Gunmen fire chilling warning
Shankill UFF in show of strength

By Mary Fitzgerald

GUNMEN appeared on the Shankill again early this morning and issued a chilling warning about retaliation linked to peace line attacks.

The Lower Shankill UFF said that while they supported peace, they would not stand by if attacks on Protestant interface areas continued.

In a prepared statement read at last night's annual 11th night bonfire on the lower Shankill, a member of the so-called 2nd Battalion 'C' Company said the paramilitary organisation supported a peaceful resolution.

He said: "But we cannot stand by and do nothing while Protestant families living in interface areas are attacked.

"We have exercised restraint so far, but if these attacks continue then we will have no other course of action but to initiate a measured response."

As a crowd of close to 1,000 people cheered, the UFF representative, wearing a balaclava, added: "We want to bring peace to our province but we cannot do it alone.

"Republicans must play their part too.

"We are prepared for peace but republicans are not.

"The UFF capabilities are underestimated. We remain, as always, an army on behalf of our people."

Following the speech, seven members of the UFF gathered at the gable end of a house on the lower Shankill and fired submachine guns and pistols in the air.

The terror stunt has become an annual display in the lower Shankill.

North and west Belfast has been the scene of continual disturbances centring on interface areas between Catholic and Protestant districts this year.

Publication Date: 12 July 2002