SAOIRSE32

BBC
17 Nov 2007

Rescuers are continuing efforts to try to reach people hit by a powerful cyclone that tore through southern Bangladesh killing at least 2,000.

Victims run for lives
In pictures: Counting costs

Local newspapers are showing pictures of rows of bodies lined up on the sand. There are fears the death toll will rise as rescuers reach isolated areas.

Cyclone Sidr destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.

Helicopters and ships are being used to get food and clean water to thousands.

Thousands of soldiers have joined international agencies and local officials in a massive relief operation, but debris and floods are hampering their efforts.

Shattered villages

Hundreds of villages along the coast of Bangladesh have been devastated.

Winds reaching up to 240km/h (150mph) and a tidal surge of several metres tore through the fragile wooden structures that many people live in.

“I saw dozens of tin roofs flying into the air. Whole houses too.”
Manik Roy

Poor hit hardest
Guide: Cyclones/hurricanes

“Village after village has been shattered,” said Harisprasad Pal, a local official in hard-hit Jhalokati district.

“I have never seen such a catastrophe in my 20 years as a government administrator,” he said.

Survivors described whole houses being picked up and blown away as the storm rushed through southern Bangladesh.

“I have never seen such a terrible scene. It was like hell,” said Manik Roy, a businessman in Jhalokati.

“I saw dozens of tin roofs flying into the air. Whole houses too.”

Crops lost

Many people were killed by flying debris. Others were washed away by the surge of water that the storm pushed ashore.

Bangladesh’s director general of disaster management, Masood Siddiqui, told the BBC that the death toll had reached 2,000.

A massive operation is under way to deliver much-needed supplies

“It will take several days to complete the search and know the actual casualty figure and the extent of damage to property,” said Ayub Miah, an official with the food and disaster ministry.

A government early-warning system is being credited with saving many lives, but the damage to property and crops has been massive.

Officials say that in many areas 95% of rice which was awaiting harvest has been destroyed, and shrimp farms and other crops simply washed away.

Cyclone Sidr comes just a few months after floods devastated the north of the country.

Aid operation

Helicopters and ships are being used to ferry supplies to hard-hit areas along the coast.

On land, elephants are being employed to clear some of the heavier debris from roads.

Path of Cyclone Sidr across Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh

Several countries have promised help. The US has despatched two navy vessels to help with relief efforts and is planning to airlift shelters and hygiene kits.

Britain, Germany and the European Union have offered several million dollars in relief aid and the World Food Programme is rushing in food supplies.

The storm hit Bangladesh late on Thursday and passed through the capital Dhaka hours later, before dying down in the north-east of the country.

The biggest challenge for southern Bangladesh will now be reconstruction, the BBC’s Mark Dummett says.

Southern Bangladesh is hit every year by cyclones and floods, but Cyclone Sidr is the most destructive storm to hit the country in more than a decade.

Another storm in 1991 left some 143,000 dead.

Newshound

(Allison Morris, Irish News)

Nationalist homes at a north Belfast interface came under attack from a loyalist gang just hours after statements were read by leading UDA members at Remembrance Day commemorations.

Windows were smashed in two homes along the Serpentine Road and six cars damaged when up to five men entered the area in the early hours of Monday.

The gang, who local people said shouted “up the UFF” as they fled, were said to be in their early twenties.

Interface worker Gerard O’Reilly said it was the most serious sectarian problem in the Whitewell area in recent times.

“Unfortunately there will always be a small number of people from both communities who are intent on causing confrontation,” he said.

“This highlights the need for effective policing – there are security cameras in the area and if there is evidence then the people responsible should be arrested taken before the courts.”

Whitewell resident Orla Murphy woke to find that three cars parked in the driveway of the home she shares with her sister and a friend had been attacked. The damage was estimated at around £3,500.

“It sickens me that these thugs run around in the middle of the night causing destruction and then were probably in their bed this morning while the rest of us were dealing with this,” she said.

