Removal of bases must be swift: SF
From The Irish News - 29th October 2001
By Simon Doyle
MASSIVE cranes winched two army lookout posts from the towers that supported them in Newtownhamilton yesterday as the dismantling of military bases continued.
The British army's rapid response to the IRA's move on decommissioning was continuing in the tiny border village yesterday as tons of armoured steel disappeared from its skyline. A team of Royal Engineers dismantled the super sangar that was erected in the village seven years ago as a response to the threat from republican paramilitaries.
The sangar was the target of a barrack-buster mortar, launched by the IRA in 1997, that fell short of the base.
Despite the removal of the super sangar, the army has said that the base itself and the RUC barricade that divides the village will remain untouched for the foreseeable future to protect the station from potential dissident attacks.
Corporal Mark Longrigg, of the First Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, one of many soldiers who have kept watch in the tower over the years, said that the conditions inside the sangar were cramped but officers could effectively carry out their normal duties.
Even in an era of relative peace, he added that he and his colleagues could not venture outside the base and mix with the local people.
Work on dismantling the two hilltop watchtowers at Sturgan Mountain and Camlough Mountain also continued yesterday as did work on removing the British army base in the Co Derry town of Magherafelt.
Sinn Féin, meanwhile, claimed that a piecemeal approach to demilitarisation would not be acceptable to nationalists and republicans.
Speaking after the giant super sangar in Newtownhamilton was lifted away by crane yesterday, Sinn Féin Newry and Armagh assembly member Conor Murphy said that people living in south Armagh would not tolerate the "partial" dismantling of military posts.
Mr Murphy said that following the "historic initiative" taken by the IRA, the time was right for the British government to act decisively on the issue of normalisation.
"There is an air of expectation in south Armagh that we will not have to suffer the invasion of privacy created by the spy posts on every hilltop in the area" he said.
"The British government should heed the mood of the nationalist community. The implementation of a rolling programme of demilitarisation should be swift and decisive" Mr Murphy said. |
