| Subject: Welfare Update |
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IRPWA
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Date Posted: 13:05:05 08/13/02 Tue
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.
>
> Statement at Maghaberry Gaol 5th May 2002.
>
>21 Years ago today Bobby Sands from West Belfast died
>in the pursuit of political status for Irish
>Republican prisoners of war. Within four months, nine
>more young freedom fighters followed his example and
>died for their beliefs and the welfare of their
>comrades.
>
>As a result of their sacrifice, incarcerated
>Republicans were treated in a manner befitting Irish
>prisoners of war for nearly twenty years. The
>Hunger-strikers example served as an inspiration to
>oppressed peoples and revolutionaries the world over.
>So inspirational were the stories about the ten faces
>staring down from kitchen and living room walls’ the
>country over, that a whole generation of children grew
>up with the familiar faces of the H Block Martyrs
>etched into their minds.
>Today, some of those very children reside across that
>fence, now grown men, captured in action or as a
>result of the continuing liberation struggle being
>fought in our country. Others were freedom fighters
>even then, enduring revolutionaries still organising,
>resisting and refusing to be duped into the dead end
>road of Constitutional Nationalism. The conditions in
>which they are now held and the establishments
>attempts to break their resolve, confirms that their
>decision to reject the reformist road was the right
>one. It was by that path that the rights, won with the
>life-blood of the H Block martyrs, were voted down the
>drain in the summer of 1998.
>
> Our men living beyond that fence are now treated not
>as political prisoners nor as subversives but as
>common criminals. Our comrades, friends and loved ones
>whose actions were motivated by a desire for Irish
>Unity and Freedom are now forced to live amongst
>criminals, drug pushers and child abusers. Our
>comrades are separated, isolated and forced to endure
>a prison system that is designed to break down their
>Republican identity and mindset. They live under
>constant threat and intimidation from Loyalist
>inmates, men loyal to the system, which like the state
>outside it serves, makes them the most powerful slaves
>in the institution. This is all an attempt by the
>establishment to try to criminalize not only the men
>themselves but the very Struggle they bear allegiance
>to.
>As a result our prisoners are not only criminalized
>but also punished, punished for not accepting the Good
>Friday Agreement, for not accepting British Rule.
>Their families are punished also, intimidated and
>humiliated by loyalist screws and their sniffer dogs,
>we all know the story, we’ve all been there.
>
>Elsewhere today others are gathering to commemorate
>the H Block martyrs, forgetting that the rights they
>died for have been abandoned with their approval. The
>honourable place for republicans to be today is here
>with us, in solidarity with the POWs, confronting the
>people who killed Bobby Sands, NOT IN DUNVILLE PARK
>PRETENDING THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.
>
>To the British government and its prison service we
>say this, many of us have confronted you before,
>through the seventies, eighties and nineties and our
>resolve is stronger now than ever. Have you learned
>nothing? We shouted our demands at you in the past and
>in time, but after much pain you were forced to
>listen, surely you must realise the wise thing to do,
>for we intend to shout and shout and the more you
>ignore us the louder we will shout. >Do not let history repeat itself, Restore Politicalstatus, Segregate our prisoners. Save us all the PAIN.
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