Toni Carragher of the South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee has slammed British securocrats for wasting money that would be better spent on health and education in order to finance their massive military occupation of South Armagh.

Mrs Carragher says people are incensed that the British continue to build up their military presence which costs millions yearly.

``The expenditure budget allocated to the RUC and British army yearly is approximately £1400 million. The wage bill for the RUC, not included in the above figure, for 1998 is £658 million. It costs about £3200 per hour to keep a Chinook in the air, £1980 and £2200 an hour to keep a Lynx and a Wessex respectively in the air. Residents have pointed out that there have been 3379 fights into the Glassdrummond look-out post alone in the past year.

One hour's flying by a Chinook would be the equivalent of four months take home pay for a nurse,'' Mrs Carragher pointed out.

``Prior to the ceasefire of 20 July 1997, a British minister stated that `if a ceasefire should arise, that money from the security budget would be re-diverted to Health and Education'. Given the current threat of hospital closures and with cutbacks in hospital beds and staff, and that the Good Friday Agreement was signed some nine months ago, one must ask when this situation is going to be reversed,'' Mrs Carragher said.

Massive march planned

The South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee has said that plans are well advanced for a major demonstration to demand demilitarisation in the area. The march, on Sunday 7 February, will be to the Cloghogue Checkpoint on the main Belfast-Dublin road outside Newry.

South Armagh is the most heavily militarised area in Western Europe. In an area just 15 miles by 10 miles there are 25 British Army bases and spyposts supporting constant military patrols - in armoured vehicles and on foot - and hundreds of helicopter flights every week.

South Armagh's 23,000 inhabitants are the most stopped, searched and spied-upon people on earth. Land has been taken from farmers and from Crossmaglen GAA, one of the most famous - and most successful - gaelic football clubs in Ireland, in order to build spyposts which bristle with the very latest in hi-tech surveillance equipment.

And all this is happening nine months after the Good Friday Agreement heralded a new dawn of peace in Ireland. Under the terms of that Agreement the British Government is supposed to have published their strategy for demilitarisation. Instead, construction work on spyposts is continuing - at Drumuckawall mountain on the Louth-Armagh border building materials were airlifted in just two weeks ago to fortify the spyposts there and the people of South Armagh continue to suffer the ill-effects of the British military presence:

Constant helicopter noise
Health concerns about the spy equipment used in the British bases
Invasion of people's privacy
Thousands of animal deaths caused by low-flying helicopters
Harassment by British forces of people going about their daily business
Detrimental impact on tourism and inward investment
The protest march will include community groups from the border region and people from throughout the Six Counties, as well as pike men and women from Wexford and Fermanagh.