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Show World&Hsttion Page 8 Monday, March 16, 2009 300 dissidents protest in N. Ireland BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - About 300 Irish Republican Army dissidents backed by "a few nutters and idiots" are trying to tear apart the peace process, Northern Ireland's police commander said Sunday as his detectives interrogated nine people over the killings of two soldiers and a policeman. Chief Constable Hugh Orde said two dissident groups, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, were both "very dangerous, like any cornered animal in its death throes." Orde said the dissidents had launched at least 25 attacks, chiefly against police, in the past 18 months, leading up to last week's gun attacks against off-duty, unarmed soldiers outside an army base and against police responding to an emergency call. The three killings were the first of security forces in Northern Ireland since 1998, the year of the Good Friday peace accord between the British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority here that sought to end a threedecade conflict responsible for 3,700 killings. The slayings are fraying nerves in thousands of households across Northern Ireland, where current or former members of the police and army have lost their licenses for privately held handguns - another consequence of a peace process that aims to transform Northern Ireland. Arlene Foster, a Protestant member of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, called for retired members of the police and army to regain the right to carry a concealed gun. She represents a predominantly Catholic border area where the IRA long specialized in killing part-time Protestant security force members in their homes or on their farms. "This is not a time for toning down personal security. It is vital that people are able at least to attempt to guarantee their own safety from the threat posed by these dissident republican murderers," Foster said . She noted that IRA dissidents were willing to kill civilians who do business with security forces - a threat demonstrated when the gunmen who targeted British troops last weekend also shot and wounded two Domino's Pizza couriers bringing them food. Orde said the Police Service of Northern Ireland, British domestic spy agency MI5 and British Army surveillance specialists have already identified many of the dissidents and were working around the clock "to disrupt and arrest them and lock them up for the rest of their natural lives." Orde contrasted the dissidents' political isolation with the long-dominant Provisional IRA, which built firm bases of support within the most militant Catholic areas during its failed 1970-97 campaign to oust Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The Provisional formally renounced violence, disarmed and embraced power-sharing with Protestant leaders in 2005. "We know that, unlike the past, there is no support at all for these (dissident IRA) groups within communities MASKED YOUTHS H O L D I N G petrol bombs stand close to where a leading Irish Republican was arrested, Saturday, in connection with the recent murders of two British soldiers. AP photo apart from a few nutters and idiots who have no political strategy in their tiny minds," he wrote. Orde made his comments in a column published Sunday in a British newspaper, the News of the World. Police arrested six more suspected IRA dissidents Saturday, taking to nine the number of people being questioned about the March 7 gun attack that killed two soldiers and Monday's fatal shooting of a policeman. Aid groups in Darfur weighfuture after kidnapping KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Three foreign aid workers abducted in Sudan's lawless Darfur region were released unharmed on Saturday, three days after their capture at gunpoint led international aid groups to question how they can continue to work in the area. Sudanese television showed the Doctors Without Borders workers - a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French project coordinator - stepping off a military helicopter at El Fasher airport in North Darfur with the local governor. "I would like to say to everybody we are safe, we are here, we are in good health," said Raphael Meunier, the French coordinator, speaking on Sudanese television. "We will be more talkative a bit later on, now our first thoughts are for our families." The governor, Osman Kebir, said Wednesday's kidnapping was carried out by a group seeking to retaliate for the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against President Omar alBashir on charges of war crimes in Darfur. Kebir said no ransom was paid to the group, which he said called itself the Eagles ofal-Bashir. "They said they released them for the country's sake and they kidnapped them for the sake of the country," he added. Sudan's government threw 13 international aid agencies out of the country after the March 4 warrant, accusing them of being the court's spies. The government says it had nothing to do with the abduction and condemned it. The Netherlands-based court accuses al-Bashir of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur, where his Arab-led government has been battling ethnic African rebels since 2003. Up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes. Sudan denies the charges and says the figures are exaggerated. The government warned that issuing the warrant could lead to spontaneous revenge attacks by enraged Sudanese, though it pledged to defend aid workers and diplomats in the country. The freed aid workers were from the Belgian branch of Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicins Sans Frontieres. The branch was not among the agencies Sudan ordered out of the country, though two other MSF operations were. The director of the group's Belgian section said the workers' release was a relief, but he called the kidnapping a "gross violation." "Our independent medical work must be respected if we are to continue working in conflict areas to save the lives of those who suffer most," Christopher Stokes said. Erwin Van't Land, also of MSF in Brussels, said Wednesday's kidnapping was a "major last blow" to the Darfur aid community. "It is a very serious issue," he said, anticipating that "every aid agency is reviewing whether they can continue to work." The group has pulled out its remaining 35 international workers, leaving behind only two staff to help with negotiations to release the hostages. Sudanese officials said Saturday they will increase protection for aid groups operating in Darfur. Aid groups generally resist such armed protection, viewing it as a violation of their impartiality. An officer with the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission said they have advised aid groups to centralize their operations in secure cities. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Other groups remaining in Darfur have voiced concern following the latest events - none have said they are pulling out, though there is concern individual employees could opt to leave. "It is becoming more complicated, more uncertain, more volatile, and, for the people, more difficult to work," said Gerog Nothelle, the Africa director for the Germany-based aid group Malteser International, which operates in north Darfur. Aid groups already had to struggle with difficult working conditions. Banditry, break-ins and carjackings against aid organizations and security harassment have long been common in Darfur, usually blamed on the many armed groups fighting in the region. By expelling so many aid workers - 40 percent of those working in Darfur, according to the U.N. - and accusing them of being spies, experts say the Sudanese government has created a negative environment for the aid groups in hopes they will eventually be forced out. "It is a signal that the field is open for confrontation," which encouraged the kidnapping, said Fouad Hikmat, a Sudan expert with the International Crisis Group. "You create a push factor" to drive away the remaining groups. |