IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE� NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
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Subject: Mass raids across Belfast ? The Blanket, Marian Price targeted
Date: 07 04 03

At 9:00 PM tonight Belfast time, homes across Belfast were raided for the second time in two weeks. Phones, protest posters, cameras and computer equipment was taken from the homes of prisoner?s rights activists and also from the home of two journalists at the Blanket.

Police came to Marian Price?s home for the second time this week, this time to seize mobile phones and telephone books. Three days before, her computer equipment was removed from her home. Seventy-one professionally printed posters for a protest set for this weekend outside Maghaberry Prison were also seized from her car.

At the same time, police raided the home of Blanket journalists Anthony McIntyre and Carrie Twomey and removed all of their computer equipment, cameras, and cell phones from their home.

Marian Price told us that it appears there are ?no computers anymore in Belfast?. Price said that effectively ?all lines of communication are down? in Belfast and the timing of these raids is clearly no accident. There appears to be a concerted effort at work to silence the support network that has been actively drawing attention to the crisis situation at Maghaberry prison, as the situation inside has taken what many feel may quickly become a deadly turn.

Many inaccuracies have been reported in the media, including that recent protests at Maghaberry have been held in response to ?overcrowding?, and that loyalists and republicans protested together on last week?s overnight rooftop protest. According to Marian Price ?there were no republicans on the rooftop protest? and in fact all were loyalist.

However two republican remand prisoners are now on a dirty protest at Maghaberry Prison in response to the prison?s increasingly repressive and inhumane policies, a number of which are in direct violation of European laws on Human Rights.

An effort was made last week by the prison to house a remand republican prisoner doubled up in the same cell with known loyalist Mo Courtney. The republican prisoner refused out of concern for the safety of his life and was then viciously beaten by prison guards and put onto the punishment blocks, where he remains yet. Riots followed in the remand prisoners quarters, and wash-hand stations and toilets wrecked in the riots were not replaced. Two remand prisoners have subsequently gone onto dirty protest.

The prison next put all sentenced republican prisoners on lockdown and fed them through slots in the doors. When the republican prisoners refused to be fed this way like animals a protest ensued, and a number of prisoners, including Republican OC James Connolly, refused food for the duration of the lockdown from Friday to Sunday.

Connolly made an application to the prison governor to be allowed in to the remand house to speak with the republican prisoners there to negotiate a settlement to help bring the situation inside to a peaceful close. All efforts by Connolly to do this were rebuffed by the prison and Connolly has now said that ?all negotiations are now off?.

The demand for a separate wing for republican prisoners is paramount and Marian Price has told us that the men are ?very determined, and very united? on this. The terrible possibility looms large that events may soon take a deadly turn with several of the men having firmly said that hunger strike has not been ruled out.

This situation can be very easily resolved by the prison granting republican prisoners a WING OF THEIR OWN. Safety concerns have never been higher with the prison no longer just housing lone republican prisoners on loyalist paramilitary landings, but now housing them together IN THE SAME CELLS. The prison has shown it is not concerned in the slightest for the safety of republican prisoners, as had it any concern whatsoever it would never attempt to make such deliberately life-threatening housing arrangements.

The republican prisoners demands must be met immediately. Please write, phone, email or fax the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Northern Ireland Office and let them know Irish America will not stand idly by as another unnecessary tragedy befalls Irish Republican Political Prisoners in British jails. Demand that the prison immediately grant the republican prisoners their FOUR DEMANDS:

1. Immediate segregation
2. Group representation
3. The right to elect a spokesperson for each republican group
4. The provision of a separate wing

Please don?t delay ? every voice counts!!!

Links to a suggested letter and addresses follows below.

We will post further updates on the situation in Belfast as we get them.


The Irish Freedom Committee�
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE

Mr. Paul Murphy - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Block B
Castle Buildings
Belfast BT4 3STGTN
Phone: 440 02890 520 700 (24 hours)
Fax: 02890 528473/528478/528482
Email: [email protected]

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NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE
Room 321
Prison Service Headquarters
Dundonald House
Upper Newtownards Road
BELFAST BT4 3SU
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 028 9052 5065 - (General Enquiry Line)

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