30 October 1997 Edition

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Be extra vigilant, SF warns

By Mick Naughton.

Sinn Fein chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin has warned republicans and nationalists to be extremely vigilant following confirmation that the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) has split and the news that a loyalist gang stalked Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams as he launched a book on the Falls Road two weeks ago.

McLaughlin also queried David Trimble's silence on the latest loyalist bomb attack in Bangor on Saturday 25 October which killed a known loyalist, Glenn Greer.

Greer was fatally wounded when an undercar bomb exploded as he drove through the Kilcooley housing estate. Greer had been living in Bangor for over two years after leaving Belfast under a UDA death threat.

``The killing in Bangor on Saturday is a most worrying development, but it cannot be a coincidence that the killing came so soon after the announcement of the disbandment of the CLMC,'' McLaughlin said.

``Yet David Trimble's silence on both these events exposes the hypocrisy of his claim that he will not sit down to talk with those he believes are involved in violence. He had and has no difficulty about sitting down with the self-admitted representatives of the UDA, UFF and UVF, organisations responsible for at least six killings, including the Bangor one, a number of attempted murders and dozens of shootings in the last three years. Trimble will not refuse to use them in order to exercise the veto which he, this past weekend, so publicly boasted of.''

McLaughlin's warning about the rise in loyalist death squad activity comes at a time when the media has almost casually ignored the increase in the number of incidents involving known loyalists targeting republicans and nationalists.

``The most recent that we have confirmed,'' continued McLaughlin, ``is the targeting of Gerry Adams at his book launch at the Sinn Fein bookshop on the Falls Road in West Belfast on 15 October.'' He described this as a very worrying development and praised the vigilance of republicans who had spotted the occupants of a car acting suspiciously. It was later chased towards the loyalist Shankill Road area.

Commenting on the last few days of loyalist activity, Gerry Adams said, ``the factional fighting within loyalism and unionism which has witnessed the CLMC coming apart at the seams and unionist parties fighting like alley cats has in the past led to vicious periods of sectarian attacks on nationalists.

``There is currently an anxiety and nervousness within unionist ranks. David Trimble's leadership has fed into this mood. His refusal to properly engage in the talks has had the knock-on effect of detaching sections of loyalism and unionism from the process.''

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