Latest news with #paramilitary
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
'Loyalist paramilitary transitioning has failed' ex-watchdog says
The process aimed at disbanding loyalist paramilitary groups has failed, a former security watchdog has told BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight Alderdice, the former Alliance Party leader who was a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission, said talks about loyalist transition should was responding to the arrest and conviction on firearms charges of Winston Irvine, who worked as an interlocutor with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), which represents mainstream loyalist groups.A senior LCC source told Spotlight that loyalist transition is on course to be concluded this autumn, with an announcement of the complete dismantling of all paramilitary structures. Irvine, of Ballysillan Road in north Belfast, was a well-known community worker before being given a two and a half year sentence over guns and ammunition found in the boot of his car in Public Prosecution Service (PPS) is appealing the sentence for being "unduly lenient".Irvine's conviction has returned attention to loyalist funding and paramilitary up in 2015, the LCC says it represents a loyalist leadership committed to transition, the scaling back of criminality and ultimately disbandment.A source in the organisation told Spotlight that Winston Irvine has been instrumental in moving the mainstream Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) away from criminality, and that a final push for loyalist transition is imminent. Lord Alderdice spent seven years on the Independent Monitoring Commission, which was given access to secret intelligence to report on paramilitary activities, before it was wound up in said the transition process is "not working". "A halt should be called, and you can't call a halt now sooner than today."There comes a point when you have to say no, this hasn't been delivered."It's not going to be delivered. And, actually, by continuing we are making it worse."Lord Alderdice told the programme he does not believe the loyalist paramilitaries are making a genuine effort to transition away from criminality."What I've seen is more talking about transition, and transformation, and no doubt with an invoice provided, for how much money is needed to be made available from public services in order to pay off these people." Cathy McIlvenny's sister, Lorraine, was murdered by UDA members in previously told Spotlight, in 2013, that she dealt with Winston Irvine when he arranged a punishment shooting of her nephew, Craig, in believes the sentence given to Irvine is not enough, and says loyalist paramilitaries will continue as long as funding is still available."They're just being given money to keep them quiet and make it look to the rest of the world now that the British government has solved the Northern Ireland problem."But, it hasn't. It's made it worse for the communities."In 2013 it was alleged to Spotlight that Winston Irvine was a UVF leader, something which he has denied as "preposterous". No explanation was given in court as to why Irvine and his co-accused had the the arrest, police discovered UVF paraphernalia in Irvine's home, and that of his co-accused Robin in sentencing, Judge Gordon Kerr KC concluded the movement of weapons had not been directly connected to terrorism.54-year-old, Workman, of Shore Road in Larne, was sentenced to five years - the minimum custodial sentence, which the PPS said it would not be guns were found by covert police six weeks after a hoax bomb, which targeted a peace event in Belfast attended by then Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney in March said UVF involvement in the hoax attack was a primary line of inquiry. Prior to his arrest and conviction, Winston Irvine spent more than a decade as a paid community role gave him access to high-level contacts and enhanced his credibility as a peace 49-year-old, who received a number of supportive character references during the case, provided a pre-prepared statement in which he claimed to be a "trusted interlocutor" in community relations and the peace his arrest sent shock waves through the British and Irish governments because of how they often rely on community workers to engage with loyalist his arrest, Irvine was suspended from his role at the north Belfast community group Intercomm Ireland, in line with its internal disciplinary left the organisation several months said it was "difficult to convey the impact" the case had on its team who were "shocked, disappointed and felt let down" by Winston Irvine's actions.A statement added that "significant reorganisation (was) required to continue to deliver on our commitments to projects and fulfil obligations to funders and to the community".But Irvine continued to work on funded projects in unionist and loyalist areas while on bail for the weapons charges.
