RAID US AND WE'LL COMMIT MASS SUICIDE; STALEMATE AT THE CATHEDRAL Asylum hunger strikers' grim promise unless they get deal.

Byline: By LYNN JOLLY

THE Afghan hunger strikers holed up in a cathedral yesterday warned there will be a blood bath if gardai try to evict them.

On the sixth day of their protest the group of around 40 men and boys said they will kill themselves and have blades and ropes ready for a mass suicide.

Several have even threatened to jump from the organ loft in the building and last night started to refuse water.

Speaking from inside Dublin's St Patrick's Cathedral, Samander Khan said: "We will kill ourselves.

"We have warned the gardai that if anyone comes near us we will kill ourselves."

One teenage boy was stretchered out of the cathedral at 11.30am yesterday after trying to take his own life.

Samander added: "We are in the house of God and it is not being respected. One of our group was taken to hospital after trying to hang himself.

"Conditions are very bad. We can't get justice in the house of God in Ireland and we are calling on other nations to help us."

Samander said all seven of the youths inside the cathedral have tried to kill themselves at some stage this week.

Gardai cordoned off the church yesterday with 60 officers at the scene.

A legal team from the Residents Against Racism (RAR) group held talks with the men yesterday morning.

Barrister Paul O'Shea and solicitor Brian Burns were allowed inside by gardai at 11.15am.

Henry Dent of RAR said: "I am not happy with gardai. They are being very heavy handed and there are far too many officers here."

The protesters started their hunger and thirst strike last weekend but most agreed to take water on Tuesday following talks with officials from the Department of Justice. This concession failed late last night.

Their demonstration has met with mixed reaction from the public.

One man who lives near the cathedral said: "Gardai should remove them.

"They should never have been allowed to do this in the first place."

But a pensioner from nearby Francis Street said the men deserve help from the Government.

She added: "I support them very much on human rights grounds. They must be genuinely desperate."

A banner attached to the cathedral railing said "no one is illegal".

And local youngsters held aloft another saying "let our friends stay".

The Children's Rights Alliance yesterday expressed concern for the hunger strikers aged under 18.

Chief executive Jillian van Turnhout said: "There are seven young men starving themselves to death. If seven Irish teenagers were doing this how would the state respond?"

Eight Afghan minors were made wards of court yesterday.

Irish Mirror Comment: Page 6

news@irishmirror.ie

AFGHANS: THE FACTS

ALL of the Afghans in the cathedral have applied for asylum through the official channels

ONE person made an asylum application in late 2003, 18 applied in 2004, 17 in 2005 and four applications were made this year, one as recently as late March

THE Garda National Immigration Bureau believes that one of the people in the cathedral has been awarded refugee status and one has been awarded leave to remain.

CAPTION(S):

DRAMA: Boy taken to hospital' DESPERATE: Four protesters in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, pose with rope around their necks' HEATED: Rival sides in the refugee issue clash outside cathedral yesterday Picture: Colin Keegan' BACK-UP: Garda move in to seal off the cathedral with hunger strikers inside

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Publication:	The Mirror (London, England)
Date:	May 20, 2006
Words:	565
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