THEY CALL THIS THE PEACE PROCESS; Punishment beatings at five-year high.
IT is almost a nightly occurrence - the victim lies in the gutter
or his living room with blood gushing from wounds inflicted by men
upholding "law and order."
This is Ulster at peace.
So-called punishment beatings are at their highest for five years.
Baseball bats, bricks, sledgehammers, electric drills and guns are the favourites of the paramilitaries dispensing their own form of justice.
The "crimes" range from accidentally spilling a drink to theft, joyriding, drug dealing or simply not having a face that fits.
The sentences? Pain, fear, maiming, loss of limbs or death.
Now Amnesty International have announced that they are sending observers to the province to find out why these beatings are still continuing and endangering the fragile hopes of peace.
But ask the people in the hardline republican or loyalist estates and they will shrug their shoulders.
For them, these are nothing new and, for many, they have become an acceptable part of everyday existence.
Many feel the fear created by the men in the masks is helping to combat petty crime in the toughest areas of Belfast.
A Shankill woman, the victim of a burglary, said: "Everybody knew who had done it but there was no point going to the police.
"It's not just in Belfast but in nearly every city where the police have little chance of charging anyone or getting the property back.
"Somebody I knew spoke to the UDA. The lad who did the break-in got a beating and I got all my stuff back.
"He'll think twice about doing my house again."
That attitude - not uncommon - is frightening the politicians who see the danger of the paramilitaries becoming so entrenched that no bid for permanent peace can ever remove them.
Last month's figures for these crimes were the highest since 1994 and sit uneasily alongside ceasefires announced by the main para- military groups.
Back in the seventies, the Provisional IRA in particular were out shooting -or trying to shoot -people every night of the week in their own republican areas.
They went after those they suspected of passing information to the police or Army.
The terror groups' tactics carried on through the next two decades.
Many of the victims were those who tried to muscle in on drugs operations run by gangs of all persuasions.
Now these punishment beatings are at the forefront of the political agenda.
The entire peace process could crumble because of a shattered knee-cap or a battered body.
The IRA, UDA and UVF - all groups with politicians representing their views in the political arena - are responsible.
Neither RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan nor anyone else has any doubts about that. But, despite the figures, PM Tony Blair and Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam are still saying the peace process is intact... unlike the limbs of the victims.
Joseph McGartland was dragged away in front of his girlfriend Tracey and their four- year-old daughter Kirsty by a gang of six masked and armed men in West Belfast.
They took him to waste ground and hung him upside down on railings like a piece of meat in an abattoir.
The six beat him with heavy metal scaffolding pins, starting at the top with his feet and ankles, working all the way down to his head and then back up again.
Joseph's "crime"? His brother Martin had been an RUC Special Branch agent, saving the lives of 50 policemen, soldiers and civilians.
Joseph said: "I didn't even know Marty was in the IRA, never mind that he was an informer. He'd had to do a runner from the Provos about two years before they beat me and I had no idea where he was or what he was doing."
Now, 18 months on, Joseph is still having operations on his shattered limbs. The gang broke nearly every bone in his body and cut him down, he believes, to bleed to death.
He added: "If a woman hadn't heard a noise and called an ambulance, I'd be dead. Only one of the gang spoke to me. I think I would have recognised the voices of the others.
"I am sure that they pass me on the street every day.
"I might even have been to school with some of them.
"Nobody needed to give orders. They all knew exactly what to do. They must have done it so many times that they had it down to a fine art.
"There was absolute silence as they blattered me and blattered me. I could hear my bones breaking."
Joseph will never walk properly again. Nor will Andrew Peden, beaten so badly by loyalists that he lost both his legs.
But the punishment beatings continue. On the streets, there is some black humour.
"You can always tell the drug dealers around our way," says one teenager.
"They're on their mobile phones as their mates push them down to the dole in their wheelchairs."
Meanwhile, the hopes of peace begin to look bleak as more tales of horror emerge.
In West Belfast, the IRA have invented a new form of torture. They drill a hole in the knee-cap, widen it and pour in quick-drying cement. As it dries and expands, the joint is wrecked forever.
And last night, one punishment beating victim described his kidnapping ordeal at the hands of former comrades for the first time.
