Anti-I.R.A. warning sounded

Press, 21 November 1981, Page 8

Anti-I.R.A. warning sounded

NZPA-Reiner Belfast The police in Northern Ireland have sounoeo a warning that Irish Repuoncan guerillas aim to create total disorder in the British province witn a campaign of killings. Last week-end a Protestant member of Parliament was shot oead in his Belfast constituency and the outlawed Irish Republican Army, fighting to end British rule' in the province, has claimed responsibility for almost daily killings over the last two weeks. The Chief Constable (Mr Jack Hermon) said: “The campaign of murders, whether of leading citizens or members of the security forces, is an attempt to provoke the Protestant community into extreme action and set up a chain of events favourable to the I.R.A.'s aims. “The I.R.A. are now all the more intent on murdering leading citizens a& part of their plan to create total disorder in the province.” The police and British troops have stepped up security measures to try to quell the resultant fury of Protestants loyal to British rule. Mr Hermon said the police and Army, who total aoout 20,000, had in recent weeks foiled a huge bomDing campaign planned by the I.R.A. He did not elaborate.

Protestant leaders are sceptical of me security forces' commitment to counter tne I.R.A. and the hardline parliamentarian, lan Paisley, is mounting what he says will be a massive street protest on Monday. Loyal Protestants, including 400 workers at the province’s main power stations, have pledged to stop work in a show of strength which could halt industry and the civil service. • But leaders of the Ulster Defence Association, the biggest Protestant para-military force, which claims 30,000 members, said they were unlikely to take part. The U.D.A.’s chairman, Andy Tyne, said such demonstrations had not been effective in the past and that was why he was not enthusiastic about Mr Paisley’s planned day of action. A part-time soldier was shot dead yesterday. He was lured into a trap by a three-man I.R.A. gang iii the fourth attack on security forces in 24 hours. Meanwhile in the House of Commons the Northern Ireland Secretary (Mr James Prior) said yesterday that more plastic bullets had been fired by security forces in the province this year than in the previous four years. More than 16.000 plastic baton rounds were fired in May alone — a month of widespread street demonstrations in Catholic areas after the I.R.A. hunger striker, Bobby Sands, died on May 5. Another 6000 rounds of the elongated, hard plastic bullets — designed to break up crowds but which have caused fatal injuries, particularly after striking the head — were fired in July and nearly 4000 in August, Mr Prior said. In the previous four years the monthly total fired by the British Army topped 1000 only twice. Police figures in earlier years were not availaole.