ULSTER CEASE-FIRE Protestants pose threat to peace

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32956, 30 June 1972, Page 9

ULSTER CEASE-FIRE Protestants pose threat to peace

(Ti.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright! BELFAST, June 29. Hard-line Protestants today held out the threat of moving against Roman Catholic enclaves in Northern Ireland, and there are now fears of fresh communal strife in the province. Protestant plans to establish a blanket of barricades across the country, “to be defended with whatever force is necessary,’* may lead, it is feared, to a serious confrontation with British troops.

The new threat has emerged only two days after a fragile peace had been established in the battle-worn province, when the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army called an indefinite cease-fire.

The militant Protestants, who refuse t< have any dealings witt the have decline® to recognise the truce, and last night they said that they would erect some of their barricades around the 1.R.A.controlled Roman Catholic “no-go” areas in Londonderry, the province’s second city. The Protestant Ulster Defence Association, a paramilitary body which claims to have about 43.000 members and wide support in the Protestant community, has been demanding for some time that the British Army should clear these “no-go” ,r Yesterday. U.DA. leaders told the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr William Whitelaw), that the association would put up its own barricades at the end of this week, and that many of them would be permanent Over the last few weekends, the Protestants have blocked off some of their own communities, but have dismantled the barriers after a few hours. However, a spokesman for the U.D.A. said last night: "The barricades are definitely going up around the Bogside and Greggan”—the Londonderry “no-go” areas called “Free Derry” by their inhabitants and the I.R.A.

“There will be no warning of where the barricades will be put up, and if the British troops try to take them down, we will use whatever force is necessary to prevent them from doing so." Workers’ warning The U.D.A., closely linked to the Loyalist Association of Workers, which groups thousands of working-class Protestants, has also given a warning that its supporters could cut off gas and elec-

tricity supplies to Roman Catholic areas. The tough Protestant stand poses a serious problem for Mr Whitelaw, who is due to address Parliament in London today about the situation in the province. He has said formerly that he will not permit the erection of any new barricades. The Protestant moves have eclipsed proposals by the Provisional wing of the I.R.A. for the future of Ireland outlined at a press conference in Dublin yesterday.