the police and prison authorities.”
Defending his actions Stone said he regretted upsetting the relatives of victims but that his loyalties lay with the former loyalist prisoners.
He admitted the pictures were shocking but said he felt their publication was necessary to make a point.
“If I’d sent in pictures of me painting what attention would that have got?” he said. “I wanted to highlight the fact that former loyalist prisoners are being put under pressure to become informers and are being told their licences will be revoked if they don’t.
“I would have been willing to be lifted and brought to Antrim to be interrogated if it meant highlighting what’s going on.”
Stone said that following the release of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly, he did not believe he would be arrested.
Get free blog up and running in minutes with Blogsome | Theme designs available here
