BBC

The head of a Northern Ireland animal charity has said he is under threat from loyalists.


USPCA Chief Executive Stephen Philpott said he was under threat

Stephen Philpott of the USPCA told the Sunday Life newspaper that police informed him last week he was being targeted.

He said that he believes the threat stems from his part in a recent BBC Spotlight expose on dog fighting.

"This is not the first threat I have received - and it probably won't be the last," he told the paper.

"When the police come to your home, you have to consider your safety.

"I've no doubt this threat is coming off the back of the Spotlight programme.

"I would also like to thank the police for bringing this threat to my attention."

Last month a BBC investigation uncovered a network of criminal gangs who supply illegal pit bull terriers for fighting.

An undercover team found that the dogs, which are banned in the UK, are brought into the country using false documents.

The dogs are smuggled across Europe for organised fighting and Northern Ireland is the epicentre of the network.

Pit bulls have been banned in the UK since 1991 and dog fighting has been illegal since the 19th Century.

Irish Times

17/09/2007

The use of non-jury trials in Northern Ireland should be reviewed before a decision is taken in two years' time on whether to continue them, the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission urged today.

The report on security normalisation said the British army had completed its demilitarisation programme, with a peacetime garrison of 4,275 troops marking the ending of the army's 38-year military operation in Northern Ireland in July.

The four-member commission hoped the use of non-jury trials in cases where it was feared jurors might be intimidated would become less frequent as the threat from republican and loyalist groups receded.

But it also acknowledged the changes which had taken place in the criminal justice system with the dispensing of the Diplock non-jury courts and their replacement with a system shaped by the level of paramilitary activity.

"We are nevertheless struck by the way in which, because of the nature of the conditions the DPP can apply, they are linked so closely to the past and so to a situation which we hope will continue to become less and less applicable," the 16th report said.

"We note that the provisions will expire in two years unless renewed by the UK parliament. "We hope that they are fully reviewed before a decision is taken on renewal and that circumstances will then exist which would make it possible to align them more closely with the arrangements in other jurisdictions.

"If, as envisaged, criminal justice is by then devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, then we hope that the review will involve close consultation between the Northern Ireland Minister for Justice and the UK Government."

The IMC's latest report noted that, during the last six months of the British government's demilitarisation programme, pledges to demolish the remaining army observation posts and towers were honoured, the number of military bases in the North fell from 13 to seven with one more due to close at the end of this year, and helicopter flying hours were 31 per cent less than for the same period last year.

The report noted the Police Service of Northern Ireland continued to make progress in the changes to the police estate and in its engagement with the community.

"We think it is also important to record in this context that for the second year running the parades on July 12 were policed without the need for military assistance," they said.

The IMC also gave its assessment of republican and loyalist paramilitary groups. The commission said the Provisional IRA remained committed to a political path and there were no signs of it diverting from it.

Dissident republican terror groups continued to pose a threat but did not appear to have the capacity for a sustained campaign of violence. The loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force appeared to be starting to address the issue of weapons following its declaration of intent in May, to wind down.

The UVF significantly decreased its criminal and paramilitary activity and there had been a reduction in membership.

The Ulster Defence Association, however, still lagged behind other groups and was inhibited by internal disputes with no progress on arms decommissioning.

The Irish Government welcomed the growing shift towards a more normal policing environment in Northern Ireland.

Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan said: "We have come a long way in a short time in terms of security normalisation."

He added: "All in all there has been a significant shift towards a more normal policing environment.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward welcomed the IMC's findings, saying the scaling back of the British army presence was yet more proof of the strides which had been taken by the province during the peace process.

:::u.tv:::

MONDAY 17/09/2007 14:39:11

A junior minister in the new Northern Ireland powersharing executive went behind bars today to endorse a £1 million refurbishment scheme at an old jail where he was once held as a fugitive.

Gerry Kelly returned to the Crumlin Road in Belfast as a Sinn Fein member of the Stormont Assembly nearly 30 years after he was detained there as an IRA man.

With the money spent on weather-proofing and restoration work which included getting rid of anti-terrorist bomb blast walls, razor wire and bullet proof glass as well as repairing the hanging cell area the jail is to become the city`s latest tourist attraction.

The first visitors are due through the repaired main gates for twice-weekly conducted tours on Thursday.

