RUC warns 17 Sinn Fein pols on loyalist death list

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST — All 17 Sinn Fein councilors in Belfast and Lisburn have been warned by the RUC that their names are on loyalist death lists, although the police are refusing to give any further details on which group is making the threats or where the targets are at most risk.

Each of the party’s 13 members on Belfast City Council, four elected to Lisburn borough and three more in mid-Ulster, including Dara O’Hagan, the party assembly woman in Upper Bann, were told by the RUC this week they are under "immediate threat."

O’Hagan has reapplied to be put on the "Key Persons Protection Scheme" after being told by the RUC last Wednesday she is being "actively targeted" by loyalists. Demanding more details, O’Hagan said the RUC refused to give her any more information.

Sinn Fein has accused the RUC of behaving like "mere messenger boys" for the loyalist paramilitaries behind the threats.

"The RUC’s refusal to divulge information follows a well-set pattern," O’Hagan said. "The RUC supply intelligence information to loyalists and then notify nationalists that they are in danger but refuse to go into details and quite often stand in the way of nationalists getting the protection they are entitled to."

Craigavon Sinn Fein councilors John O’Dowd and Francie Murray have also been told they are on a loyalist death list. O’Dowd said, "How can people take the necessary safety precautions if they are not informed from where this threat has come?"

Meanwhile, the RUC has been forced to reverse a decision to deny Belfast defense lawyer Padraigin Drinan protection under the Key Persons plan. Initially, Drinan’s application for protection was turned down because the RUC, while accepting she is a key person as defined under the plan, refused to accept that her life was in danger.

Drinan took over as lawyer to the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition after Rosemary Nelson’s murder in March 1999. The reversal means she will have bulletproof windows and security cameras installed in her home.

In February, Drinan’s application was turned down by the Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, on the advice of the RUC. International pressure and representations from the Dublin government are believed to have been behind the decision to provide the Belfast lawyer with protection.