1 March 2001 Edition
500 names on loyalist death list
BY LAURA FRIEL
North Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly has described the discovery of a loyalist death list containing the names of as many as 500 people as ``extremely worrying.''
``Given the lengths to which loyalist murder gangs have gone in recent weeks to kill members of the nationalist community this is an extremely worrying development,'' he said.
In what is believed to be the most extensive death list to be found since the uncovering of British military documents at Stoneyford Orange Hall in 1999, the latest documents were seized during a number of raids at the height of the recent loyalist pipe bomb campaign against Catholics.
Amongst a haul of pipe bombs and other weaponry discovered in the greater Belfast area and attributed to the UVF, computer printouts and a disk were found containing the names of 300 republicans, believed to be former republican prisoners. The information may have been downloaded via the Internet from a republican prisoners' Web site in America.
In another haul, documents containing around 150 names, addresses and some photographs were uncovered in the north of the city. As well as the list of names, there was also a street map with marked homes and several surveillance photographs found in a plastic wrapped package.
This material is believed to have originated from British crown forces. It is currently unclear whether it is being linked to the British Army, the RUC or prison staff. The documents seized are only copies and it is feared that the lists have been circulated amongst loyalists. Some of the information is believed to be as recent as 1999.
``It is imperative that all persons named are informed as a matter of urgency and given detailed accounts of the information now in the hands of loyalists,'' said Kelly, ``and we all need to know who collated this material and how it came to be in loyalist possession.''
News of the death lists came as Sinn Féin called for an end to the Stevens investigation into the assassination of Pat Finucane and the setting up of a fully independent public inquiry into that case and the deaths of some 400 Catholics.
North Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly has described the discovery of a loyalist death list containing the names of as many as 500 people as ``extremely worrying.''
``Given the lengths to which loyalist murder gangs have gone in recent weeks to kill members of the nationalist community this is an extremely worrying development,'' he said.
In what is believed to be the most extensive death list to be found since the uncovering of British military documents at Stoneyford Orange Hall in 1999, the latest documents were seized during a number of raids at the height of the recent loyalist pipe bomb campaign against Catholics.
Amongst a haul of pipe bombs and other weaponry discovered in the greater Belfast area and attributed to the UVF, computer printouts and a disk were found containing the names of 300 republicans, believed to be former republican prisoners. The information may have been downloaded via the Internet from a republican prisoners' Web site in America.
In another haul, documents containing around 150 names, addresses and some photographs were uncovered in the north of the city. As well as the list of names, there was also a street map with marked homes and several surveillance photographs found in a plastic wrapped package.
This material is believed to have originated from British crown forces. It is currently unclear whether it is being linked to the British Army, the RUC or prison staff. The documents seized are only copies and it is feared that the lists have been circulated amongst loyalists. Some of the information is believed to be as recent as 1999.
``It is imperative that all persons named are informed as a matter of urgency and given detailed accounts of the information now in the hands of loyalists,'' said Kelly, ``and we all need to know who collated this material and how it came to be in loyalist possession.''
News of the death lists came as Sinn Féin called for an end to the Stevens investigation into the assassination of Pat Finucane and the setting up of a fully independent public inquiry into that case and the deaths of some 400 Catholics.