“We’ve never had any bother before and thankfully the house didn’t get hit but the shock of the whole thing was very distressing.”

Sinn Féin councillor Tierna Cunningham appealed for unionist political representatives to show leadership.

“It seems that the element involved were at least unhappy with Sunday’s UDA statement and wanted to demonstrate this by attacking Catholics in a vulnerable area,” she said.

SDLP councillor Pat Convery also said the entire community must stand up against the thugs responsible.

November 18, 2007
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This article appeared first in the November 13, 2007 edition of the Irish News.

Newshound

(Allison Morris, Irish News)

A Splinter group has issued death threats to the widow and son of veteran republican Martin Meehan who died of a heart attack a fortnight ago.

Briege and Martin Og Meehan are among 16 republicans who received threats from a group calling itself the Irish Republican Liberation Army.

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said yesterday (Friday) the threats would not stop any republican from working for political and social progress.

“These threats are coming from people who claim to be republicans,” the north Belfast assembly member said.

“These people have nothing constructive to offer the republican struggle.

“They have nothing like a fraction of the committed activism of people like Martin and Briege Meehan and the many other republicans being threatened.”

Four members of the Orange Order were yesterday also warned that they were under threat from dissident republicans.

The Orange Order said members of the institution had been advised to be on their guard and they were also warned anti-agreement republicans were planning an attack on the caretaker of an Orange Hall in Antrim.

“We believe that dissident republicans have been responsible for recent attacks on Orange Halls in Armagh and Tyrone,” the organisation’s grand secretary, Drew Nelson, said.

The latest threats were condemned by Northern Ireland Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea.

“On behalf of the Policing Board, I unreservedly condemn these threats against people who have chosen to step forward and serve the community,” he said.

# A Sinn Féin assembly member has claimed police are to set up a mobile station in the Co Antrim village of Stoneyford from next week following claims that loyalists were intimidating Catholic residents.

Paul Butler met Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland and District Commander Paula Hilman yesterday to voice his concerns about the alleged intimidation, which he claimed is being orchestrated by a “well-known loyalist”.

November 18, 2007
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This article appeared first in the November 17, 2007 edition of the Irish News.

Irish Examiner

By Paul O’Brien
17 November 2007

JAMES Monaghan one of the infamous Colombia Three who were convicted of teaching bomb-making techniques to Marxist guerrillas in the South American country, will tell his story in a book to be published next week.

According to Sinn Féin, Monaghan will tell the “inside story” of the Colombia Three: “why they were in the demilitarised zone; what they discussed with the FARC rebels; [and] how they survived the daily dangers of their time in prison”.

FARC is the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Marxist rebel group attempting to overthrow the country’s government since the 1960s.

Monaghan will be present for the official launch of the book on Tuesday night at the Sinn Féin bookshop in Parnell Square, Dublin.

He was arrested with Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley in Colombia in August 2001 on charges of providing explosives training to FARC members.

After a protracted trial, the men were found guilty in April 2004 of travelling on false passports but acquitted of the bomb-training charges.

However, the prosecution successfully appealed the latter decision and, in December that same year, the men were sentenced to 17 years in prison.

By then, however, the trio had jumped bail and fled Colombia. They resurfaced in Ireland in late 2005 and there have been no moves since to extradite them.

Monaghan spoke at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis this year and, it is understood, assisted in the party’s general election campaign.

The book will tell how the three men were “in daily danger of assassination by fellow prisoners acting for right-wing paramilitaries” while held in various Colombian prisons for almost three years.

“To the world media, this was a story of major importance in terms of global issues of terrorism, intimately involving British and US intelligence, the Colombian government, the massive Colombian drugs industry, the US State Department, and the peace process in Ireland,” Sinn Féin said in promotional literature for the book which it issued to members yesterday.

“To the men themselves, it was a struggle for survival as they were moved from jail to jail, knowing all the time that there was a price on their head that any of their fellow prisoners might be only too keen to collect.”