The Independent
13-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Minister honoured after 42 years as chaplain at HMP Magilligan
A prison chaplain who has spent more than 40 years at HMP Magilligan in the north west of Northern Ireland has said he feels incredibly touched to be recognised in the Kings' Birthday Honours. Free Presbyterian Minister Rev Wesley McDowell, 77, survived a siege at the prison when the inmates took over a wing seeking political status, and said while the experience was a little akin to the 'lion's den', he enjoyed his 42 years there, and felt he had made a difference to many. He is now to be awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), and said it was lovely to be recognised, although it had come as a surprise to him. Rev McDowell started at Magilligan around 1982 after a member of his then church in Limavady recommended he apply. 'I thought, well if I was to spread the gospel, which is my motivation, well why not?' he said. Rev McDowell said he found ways to get attention, including putting the words of the 23rd psalm to the tune of the Loyalist marching song The Sash. 'I thought, some of these boys were never in a church, but they will know that tune,' he said. 'I was brought up in similar circumstances to, I came from a similar background to a lot of the paramilitary boys. I knew where they were coming from, I showed an interest in them. I was just a wee fella from the Shankill Road, the same as many of them. 'I didn't always find out what they were in for, I could have done, looked up the system, but I never did. For if I meet someone in the street and talked to them about the Lord, I don't know who they are and their background. 'I think the men detected that there was a genuine interest in them. 'So it's good to see, and I don't know who the proposer is, that someone recognised it. I have to say I had a lot of help and encouragement from prison staff as well.' While many may view looking after a church congregation as the preferrable option, Rev McDowell pointed out the strong turn-outs to his Sunday services, adding, 'where else would you get that outside … how would you reach that many people'. However, one of those services in the late 1980s saw him trapped inside during a prisoner protest for political status and to be segregated. 'It was just after my Sunday morning service, I went to see if I could help. I realised when I was down the wing, I thought it was a short protest but it lasted from the Sunday morning to Wednesday evening,' he said. 'It was with 30 loyalist prisoners, along with a prison officer and a republican prisoner. I had my collar on for you didn't know what was going to happen, it was a tense stand-off. 'It was nice to get out again, but the men presented no threat to me, nor the prison officer or the other prisoner. 'I often wonder where a lot of them are now.' While Rev McDowell recently retired from his post at Magilligan he said he noticed a lot of changes, with many prisoners more likely to be in for drugs offences, and more for whom English is not their first language. 'Of course we can get material in their language, so there is always a way to reach people,' he said. He added: 'I dealt with situations like prisoners protesting, I knew there were boys that maybe didn't like me, it was like Daniel in the lion's den, you just trust the Lord to keep you. 'I'm pleased that someone has acknowledged the ministry because that sort of work goes unrecognised, it's not in the headlines but the work continues on.'
Free Malaysia Today
03-06-2025
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
More than 200 prisoners break out of Pakistani jail after quake panic
The inmates overpowered prison guards after being allowed to leave their cells following a series of tremors. (EPA Images pic) KARACHI : More than 200 inmates escaped from a jail in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi late yesterday when they overpowered prison guards after being allowed to leave their cells following a series of earthquakes, local officials and police said. The jailbreak began just before midnight and continued into the early hours of today after hundreds of prisoners were allowed into the courtyard of the District Malir prison because of the tremors, Zia-ul-Hasan Lanjar, the provincial law minister, told reporters at the scene today. Police said the prisoners snatched guns from prison staff and forced open the main gate after a shootout, evading paramilitary soldiers. At least one prisoner was killed and three guards wounded, said provincial police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon. 'I heard the firing for quite some time and then some time later prisoners made their way out running in all directions,' Bukhsh, a private security guard at a residential complex opposite the jail who goes by a single name, told Reuters. He added that some of the prisoners entered the apartment complex before being taken away by police. Today, a Reuters reporter who visited the prison saw shattered glass and damaged electronic equipment. A meeting room, for prisoners to see their families, had been ransacked. Anxious family members had gathered outside. The jailbreak was one of the largest ever in Pakistan, Lanjar said. The prison, which houses 6,000 inmates, is in the Malir district of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city. Prisoners ran through the area throughout the night, some of them barefoot, with police giving chase, local TV footage showed. About 80 of those who escaped had been caught, said Murad Ali Shah, the provincial chief minister. The jail's superintendent, Arshad Shah, told reporters that there were 28 prison guards on duty at night, and that 'only a few of such a large number of prisoners escaped'. He said the prison did not have security cameras. Officials said the inmates, many of them heroin users, had been unnerved by the earthquakes. 'There was panic here because of earthquake tremors,' said Lanjar. The provincial chief minister said it was a mistake for prison authorities to have allowed the prisoners to leave their cells. He urged the inmates still at large to hand themselves in, or face a serious charge for breaking out. 'Petty crime charges will become a big case like terrorism,' Shah said.
