U.D.A. ANNOUNCEMENT: 'War with British Army is over’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33052, 20 October 1972, Page 13

U.D.A. ANNOUNCEMENT: 'War with British Army is over’

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

BELFAST, October 19.

Northern Ireland was dealt some relief from sectarian brutality late last night with an announcement by Protestant guerrillas that “our war with the British Army is over.”

The announcement came after two nights of widespread shooting and rioting which claimed at least four dead and 80 wounded and culminated in troops fighting both Protestant and Roman Catholic diehards.

Some rioting and gunfire continued late into the night, but on a gradually decreasing scale until the Army headquarters reported all quiet soon after midnight. Until yesterday, the spectre of the majority Protestant community as well as the Roman Catholics fighting Britain, with both in turn at each other’s throats, was believed frighteningly close. But top level talks between the British Army and the Ulster Defence Association (U.D.A.) — the Protestant community’s answer to the Roman Catholic based Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.)— has at least delayed an ultimate explosion. The U.D.A. vice-chairman, Tom Herron, said that the organisation, which says that it could put 50,000 armed men on to the streets, would begin to cool the situation. He spoke to journalists after a two-hour secret meeting with the British Army and the province’s police. Protestant ire rose over the week-end in a mood of

betrayal and bitterness over London’s postponement of a referendum on whether Northern Ireland should be united with the mainly Roman Catholic Irish Republic. That is the goal of the I.R.A. The Protestants believe a plebiscite would quash that dream for the foreseeable future as they outnumber Roman Catholics 1,000,000 to 500,000 and the voting would certainly mirror that ascendency. U.D.A. gunmen took to the streets and started shooting at the Army after the deaths of two youths in rioting on Monday night. The U.D.A. complained of Army brutality. But the military pacified the U.D_A. yesterday with a promise that all allegations of Army misbehaviour would be investigated by police. Mr Herron said: “Some of the incidents have been horrifying.” The U.D.A. charged that soldiers deliberately slew defenceless youths on Monday night. One was decapitated when he was run over by an armoured car. The Army denied the accusations. Other Protestants in the

[Shankill Road, a notorious Protestant area, said that they were beaten up by paratroopers. A few told journalists that after the alleged beatings they were forced to squat and' jump around shouting, “Quack, quack.” Hopes for peace among the Protestants now depends to a great extent on whether the U.D.A. can curb its rank and file—particularly the “tartan gangs,” mobs of crew-cut youths in big boots. Many seasoned observers questioned whether the forces unleashed since the week-end could be contained. Mr Herron himself hinted that the U.D.A.’s grip on the unruly youths might not be as iron as it was. “We could not expect to get the situation under 100 per cent control immediately,” he said. “But we can in a few nights.” In the wake of yesterday’s accord, bombs in Dungannon, County Tyrone, and Sion Mills, County Londonderry, damaged a car showroom and a factory. Security sources said that the raids carried the hallmark of the I.R.A. In east Belfast, however, a Roman Catholic school was damaged by petrol bombs and a Roman Catholic chapel was wrecked. That was believed to be the work of Protestants.