In a TV documentary, convicted IRA bomber Paddy Fox, 29 - an opponent of Sinn Fein's peace strategy - told how he was seized by masked men last weekend.
He was held for nine hours and beaten before being dumped on a road between Armagh and Tyrone.
Fox claimed police in the Irish Republic had told him the gang were members of the local Provisional IRA.
He told Channel 4's Dispatches: "I was knocked out from the very first punch.
"I was beaten unconscious and I just woke up in a forest hours later."
Before his release two years ago, Fox was serving a 10-year sentence for a car bombing in 1991.
In a newspaper interview published as he was kidnapped on Sunday in Monaghan, Fox repeated criticism of the Good Friday peace agreement and Sinn Fein's political strategy.
He also told of his fear that the IRA would abduct him.
Last night he said: "They're misguided - they should think about where the Republican movement is going and allow me to say what I want."
A MONTH OF MAYHEM
January 1
North Belfast man has his two hands broken by IRA gang after accidentally spilling drink belonging to IRA man's wife.
January 3
Two men beaten by gang wielding iron bars in Newtownards, Co. Down. Believed to be the work of Loyalists.
January 4
A 25-year-old man who had returned home for Christmas/New Year beaten by a gang of men with baseball bats and iron bars in the Markets area of Belfast. Injuries to head, chest and both legs. Believed to be the IRA.
January 5
Two men aged 27 and 29 found in alley-way in West Belfast. They had been abducted and shot in the legs. IRA responsible. Five masked men burst into a flat in Antrim town, singled out two men from group and beat them. Attack witnessed by woman and 15-year-old. The work of Loyalists.
January 6
Two men beaten by Loyalist gang using iron bars in Lurgan, Co.Armagh.
January 7
A man in his 20s taken to hospital after being shot in the leg by Loyalists at Rathcoole on the outskirts of North Belfast. Man beaten with batons by the IRA in the nationalist Ormeau Road area near Belfast city centre.
January 8
Two men aged 35 and 39 beaten with pickaxe handles by three masked Loyalists who burst into house at Kilfennan near Londonderry.
January 9
A 17-year-old youth beaten by hooded IRA men at Killough, Co. Down. Injuries to head, face, back and arms. IRA gangs burst into two houses on the Drumrallagh estate, Strabane Co. Tyrone. One man beaten with hurley sticks and badly bruised. A second man received two broken legs and a broken arm.
January 12
An 18-year-old beaten with iron bars and sticks in front of his family in Londonderry. The work of the IRA.
January 14
A 23-year-old man shot in the thigh by Loyalists at Malvern Way in theShankill area.
January 15
A 24-year-old has both ankles broken in beating by the IRA in the Markets area. Another man aged 24 shot in the right calf by three masked Loyalists in a park in the Shore Road area of North Belfast.
January 17
Three Loyalists attackers armed with hammers and an iron bar beat a 32- year-old man in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. He suffered a broken wrist and severe bruising.
January 20
A 30-year-old man shot in the right arm, right knee and left arm by the IRA in a house at Lurgantarry, Lurgan, Co. Armagh. He was first beaten by a masked gang using baseball bats.
January 21
A 38-year-old man is shot in the right thigh in the grounds of a school in Portadown, Co. Armagh. The work of Loyalists.
January 22
A 17-year-old youth shot in the right leg by Loyalists in the Shankill area of Belfast. Also, a Loyalist assault in Larne, Co. Antrim. Victims refused to make complaints.
January 24
The IRA shoot man in Magherafelt Co. Londonderry.
January 25
An 18-year-old youth severely beaten by IRA gang at Rasharkin, Co. Antrim. A 24-year-old man shot in the leg by Loyalists in East Belfast.
January 26
A man is shot in both hands and right ankle by the IRA in West Belfast.
January 29
Two masked IRA men burst into a house in Cookstown, Co.Tyrone, and shoot twice a man in his early 30s.
February 1
A 28-year-old man is abducted by the IRA in Cookstown and is driven around for two hours before being beaten and forced to lie on the ground at Moygashel. He was then shot in the right leg.
February 2
A, IRA gang break into a house at Lisnaskeagh, Co. Fermanagh, and attack a 30-year-old man with a sledge hammer before shooting him in the stomach. A 40-year-old man is shot in the leg by Loyalists in East Belfast.