Mr Kelly, a junior minister in the offices of the First Minister Ian Paisley and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, has a prison record which stretches back nearly 35 years after being jailed for life for his part in the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973.

He was later transferred to the Maze, near Lisburn, Co.Antrim where he and 18 other republicans escaped in 1983.

Three years later he was recaptured in Amsterdam and then spent two years inside the Crumlin Road, notorious for jail breaks, riots and even murder.

Mr Paisley is also a famous former inmate who spent six months in the jail in 1966 for public order offences.

Today Mr Kelly was back inside the prison walls - at once stage he sat on the edge of a bed in one of the cells - to announce the start of a violence free era on the 27-acre site.

He declared: "The regeneration is a huge opportunity for this part of north Belfast which has suffered so much. It represents, in a physical sense, the progress we are achieving on a daily basis."

The jail will be opened to visitors every Thursday and Saturday until mid-December.

News Letter

17 September 2007 9:34 AM

The peace gates at Workman Avenue were flung open at the weekend for a cross-community street party.

The gates, which are synonymous with the Whiterock parade, are usually only opened twice a year to allow parades through.
The area was temporarily transformed on Saturday afternoon by the event, which was organised by the Forthspring Inter Community Group to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
The event, which attracted up to 200 people, was aimed at fostering good relations between the two communities.
Bernie Laverty from the Forthspring group said it was the first time they had been able to open the gates but the event was "a huge success"
which it was hoped would lead to the peace walls disappearing entirely, eventually.
"We had Catholic children coming over to the Woodvale side which they would have never done before," she said. "We hope to make the event an annual one.
"The event was a great success and we had almost 200 people from every generation from young children up to pensioners."
Among the fun organised was a bouncy castle, kids' disco, a bucking bronco challenge and a barbecue.
Yesterday, the group, along with Ards Cycling Club, ran a 100k leisure cycle around Strangford Lough while today a more formal event will be taking place with staff, volunteers, funders and supporters coming together with local residents to mark the anniversary.
A keynote address will be given by Dr Duncan Morrow from the Community Relations Council. That event takes place from 10.30am to 1pm at the Forthspring Inter Community centre.

BBC

The Independent Monitoring Commission has questioned whether UDA leaders are really committed to moving it away from violence and crime.


The IMC has urged the UDA to change

Publishing its 16th report on Monday, the paramilitary watchdog said there had been "amazing progress" in the past four years.

However, its view on the UDA was very different.

It said the organisation would soon be viewed simply as a criminal group unless it acted quickly to change.

In April, the IMC found that UDA and UVF members were still involved in crime.

At that stage, the IMC said it was time for the UVF leadership to show courage to point it in a new direction.

Belfast Telegraph

Group is 'discouraging' members from crime

By Noel McAdam
Monday, September 17, 2007

The UDA appears to have made no progress on decommissioning, Northern Ireland's paramilitary watchdog said today.

With just over three weeks to run before Executive Minister Margaret Ritchie's deadline for the loyalist paramilitary group elapses, the Independent Monitoring Commission said it believed "a lack of internal organisational coherence will continue to inhibit progress" within the UDA.

But more positively the organisation has publicly discouraged members from engaging in crime, it said, and there has been less involvement criminal activity.

In its second-last report, focusing on security normalisation, the four-man commission said it was "internal rivalry" within the UDA which led to the serious and disturbing incident in Carrickfergus on July 21 in which a PSNI officer was shot in the back.

With the SDLP minister insisting on progress on disarmament by the UDA, the IMC said: "At the time of writing this report there seems to have been no progress on decommissioning.

"There has however been less criminal activity by members and the organisation has publicly discouraged them from engaging in crime, instead directing them towards community work."

The IMC made clear its assessment of all the paramilitary groups in today's report, already sent to the British and Irish governments last week, is within the context of the threat posed to security normalisation.

" In broad terms, this means the actions of paramilitaries which require special security measures, for example military intervention or counter-terrorist legislation," it said.

The assessment, therefore, does not include organised crime which the PSNI and Assets Recovery Agency are designed to combat and does not challenge security normalisation.

In overall terms, across the demilitarisation programme, including the removal of security bases and troop levels, the IMC concludes that targets for the most part have been met.

However, it said the pace of defortification needs to be increased.