According to the party, the book will have “lighter moments” too, such as Monaghan’s attempts “to avoid the attentions of a homicidal fellow inmate”.

Irish Times

16/11/2007

A man convicted of IRA membership was jailed for four years today at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Mark Doran, of Poacher’s Lock, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow, was convicted of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on October 26th, 2006.

Presiding at the three-judge court, Mr Justice John Mc Menamin said that it was “no exaggeration to say that Mr Doran’s involvement with paramilitary activities has wrecked his life”.

Doran, who had pleaded not guilty, was bar manager of a hotel in Carlow at the time of the offence.

The court was told that, during a search of Doran’s flat, gardaí had found military manuals, books and DVDs.

Mr Justice Mc Menamin said that such material was “consistent only with significant paramilitary involvement”.

Irelandclick

By Ciarán Barnes
16/11/2007

The chairman of the new-look West Belfast District Policing Partnership (DPP) has vowed not to let the threat of dissident republican attacks prevent him from doing his job.
Veteran Sinn Féin Councillor Tom Hartley chairs his first public meeting at Beechmount Leisure Centre on November 29. The meeting will be an historic one – the first ever to be held in nationalist West Belfast.
Earlier this month, dissident republicans threatened three North Belfast Sinn Féin councillors who have been nominated for their local DPP.
And Monday’s dissident republican gun attack on an off-duty cop in Dungannon came on the same night that Sinn Féin members were due to be nominated to the town’s DPP.
Speaking about the threat from dissident republicans, Cllr Hartley said: “One always has to take notice of these things. But has this stopped me doing my work as a Sinn Féin councillor? The answer to that is no.”
The Sinn Féin man also urged the public to come along to the next public meeting of the West Belfast DPP.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to come along and raise issues around policing, question the DPP about the issues affecting them.”
The new-look West Belfast DPP sees former SDLP Councillor Margaret Walsh installed as vice-chair alongside Tom Hartley.
Also on the group is Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Cush, the SDLP’s Tim Attwood, DUP politician and senior Orangeman William Humphrey, former PUP Lord Mayor Hugh Smyth and Independent Unionist Frank McCoubrey.
The non-political members are Dr Michael Boyle, former Workers’ Party representative Seamus Lynch, Parades Commission and Alliance Party member Anne Monaghan and trades unionist Tom McCullough.
The West Belfast DPP meeting at 7pm on November 29 at Beechmount Leisure Centre will be attended by PSNI Area Commander Nick Purse.
He will present a six-month report on PSNI performance against local policing plan targets for the period April to September 2007.

Sunday Business Post

18 November 2007

Tensions are mounting in the North as violent republicans claim responsibility for two gun attacks on members of the PSNI, writes Colm Heatley in Belfast.

‘They haven’t gone away, you know’’ was a phrase that returned to haunt Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, throughout the peace process.

The Assembly in the North may be established, but dissident republicans have been sending out the same message in recent weeks to those involved in the peace process.

The shooting of a police officer in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, last Monday night, came just five days after a Catholic PSNI member was shot in Derry.

The Real IRA (RIRA) claimed responsibility for both attacks. Both PSNI members survived the attacks, but the victim of Monday’s attack was shot a number of times with a handgun. Only luck prevented him being the first Police Service of Northern Ireland fatality since the force was renamed.

Between the shootings came a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which said current or former IRA members were involved in the murder of Paul Quinn last month.

Quinn, 21,was beaten to death by a gang of masked men in a barn in Monaghan, after being lured there with the promise of work. Sinn Fein denied any republican involvement in the attack, but former republicans in south Armagh - who are opposed to Sinn Fein’s political strategy - insisted that Quinn was killed because he had fought with republicans in the months before his murder.

As if to flesh out the bones of the IMC report, which was based almost entirely on evidence from the PSNI, Lord Laird, a unionist peer, last week named under parliamentary privilege a number of republicans who he claimed were responsible for the Quinn murder.