The Guardian
03-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Northern Ireland journalists face attacks and death threats, says Amnesty report
Journalists in Northern Ireland routinely face attacks and death threats from paramilitary and organised crime groups that act with impunity, according to Amnesty International. Reporters have been physically assaulted and told they will be shot, stabbed, raped or blown up, making Northern Ireland the most dangerous place in the UK for journalism, a report said on Tuesday. It documented more than 70 attacks and threats since 2019 but found there were no prosecutions for threats from paramilitary groups, the most significant source of the intimidation. 'Journalists in Northern Ireland are facing a sustained campaign of threats, intimidation and violence from armed groups, which makes it the most dangerous place in the UK to be a reporter,' said Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International UK's Northern Ireland director. 'They are being threatened, attacked and even killed for shining a light on paramilitary groups and others who seek to exert control through violence. This creates a climate of fear that many assumed was consigned to history when the Good Friday agreement was signed.' The lack of prosecutions has emboldened paramilitaries – loyalist and republican – and fostered a sense of impunity, Corrigan said. 'When journalists are under attack, press freedom is under attack. The state must create a safe environment where journalists can work freely and report without fear of reprisals. It is currently failing to do so.' Journalists' cars have been damaged – in some cases battered with poles laced with nails – and some reporters have been given ultimatums to leave Northern Ireland. Two journalists have been killed, Lyra McKee in 2019 and Martin O'Hagan in 2001. Some of those interviewed for the 96-page report, titled Occupational Hazard? Threats and Violence Against Journalists in Northern Ireland, said they had protected their homes with bulletproof windows and doors and alarms linked to police stations. Police visited Allison Morris, the Belfast Telegraph's crime correspondent, nine times between December 2023 and October 2024 to warn about threats from paramilitary or criminal groups. 'I'm convinced someone's going to kill me at some point,' said Morris. 'I always think I'll never die of natural causes. Most of the time, I pretend that the threats don't annoy me, but clearly, they do. This is not a normal way to live.' The report urged the Stormont administration to establish a media safety group, comprising police, prosecutors and journalists, and urged the police to review the procedural response to threats and to pursue investigations that lead to successful prosecutions. Ch Supt Sam Donaldson said the Police Service of Northern Ireland took journalism safety seriously and would consider the report and its recommendations. In recent years the PSNI has developed a joint strategy with local editors and the National Union of Journalists, said Donaldson. 'Journalists do not have to tolerate threats and crimes as part of their role. That has been our recent, consistent message.' Seamus Dooley, the NUJ's assistant general secretary, said it was not normal that journalists lived in fear decades after the Troubles, adding: 'That really is not the sign of a normal functioning democracy.'
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Most dangerous moment since 1995': renegade Dodik leaves Bosnia in limbo
The members of the elite Hungarian police unit crossed the border in civilian clothes, putting on their uniforms only once they had reached their destination. After arriving in Banja Luka, the capital of the Serbian half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they posed in green fatigues with balaclava-wearing Serbian police. Officially, the Hungarians had come as trainers, but the mission was announced only after their presence was reported in the local press. The supposedly sovereign Bosnian state government in Sarajevo had not been informed that up to 300 paramilitary police officers from another country would be crossing the frontier. The timing was key: the Hungarians had arrived on the eve of a pivotal, potentially explosive, date. On 26 February, Milorad Dodik, the firebrand president of the Serb-run republic, Republika Srpska, was sentenced to a year in prison and a six-year ban from holding office for separatist actions. Dodik, who has run the entity since 2006, was convicted for having defied the envoy of the international community in Bosnia, a position created to ensure implementation of the Dayton agreement that ended the 1992-1995 war. Technically the supreme power in the country, the high representative has the power to impose or annul laws and sack officials. Responding to the ruling, Dodik told his supporters the conviction was 'nonsense' and called on them to 'be cheerful'. He then said that Bosnia and Herzegovina had 'ceased to exist' and, in an apparent move towards secession, had local laws passed that ban the presence of national law enforcement or judicial officials on Republika Srpska soil. Dodik insisted he would not appeal against the verdict as he did not recognise the court's jurisdiction, but noted he could not stop his lawyers appealing. The lawyers did so and the appeal is due to be heard in the next few months. The verdict and Dodik's response represented a moment when Bosnia's long-term dysfunction tipped into a dangerous crisis, that could split Europe. It showed that in a squeeze, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, would actively side with Vladimir Putin and allies such as Dodik rather than Brussels. During almost two decades in power, Dodik has been a frequent visitor to Moscow, showing up there on Tuesday for the third time since March. Serbia's authoritarian