Unity on PoWs? -- FULL STATUS NOW Campaign

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Subject: Unity on PoWs?

Author:
Andy'town News

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Date Posted: 07:15:43 08/13/02 Tue

>Andersonstown News
>24 April 2002
>
>Republican enemies set to meet
>
>Mainstream and dissident republicans are to come
>together at a Falls Road meeting at the weekend.
>
>Aimed at resolving the escalating crisis inside the
>jails, the meeting goes beyond the issue of prisoners
>as it is the first time the sides have come together
>since an IRA quartermaster broke away after the second
>IRA ceasefire of 1996.
>
>Death threats issued by a shadowy new loyalist group
>to dissident republican prisoners currently being held
>in Maghaberry is to be top of the agenda at a historic
>meeting of opposing republican factions this Sunday.
>
>The summit � to be held in Conway Mill � will see key
>figures
>from opposing republican parties cast aside political
>differences to discuss the latest death threats.
>
>The crisis meeting, called by Republican Sinn F�in, is
>a reaction to what they have called "the distressing
>and life threatening conditions in Maghaberry jail."
>
>In the past week several republican prisoners in
>Maghaberry have been issued with a death threat from a
>group calling themselves the Loyalist Prisoners
>Reaction Force.
>
>A spokesperson for the NI Prison Service has confirmed
>that the PSNI were called in to investigate a threat
>to several republicans being held in the Co. Antrim
>prison.
>
>"I can confirm that a letter containing a threat to a
>number of prisoners was sent to Maghaberry prison.
>Those prisoners have been informed and police have
>been called in to investigate the incident."
>
>Spurred on by this latest threat Republican Sinn F�in
>have issued an open invitation to all republicans �
>whatever their political persuasion � to attend the
>emergency meeting.
>
>The emotive issue of prisoners has touched a raw nerve
>with >mainstream republicans who are determined to help sort the problem out � regardless of bitter political
>differences.
>
>Geraldine Taylor of Republican Sinn F�in said: "It is
>of paramount importance that republicans come together
>to put pressure on the prison service to address this
>disgusting abuse of the prisoners' human rights and
>safety. The prisoners being held in Maghaberry are
>living in fear, they are being subjected to daily
>attacks from loyalists and abuse at the hands of
>prison staff.
>
>"So far their plight has been pushed under the carpet,
>but we now feel it is a matter of life or death.
>Although our demands are for the reinstatement of
>political status to all POWs, the issue of segregation
>of republicans and loyalists is paramount and must be
>achieved immediately before we are looking at a
>fatality within the jail. The added threat from this
>loyalist group is only going to add to the already
>fraught tensions within the prison."
>
>Provisional Sinn F�in backed the call for segregation
>saying that: "Republican prisoners have suffered
>throughout the years for the right to political
>status, those prisoners being held in Maghaberry
>should be afforded the same rights and conditions that
>were won during those protests."
>
>The IRSP confirmed that representatives from their
>party would attend the summit. Spokesperson Paul
>Little said: "Maghaberry is currently a tinderbox and
>it would be very foolish of any republican to ignore
>that situation. Our organisation lost three men during
>the hunger strike and countless others took part in
>the blanket protest to achieve political status,
>no-one had the right to give that status away."
>
>Marian Price spokesperson for the Irish Republican
>Prisoners Welfare Association � a group representing
>the RIRA prisoners � also welcomed the meeting: "We
>will certainly attend the meeting and welcome the
>opportunity to bring attention to the prisoners'
>plight.
>
>"We would hope that all republicans will cast their
>differences aside to support the call for political
>status."
>
>The meeting which will be held in the Conway Mill this
>Sunday at 3pm.
>
>
>Footnote: An OCT 5th Assoc. representative spoke
>alongside Mrs. B. McLaughlin, the wife a PoW, at a
>meeting last Tuesday of Derry City councillors held at
>the Guildhall. Her husband, Ciaran, had been earlier
>assaulted by a known loyalist 'pastor'(details
>elsewhere).The civil rights veterans group made a call
>for an all-party delegation to visit the prison, and
>that their fact-finding report be made public. This,
>and other measures were agreed by all present.

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