It has been claimed in the North that Laird got his information from a well-known unionist source. Whatever the truth of the allegations, the events of the past weeks have combined to threaten the stability of the power-sharing arrangements in the North.

By far the biggest threat comes from the RIRA - this is the first time the group has attempted to kill specific policemen. The attacks on the PSNI are symbolic for republicans, especially those who disagree with Sinn Fein’s support for the force and local policing bodies.

By attacking the PSNI, the RIRA is not only seeking to create a higher profile for itself, but is also directly challenging Sinn Fein’s authority in republicanism, and forcing the party to side with the police in a very public way.

That the RIRA felt sufficiently emboldened to launch a murder bid on the PSNI took many in the North by surprise. The fact that it carried out the two attacks in Derry and Tyrone within five days caused consternation among the North’s politicians.

Since Sinn Fein decided to support the PSNI at the start of the year, dissident republicans have been bolstered by the defection of a number of republicans from the Sinn Fein camp. Most of these have refused to side with dissident republicans, but their public condemnation of Sinn Fein’s policies has given the RIRA fresh confidence that some level of support exists for a militant alternative to mainstream republicanism.

More significantly, the RIRA has benefited from the experience of a number of former IRA members, who have given practical assistance to the group, and brought with them previous experience of how to carry out attacks.

It is understood that the attack in Dungannon last Monday was planned by a number of defectors who, over the past six months, have been assembling a RIRA unit away from the eyes of the security forces. In the past, the RIRA has been crippled by informers, and almost all of its operations have resulted in arrests and imprisonment.

Over the past five years, the group has also been involved in infighting and, in the summer of 2006, a major arms-importing scheme was uncovered and alleged senior members of the RIRA arrested and charged. The RIRA seems now to have identified attacks on the PSNI as the new theatre of war.

Support and sympathy for the PSNI in republican areas of the North is negligible, despite an increasing number of Catholic recruits and Sinn Fein’s endorsement of the force. The RIRA hope the shootings will stop the trend of Catholics joining.

The attack in Dungannon was especially significant as it took place just as Sinn Fein was poised to nominate to the policing board in the area. Tyrone is one of the places where Sinn Fein has had most difficulty persuading people to support policing.

Earlier this year, the PSNI arrested senior Tyrone republican Brian Arthurs at his home. It later arrested Roisin McAliskey on an extradition warrant to Germany in connection with a 1996 IRA attack on a British Army barracks in Osnabruck.

On the day of the elections to the Assembly, the PSNI arrested Gerry McGeough, a hardline anti-Sinn Fein republican, at the voting count centre in connection with a 1981 attempt on the life of a member of the UDR. The husband of a Sinn Fein member was also arrested.

Privately, senior republicans in Tyrone say they have no time for the PSNI and their views are echoed by many republicans across the North. Last week, the Sinn Fein deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, urged people with information about the attack in Dungannon to come forward - a call which dissidents said was proof of Sinn Fein’s ‘‘pro-British credentials’’.

Since Sinn Fein has moved away from militant republicanism and accepted the legitimacy of the institutions of state, groups such as the RIRA are seeking to directly challenge the party for the mantle of republicanism.

The murder of Paul Quinn last month exposed deep fault lines in areas such as south Armagh, where support for Adams’ peace strategy was essential over the past decade.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), however, has chosen largely to ignore the IMC report into the Quinn murder, and said merely that, if mainstream republican involvement was proven, it would have ‘‘serious consequences’’.

That is in marked contrast to events during the peace process, when the DUP used such reports as a reason to paralyse the political process. But against the backdrop of the shootings and the IMC report, it has become clear that the DUP and Sinn Fein are concerned with making the Assembly work.

It is in neither party’s interest to see the power-sharing institutions collapse, with both having staked so much political capital on their success. Far from being a battle a day between the DUP and Sinn Fein, as Adams predicted it would be, it is those two parties which are at the centre of ensuring the Assembly remains intact, no matter what the outside threats.

