The Five Demands

La CIRA è stata invitata dai leaders politici a confermare il ritiro delle minacce di morte, nei confronti di 100 lavoratori della comunità cattolica a nord di Belfast.
I dissidenti avevano infatti minacciato di sparare al personale dei centri comunitari di Ashton e Wolfhill, per aver collaborato con la polizia sulle iniziative comunitarie.
La minaccia ha causato la cancellazione dei progetti per i giovani e degli eventi per gli anziani.
E’ emerso ieri sera, che i lavoratori del centro comunitario di Wolfhill erano stati informati del ritiro della minaccia.
Gerry Kelly, membro dell’assemblea del Sinn Fein, ha accolto con favore la notizia, ma la comunità non avrebbe mai dovuto essere sottoposta a tali intimidazioni ed ha aggiunto “le persone che sono state minacciate meritano una pubblica conferma”.

Lift death threats publicly CIRA told (The Irish News)
The Continuity IRA was challenged last night to state publicly whether it had withdrawn a death threat against 100 Catholic community workers in north Belfast.
The dissidents had threatened to shoot staff at the Ashton and Wolfhill community centres because they had worked with police on community initiatives.
It is understood the threat issued in November has been verbally removed and last night political leaders in the area called on the group to state its position publicly.
The development came as new figures showed that paramilitary punishment attacks by republican dissidents had risen to their highest level in five years.
The rise in shootings and beatings is largely down to an increase in dissident republican activity and the emergence of the group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH), a breakaway faction of the Real IRA.
With dissident activity on the rise workers at both community centres were advised to step up their security after the CIRA threat in November that warned they were “legitimate targets”.
The CIRA said the threat was the result of alleged police harassment of republicans in north Belfast.
“There will be no second warning. This threat will only be lifted when the harassment of innocent civilians stops,” its statement read.
The threat led to the cancellation of youth projects and events for the elderly.
Extra security was arranged for children attending the centres’ creche facilities.
Hundreds of nationalist and loyalist community workers took part in a public meeting demanding an end to the threat.
However, it emerged last night that community workers at the Wolfhill Centre had been told that the threat had been withdrawn.
“This threat had put huge pressure on community workers and we are just glad that we can get back to concentrating on providing a much-needed service to the community,” centre spokeswoman Maria Morgan said.
“People can come in and out of the centre freely now without any sense of fear. We are just glad it’s all over.”
Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly welcomed the move but said community workers should never have been subjected to such intimidation.
“It is all well them telling people privately that this threat has been lifted but the people who were threatened deserve to know this publicly,” he said.
SDLP assembly member Alban Maginness described the threat as “despicable’’.
“The 100 people who have had to go to work every day for the last three months under the threat of death deserve to know if their lives are no longer in danger,” he said.
“The CIRA must come clean and state publicly whether or not these people are still under threat.”