This is Ulster at peace.
So-called punishment beatings are at their highest for five years.
Baseball bats, bricks, sledgehammers, electric drills and guns are the favourites of the paramilitaries dispensing their own form of justice.
The "crimes" range from accidentally spilling a drink to theft, joyriding, drug dealing or simply not having a face that fits.
The sentences? Pain, fear, maiming, loss of limbs or death.
Now Amnesty International have announced that they are sending observers to the province to find out why these beatings are still continuing and endangering the fragile hopes of peace.
But ask the people in the hardline republican or loyalist estates and they will shrug their shoulders.
For them, these are nothing new and, for many, they have become an acceptable part of everyday existence.
Many feel the fear created by the men in the masks is helping to combat petty crime in the toughest areas of Belfast.
A Shankill woman, the victim of a burglary, said: "Everybody knew who had done it but there was no point going to the police.
"It's not just in Belfast but in nearly every city where the police have little chance of charging anyone or getting the property back.
"Somebody I knew spoke to the UDA. The lad who did the break-in got a beating and I got all my stuff back.
"He'll think twice about doing my house again."
That attitude - not uncommon - is frightening the politicians who see the danger of the paramilitaries becoming so entrenched that no bid for permanent peace can ever remove them.
Last month's figures for these crimes were the highest since 1994 and sit uneasily alongside ceasefires announced by the main para- military groups.
Back in the seventies, the Provisional IRA in particular were out shooting -or trying to shoot -people every night of the week in their own republican areas.
They went after those they suspected of passing information to the police or Army.
The terror groups' tactics carried on through the next two decades.
Many of the victims were those who tried to muscle in on drugs operations run by gangs of all persuasions.
Now these punishment beatings are at the forefront of the political agenda.
The entire peace process could crumble because of a shattered knee-cap or a battered body.
The IRA, UDA and UVF - all groups with politicians representing their views in the political arena - are responsible.
Neither RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan nor anyone else has any doubts about that. But, despite the figures, PM Tony Blair and Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam are still saying the peace process is intact... unlike the limbs of the victims.
Joseph McGartland was dragged away in front of his girlfriend Tracey and their four- year-old daughter Kirsty by a gang of six masked and armed men in West Belfast.
They took him to waste ground and hung him upside down on railings like a piece of meat in an abattoir.
The six beat him with heavy metal scaffolding pins, starting at the top with his feet and ankles, working all the way down to his head and then back up again.
Joseph's "crime"? His brother Martin had been an RUC Special Branch agent, saving the lives of 50 policemen, soldiers and civilians.
Joseph said: "I didn't even know Marty was in the IRA, never mind that he was an informer. He'd had to do a runner from the Provos about two years before they beat me and I had no idea where he was or what he was doing."
Now, 18 months on, Joseph is still having operations on his shattered limbs. The gang broke nearly every bone in his body and cut him down, he believes, to bleed to death.
He added: "If a woman hadn't heard a noise and called an ambulance, I'd be dead. Only one of the gang spoke to me. I think I would have recognised the voices of the others.
"I am sure that they pass me on the street every day.
"I might even have been to school with some of them.
"Nobody needed to give orders. They all knew exactly what to do. They must have done it so many times that they had it down to a fine art.
"There was absolute silence as they blattered me and blattered me. I could hear my bones breaking."
Joseph will never walk properly again. Nor will Andrew Peden, beaten so badly by loyalists that he lost both his legs.
But the punishment beatings continue. On the streets, there is some black humour.
"You can always tell the drug dealers around our way," says one teenager.
"They're on their mobile phones as their mates push them down to the dole in their wheelchairs."
Meanwhile, the hopes of peace begin to look bleak as more tales of horror emerge.
In West Belfast, the IRA have invented a new form of torture. They drill a hole in the knee-cap, widen it and pour in quick-drying cement. As it dries and expands, the joint is wrecked forever.
And last night, one punishment beating victim described his kidnapping ordeal at the hands of former comrades for the first time.
In a TV documentary, convicted IRA bomber Paddy Fox, 29 - an opponent of Sinn Fein's peace strategy - told how he was seized by masked men last weekend.
He was held for nine hours and beaten before being dumped on a road between Armagh and Tyrone.
