The Five Demands

E’ stata resa nota la minaccia Real IRA nei confronti del parlamentare nordirlandese William McCrea.
L’avvertimento è pervenuto lo scorso martedì dal PSNI, che ha informato la moglie del politico la quale ha poi riferito al marito nella giornata di giovedì mentre si trovava a Westminster.
Egli ha detto che sarebbe sciocco non prendere sul serio il pericolo, ma ha attaccato la polizia per aver portato il messaggio alla sua porta senza busta cosicchè la moglie ne è venuta subito a conoscenza, quando invece avrebbero potuto rivolgersi direttamente a lui.
“Abbiamo bisogno di schiacciare queste persone (dissidenti) o riporteranno l’Irlanda del Nord ai tempi delle  intimidazioni e minacce, e che la maggior parte delle persone vogliono lasciarsi alle spalle”.
“Siamo di fronte ad un chief constable dimissionario, che vuole abolire le scorte a tempo pieno per ridimensionare i ‘numeri’ ed ha raccomandato il ritiro delle armi per la sicurezza personale degli ex ufficiali, proprio nel momento in cui i dissidenti  sono una minaccia per la sicurezza”.
Un portavoce del PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), ha affermato che non viene messa in discussione la sicurezza di un individuo. “Tuttavia, se riceviamo informazioni che comportino per un individuo la necessità di riesaminare la  sicurezza, si prenderanno le misure atte a informarlo immediatamente. Non abbiamo mai ignorato tutto ciò che può mettere a rischio l’incolumità di un individuo”.

McCrea warned of RIRA threat (The irish Times)
Northern Ireland MP William McCrea has been warned of a death threat from the Real IRA, it was revealed today. Dissidents shot dead two soldiers in his south Antrim constituency in March. Mr McCrea said the gunmen were trying to ruin progress made in Northern Ireland. “We need to crush these people or they will consign Northern Ireland to another long period of intimidation and threat and most people want to leave that behind,” he said. “In my constituency we saw the reality of what blood-thirsty terrorists can do when they murdered those two soldiers and attempted to murder another two boys (pizza delivery men at the Massereene army barracks).” Police passed on the message to his wife at home on Tuesday and he received it from her on Thursday as he had been in Westminster. He said he would be foolish not to take the danger seriously but attacked the police for bringing the message to his door without an envelope so his wife could see it and failing to contact him directly. “I think it is totally wrong, it was treating a sensitive message like that in a very careless way,” he added. “You try to guard your family from some of these things, they worry about you and carry it in their hearts all the time.” Sappers Mark Quinsey (23) from Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar (21) from London, were gunned down by the Real IRA as they accepted a pizza delivery at the gates of Massereene Barracks, Antrim in March. Police constable Stephen Carroll (48) was killed by the Continuity IRA in Craigavon, Co Armagh, two days later. Mr McCrea claimed the handling of his case called into question the police approach to the dissident terrorist threat at the time when the threat was high. “We are facing a chief constable (Sir Hugh Orde) leaving, he is wishing to abolish the full-time reserve just to get numbers down and recommending the withdrawal of personal protection weapons from ex-members of the security services when there is a dissident security threat,” he added. “The whole thing in the round smacks to me of not treating this in the serious manner they should.” A Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) spokeswoman said they do not discuss the security of individuals. “However, if we receive information that an individual may need to review their security, we will take steps to inform them immediately. We never ignore anything which may put an individual’s life at risk,” she said.