29 January 1998 Edition
Former POW beaten
By Mick Naughton.
A former republican POW, from North Belfast has told of a vicious RUC attack upon him last weekend. Four RUC members from a mobile support unit wearing green scarves over their faces grabbed the man by the testicles and threatened him, saying, ``see these eyes son, they are the last eyes you will see before the LVF shoots you.''
The attack took place 24 hours after another RUC patrol had stopped the republican and illegally photographed him from the front of a personnel carrier as his taxi was being searched at the junction of Rosapenna Avenue and Oldpark Avenue. Last Saturday afternoon at the exact spot where a black taxi driver was shot dead by loyalists in 1991 one of the RUC members also ran a rifle along his side and made banging noises into his ear.
Following this on Sunday evening one RUC mobile unit accompanied by two British army personnel carriers tried unsuccessfully to run him off the road as he drove along Ardoyne Avenue.
After the subsequent physical attack he managed to get one number of the RUC member who led the abuse. This was 13628 and he also noted the registration of the Land Rover which tried to make him crash, EAZ 8881.
These details are now with the man's lawyer while his passenger has agreed to go witness in any case against the RUC.
``All this is the tip of the iceberg as far as North Belfast is concerned,'' said Sinn Féin's Bobby Lavery. ``Unfortunately there are people who are suffering at the hands of these British thugs in uniform who delight in shouting LVF and UFF at people. People are afraid to report these activities for fear of more harassment, but it is very important for all incidents to be catalogued to expose the collusion between these various unionist armies.''
A former republican POW, from North Belfast has told of a vicious RUC attack upon him last weekend. Four RUC members from a mobile support unit wearing green scarves over their faces grabbed the man by the testicles and threatened him, saying, ``see these eyes son, they are the last eyes you will see before the LVF shoots you.''
The attack took place 24 hours after another RUC patrol had stopped the republican and illegally photographed him from the front of a personnel carrier as his taxi was being searched at the junction of Rosapenna Avenue and Oldpark Avenue. Last Saturday afternoon at the exact spot where a black taxi driver was shot dead by loyalists in 1991 one of the RUC members also ran a rifle along his side and made banging noises into his ear.
Following this on Sunday evening one RUC mobile unit accompanied by two British army personnel carriers tried unsuccessfully to run him off the road as he drove along Ardoyne Avenue.
After the subsequent physical attack he managed to get one number of the RUC member who led the abuse. This was 13628 and he also noted the registration of the Land Rover which tried to make him crash, EAZ 8881.
These details are now with the man's lawyer while his passenger has agreed to go witness in any case against the RUC.
``All this is the tip of the iceberg as far as North Belfast is concerned,'' said Sinn Féin's Bobby Lavery. ``Unfortunately there are people who are suffering at the hands of these British thugs in uniform who delight in shouting LVF and UFF at people. People are afraid to report these activities for fear of more harassment, but it is very important for all incidents to be catalogued to expose the collusion between these various unionist armies.''