Fox claimed police in the Irish Republic had told him the gang were members of the local Provisional IRA.
He told Channel 4's Dispatches: "I was knocked out from the very first punch.
"I was beaten unconscious and I just woke up in a forest hours later."
Before his release two years ago, Fox was serving a 10-year sentence for a car bombing in 1991.
In a newspaper interview published as he was kidnapped on Sunday in Monaghan, Fox repeated criticism of the Good Friday peace agreement and Sinn Fein's political strategy.
He also told of his fear that the IRA would abduct him.
Last night he said: "They're misguided - they should think about where the Republican movement is going and allow me to say what I want."
A MONTH OF MAYHEM
January 1
North Belfast man has his two hands broken by IRA gang after accidentally spilling drink belonging to IRA man's wife.
January 3
Two men beaten by gang wielding iron bars in Newtownards, Co. Down. Believed to be the work of Loyalists.
January 4
A 25-year-old man who had returned home for Christmas/New Year beaten by a gang of men with baseball bats and iron bars in the Markets area of Belfast. Injuries to head, chest and both legs. Believed to be the IRA.
January 5
Two men aged 27 and 29 found in alley-way in West Belfast. They had been abducted and shot in the legs. IRA responsible. Five masked men burst into a flat in Antrim town, singled out two men from group and beat them. Attack witnessed by woman and 15-year-old. The work of Loyalists.
January 6
Two men beaten by Loyalist gang using iron bars in Lurgan, Co.Armagh.
January 7
A man in his 20s taken to hospital after being shot in the leg by Loyalists at Rathcoole on the outskirts of North Belfast. Man beaten with batons by the IRA in the nationalist Ormeau Road area near Belfast city centre.
January 8
Two men aged 35 and 39 beaten with pickaxe handles by three masked Loyalists who burst into house at Kilfennan near Londonderry.
January 9
A 17-year-old youth beaten by hooded IRA men at Killough, Co. Down. Injuries to head, face, back and arms. IRA gangs burst into two houses on the Drumrallagh estate, Strabane Co. Tyrone. One man beaten with hurley sticks and badly bruised. A second man received two broken legs and a broken arm.
January 12
An 18-year-old beaten with iron bars and sticks in front of his family in Londonderry. The work of the IRA.
January 14
A 23-year-old man shot in the thigh by Loyalists at Malvern Way in theShankill area.
January 15
A 24-year-old has both ankles broken in beating by the IRA in the Markets area. Another man aged 24 shot in the right calf by three masked Loyalists in a park in the Shore Road area of North Belfast.
January 17
Three Loyalists attackers armed with hammers and an iron bar beat a 32- year-old man in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. He suffered a broken wrist and severe bruising.
January 20
A 30-year-old man shot in the right arm, right knee and left arm by the IRA in a house at Lurgantarry, Lurgan, Co. Armagh. He was first beaten by a masked gang using baseball bats.
January 21
A 38-year-old man is shot in the right thigh in the grounds of a school in Portadown, Co. Armagh. The work of Loyalists.
January 22
A 17-year-old youth shot in the right leg by Loyalists in the Shankill area of Belfast. Also, a Loyalist assault in Larne, Co. Antrim. Victims refused to make complaints.
January 24
The IRA shoot man in Magherafelt Co. Londonderry.
January 25
An 18-year-old youth severely beaten by IRA gang at Rasharkin, Co. Antrim. A 24-year-old man shot in the leg by Loyalists in East Belfast.
January 26
A man is shot in both hands and right ankle by the IRA in West Belfast.
January 29
Two masked IRA men burst into a house in Cookstown, Co.Tyrone, and shoot twice a man in his early 30s.
February 1
A 28-year-old man is abducted by the IRA in Cookstown and is driven around for two hours before being beaten and forced to lie on the ground at Moygashel. He was then shot in the right leg.
February 2
A, IRA gang break into a house at Lisnaskeagh, Co. Fermanagh, and attack a 30-year-old man with a sledge hammer before shooting him in the stomach. A 40-year-old man is shot in the leg by Loyalists in East Belfast.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Author: | Oliver, Ted |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Feb 5, 1999 |
| Words: | 1702 |
| Previous Article: | Witnesses fears led to death charge change. |
| Next Article: | RECORD VIEW; The camera often lies. |