October 18, 2002 Call to Segregate Prisoners
by Barry McCaffrey

A protest at Maghaberry Jail yesterday heard a warning that a republican prisoner could be killed unless the government reintroduces segregation from loyalists.

Up to 70 people gathered outside the gates of the prison yesterday to call for the reintroduction of political status and segregation.

The protest was organised by the Republican Prisoners Action Group (RPAG), which includes a broad range of republicans including the IRSP, Republican Sinn Fein and the 32 County Sovereignty Committee.

"This group is not affiliated to any organisation but rather is made up of a wide range of people who are concerned about the ongoing plight of republican prisoners," group spokesman Roger Dillon said.

"Republican prisoners are entitled to political status and segregation from loyalists and that is what we are demanding."

Mr Dillon said that the situation in Maghaberry was deteriorating and he feared a prisoner would be killed unless segregation and political status was introduced as a matter of priority.

"Catholics and Protestants are not forced to live together on the outside so why is it that republicans are being forced to live with loyalists in jail?," he asked.

"We have a situation where republican prisoners on their own are forced to live in wings where there are five and six loyalists."

Former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre, an open critic of the Good Friday Agreement, said the group was campaigning for the rights of all republicans, irrespective of their political affiliations.

"Forced integration didn't work in the past and it won't work now, " he said.

"It is absurd that the British expect people to believe that republicans and loyalists, who end up in jail because of a polarised political situation, can live cheek by jowl.

"It is ironic that in every similar colonial situation involving the British, jailed combatants are portrayed as criminals. These people are in jail because of the political situation," he said.

Sinn Fein assembly member John Kelly, who addressed the protest, said: "For me this is not a political issue, it is an issue of these men having rights as political prisoners.

"I have visited these men, some of whom are my constituents, and have written to the prison administration condemning the conditions which the prisoners and their families are being forced to endure.

"This issue will not go away until political status and segregation has been granted," he said.