“Following on from the recent harassment and intimidation of RSF members and their friends in the Newry/South down area, it has come to our attention that yet again a well-known Newry Republican was pulled in by the British colonial police on the Millvale Road just outside Newry on Thursday, February 18.
“When the RUC member approached the car the driver was alerted to the fact that the man was in civilian clothes. He introduced himself as a member of special branch and spoke to the driver who he knew by his first name.
“The driver immediately asked was he under arrest in which the RUC man answered no we would just like to arrange a meeting with you. The driver then told him to f##k off and that if he wasn’t under arrest then he was ringing his solicitor.
“No need for that ***** we know your under pressure [again calling him by his first name]we also know that your wife hasn’t been to well. All we are looking for is for you to provide us with information on certain Republicans that you hang around with.
“They were particularly interested in an ex-Republican POW from Newry who they kept mentioning a lot. As this kept going on for roughly another ten minutes the driver then proceeded to ring his solicitor with the cop reminding him that he would be back in touch as he left.
“We in RSF in Newry are seeing a worrying trend here in that this is becoming a regular occurrence against our members/family/and supporters of the Republican movement in the Newry/Southdown area.
“They are now using personal things like wives/girlfriends/family sickness to get at people as if to say we know everything.
“We would urge our members/supporters, and indeed the general public, that if you are approached by these forces of the crown to report it straight away to your legal representative and to your local RSF Cumann. This comes right on the backdrop of all that is happening with regard to policing and justice. We must warn the public that those up in Stormont will have no power in what MI5 and Special Branch does.
“One final observation we would like to point out is that anyone involved in spying or informing on the Republican movement will ultimately be given up by their British pay masters as history has shown us how these faceless forces operate so take heed and tell the RUC Special Branch in no uncertain terms that you would not become an informer - your life is worth more.”
Interesting read, but this is tactics on getting intelligence on republicans to make arrests so it looks like the police are doing a great job in the public eye. Although, I can understand it from the police point of view as they seem to be targets from the RIRA/CIRA and want information so they can make arrests by getting informers, then on the other hand they are putting the lives of republicans at risk...don't inform then you will die by loyalists on behalf of the police (like the old days) or if you do inform your killed by republicans for doing so. What an awful situation for any republican to be in...what choice does he have to protect himself and his family? I always felt that the major problem with policing is this thing about being forced to inform. It was on the news the other day about the police wanted people in the community to give information....how can they? Whether they support the IRA or not they would be putting their lives and families at risk. Some republicans don't agree with an arm campaign at this present time and would fear talking to the police about any incident because of the risks involved. It is just unfair to put this on the community and expect them to put themselves at risk.
ReplyDeleteim a republican living in and from newry tor
ReplyDeletetured by the ruc/psni. raids and suspicion is a common problem here! i could not back any sort of policing here because as far as im concerned it has never changed.fellow republicans are walking into england blindfolded. what do you do? as long as there is a republican mindset people will never be at peace.