For the DUP, this means ignoring the IMC’s views on the Quinn murder, which are, in any case, disputed by republicans. The DUP has sold power-sharing to its supporters, and it knows that the only way the Assembly will collapse is if it walks out.

To do that would plunge the North into crisis and give the DUP major problems with its own support base and critics who would accuse it of having joined government with terrorists.

For Sinn Fein, it means encouraging people to give information on dissident republicans to the PSNI, an unthinkable scenario just a few years ago.

There is little appetite in the republican community for a return to armed conflict, and whether the RIRA can mount any sustained campaign remains to be seen.

Sunday Business Post

By Colm Heatley in Belfast
18 November 2007

The statement last weekend by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) that the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) would be ‘‘stood down’’ was hailed as a ‘‘breakthrough’’ and ‘‘a departure from the past’’ by some, especially the British secretary of state, Shaun Woodward.

However, other observers, particularly in Sinn Fein and the SDLP, were sceptical about the move. The long-awaited announcement by the group ruled out decommissioning any of its weapons, envisioned a long-term future for the UDA and talked of the ‘‘suspicion’’ loyalists felt of nationalists.

The major concession was that the UFF would be ‘‘stood down’’ from midnight on November 11. The UFF was the cover name used by the UDA to claim hundreds of sectarian murders in the North during the Troubles.

A separate grouping within the UDA, the UFF never had more than a few hundred members at any time during the Troubles, and all of its senior members were leaders in the wider paramilitary organisation.

The announcement that the UFF has been stood down is regarded as something of a fiction, which allowed Jackie McDonald, the UDA’s most prominent leader, to issue a statement which laid out the long-term future of the UDA as a fully-armed paramilitary group, acting as a watchdog for loyalism.

Addressing a crowd of loyalists at a rally in Belfast last Sunday, McDonald also said the UDA’s weapons would be ‘‘put beyond use’’ and its ‘‘military intelligence’’ would be destroyed.

However, there is no verifiable way to assess whether any of this will happen, and McDonald emphasised that the UDA’s weapons would not be decommissioned - because they belonged to the people.

Such a claim to represent the people stood in stark contrast to the outrage across the city in the loyalist Tigers Bay area last week, where clergymen and locals blamed the UDA for dealing drugs to young people.

The UDA statement was essentially a reiteration of a long-held loyalist position - it doesn’t trust the peace process and it reserves the right to retain all of its weapons, no matter what politicians ask of it.

Indeed, the statement was made just a few weeks after the SDLP social development minister, Margaret Ritchie, stripped a UDA-backed ‘community transformation project’ of stg£1.2 million (€1.7 million) in funding.

That decision, the first to apply any significant pressure to the group, was opposed by both unionist parties and, initially at least, by Sinn Fein. The question last week was how the North will move into a peaceful future when the UDA, and indeed the Ulster Volunteer Force, refuse to disband or decommission any of their weapons.

The criminality of both groups causes problems within loyalist communities, while the threat posed by their very existence casts a shadow over nationalists.

For almost a decade, the UDA has been talking about a ‘‘peaceful future’’, but it has continued to be involved in crime and bloody drugs feuds. The structure of the group - it is split into six brigade areas, with each brigade given autonomy - means that the leadership of the UDA continually shifts blame for violence onto other areas.

In effect, it operates a ‘no claim, no blame’ policy. At last Sunday’s rally, McDonald called on those present to register to vote, an implicit signal that the UDA wants political support at the polls. But it was McDonald, a convicted extortionist, who was one of those most pleased with the downfall of the UDA’s political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), more than five years ago.

The UDP failed to get votes at the polls, mainly because working-class Protestant communities resented UDA drug dealing and feuding, and preferred instead to vote for the Democratic Unionist Party.

That pattern won’t change while the UDA remains in existence. Instead, the group will remain a threat to stability in the North.