29 April 1999 Edition
County Derry nationalist living in fear
A north County Derry man who has been told he is ``going to be eliminated'' by the Orange Volunteers has told An Phoblacht that he and his family are now living in fear of their lives.
The man, who lives in an isolated home with his wife and two sons, aged five and six, at Macosquin near Coleraine, is taking the threat seriously. He explained how the threat has added to the stress his family is under as his five-year-old son suffers from an incurable genetic disorder for which he received cranio-facial surgery in England.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, the man, who wants to remain anonymous, said that the RUC came to his home last Wednesday afternoon, 21 April, while he was out and told his wife they needed to speak to him urgently.
``At first the RUC wouldn't tell my wife why they wanted to see me, but she demanded that they tell her. The RUC then said I was on the Orange Volunteers hit list''.
When the man arrived home, RUC detectives were waiting for him at the bottom of the lane. They said the threat came from the mid-Ulster Orange Volunteers and asked him to go the RUC barracks in Garvagh but he refused. The RUC also said it was the Samaritans who had received the threat.
Macosquin, a small village outside Coleraine in north County Derry, is not far from Castlerock, where the UDA shot dead four men, including IRA Volunteer Jimmy Kelly, in March 1993.
The UDA gang involved in the Greysteel killings in November 1993 were also based in that area, which has a history of loyalist paramilitary activity.
Sinn Féin assembly member for mid-Ulster, John Kelly, called on nationalists to be on their guard, saying: ``It is another example of any nationalist will do.''
The man, who lives in an isolated home with his wife and two sons, aged five and six, at Macosquin near Coleraine, is taking the threat seriously. He explained how the threat has added to the stress his family is under as his five-year-old son suffers from an incurable genetic disorder for which he received cranio-facial surgery in England.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, the man, who wants to remain anonymous, said that the RUC came to his home last Wednesday afternoon, 21 April, while he was out and told his wife they needed to speak to him urgently.
``At first the RUC wouldn't tell my wife why they wanted to see me, but she demanded that they tell her. The RUC then said I was on the Orange Volunteers hit list''.
When the man arrived home, RUC detectives were waiting for him at the bottom of the lane. They said the threat came from the mid-Ulster Orange Volunteers and asked him to go the RUC barracks in Garvagh but he refused. The RUC also said it was the Samaritans who had received the threat.
Macosquin, a small village outside Coleraine in north County Derry, is not far from Castlerock, where the UDA shot dead four men, including IRA Volunteer Jimmy Kelly, in March 1993.
The UDA gang involved in the Greysteel killings in November 1993 were also based in that area, which has a history of loyalist paramilitary activity.
Sinn Féin assembly member for mid-Ulster, John Kelly, called on nationalists to be on their guard, saying: ``It is another example of any nationalist will do.''