president, Aleksandar Vučić, also routinely backs Dodik in his standoff with Sarajevo and western capitals. Vučić went to Banja Luka in solidarity, after what he called the court's 'unlawful, anti-democratic' verdict. The two men met again in Belgrade on Monday, as Dodik made his way to Moscow. The ruling and its aftermath also showed that, 30 years after conflict in Bosnia killed more than 100,000 people, its underlying divisions are far from being resolved. Few expect a return to war, but the country remains a flashpoint in the heart of Europe with potential for strife and violence. The war that was ended by the Dayton accords was a horrendous conflict that brought genocide back to the heart of Europe. The accords will be commemorated this week by a Nato meeting in the Ohio city that gave the peace deal its name. But while Dayton stopped the killing, it also simply froze the conflict by splitting the country into two halves: Republika Srpska and a Federation of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Croats. Dayton's critics denounced it as a reward for ethnic cleansing. The bandage that stemmed the bloodshed has hardened over the decades into a straitjacket that has prevented Bosnia from developing into a functional state. It established a multi-tiered system of governance that favoured nationalist parties, paralysis and corruption. Since coming to power, Dodik, the Republika Srpska president and leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, has blocked reforms and European integration with threats of secession and a return to conflict. But there are signs he is growing politically more frail: Bosnian officials and foreign diplomats in Sarajevo confirmed reporting in the Hungarian press that said Orbán's paramilitaries had been in Banja Luka to extract Dodik if he found himself cornered and had to make a run for it. That has not happened yet, but experts say Dodik's departure remains a strong possibility: in the past few months, the Serbian leader's family has approached a senior western official to negotiate terms for his departure, the Guardian has been told.. But it is not a foregone conclusion that Dodik will choose exile. Instead, he may continue to try to defy the sentence – and international community – and cling to office behind a shield of his paramilitary police. For the country itself, the limbo is full of risk. 'It's very clearly the most dangerous moment in Bosnia since 1995,' said Jasmin Mujanović, a Bosnian political analyst. 'It's a crisis that can only end with his arrest or if he opts ultimately to flee.' There was an attempt to detain Dodik in April, after the passage of legislation deemed extreme even by his standards. The Bosnian prosecutor issued arrest warrants for him and two other Serbian officials, and six weeks later there was a tense standoff in east Sarajevo, when Serbian police prevented agents of the Bosnia State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) from arresting Dodik. The SIPA agents withdrew. The appeal judgment on the February verdict is due by the end of the year but it is generally expected by the summer. If it upholds Dodik's conviction and sentence, the ban on holding office would take effect, potentially triggering new presidential elections in Republika Srpska and the possible victory of an opposition coalition prepared to collaborate against ethnic boundaries and revive Bosnia's EU membership bid. It could also mean that another, more determined, attempt may be made to arrest him, and Bosnia could ask the small European peacekeeping force, Eufor, for at least a show of support. 'The only mystery is whether Dodik will accept the ruling and leave his premises in the presidential palace,' said Igor Crnadak, a former Bosnian foreign minister and senior member of the Party of Democratic Progress, part of the Serb opposition bloc. 'Or will he refuse to leave his position? I don't think anybody knows what he will do.' He added: 'I think that Bosnia is at the turning point.' Christian Schmidt, a German former minister serving as the current high representative, insists that, for now, it is a political rather than security crisis. 'How do we solve this kind of challenge without an escalation? I think this is something which needs a lot of diplomacy and talks behind the scenes for the moment,' Schmidt said, but he added: 'I do not see that Mr Dodik meets the requirements for a responsible member of the political leadership in this country.' Last week, Schmidt reported to the UN security council on the worsening situation and appealed for international engagement to forestall a disaster. The signs at the council meeting were not encouraging. The Russian delegation left the chamber while Schmidt was speaking, and the Serbian member currently holding the chair in Bosnia's rotating trilateral presidency, Željka Cvijanović, flew in for the occasion to try to turn the tables on Schmidt, questioning his legitimacy and accusing him of 'dictatorship' and 'repression'. At the EU level, action has also been limited. Hungary has so far blocked sanctions against Dodik, with help from Croatia. The financial pressure on Dodik is mounting, however. The US, UK, Germany, Austria, Poland and Lithuania have all taken individual punitive measures against him. His hope that Trump's restoration to power in Washington would lead to a swift suspension of US sanctions has not been fulfilled; the new administration has little interest in Bosnia. If his appeal fails, Crnadak suggested he follow the same advice Dodik once gave to the Bosnian Serb wartime leaders when they were on the run from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague: give yourself up. 'What you are doing now is directly affecting Serbian people and Republika Srpska,' Crnadak said. 'If you love your people, you will go to the court and fight for your innocence there.'
