Republican Network for Unity call for unified protest at DPP meeting

The Republican Network for Unity will be holding a protest meeting in opposition to the RUC/PSNI/DPP meeting to be held tonight, Monday night, June 29th, at 6:30p.m. in the Reccy community hall off North Queen Street.

This is an open invitation extended to eirigi, the IRSP, the 32CSM, RSF and all non-aligned Republicans, Socialists and Human rights activists to attend.

Show your opposition to harrassment and arbitary arrest of those opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, 28 Day detention, Internment of Terry Mc Cafferty, draconian 'Anti-Terrorist' legislation, the forcible routing of Orange marches of hate through our community - Show your opposition to the MI5 controlled paramilitary British RUC/PSNI.

Open letter from the Republican Network for Unity to the Republican Community of North Belfast.

A Chairde, Ar dtus baire lig liom a ra go bhfuil bron orainn da mbeadh stro ar bith an aon duinne o an ceantair seo gui go bhfuilimid anseo anocht. Ta an disporacht leis na peis chan na duinne croga on ceantair seo.

As group of Irish Republicans who do not believe that a colonial police force, dedicated to maintaining British misrule in Ireland, can provide the type of policing service that Republican communities deserve, we are here tonight to request that local people from North Belfast and their elected representatives put an end to the façade of policing boards by withdrawing their support.

All of the people of North Belfast, indeed all of the people of the six counties, not only want, but deserve a proper police service that is reflective of and accountable to the community it is providing a service to. Such a service cannot be provided by the RUC/PSNI due to the fact that its rationale is directed by politicians in Westminister, not by local people.

Evidence that this is the case can be seen in the way in which the views of well meaning but mistaken members of the policing boards were ignored when they raised concerns about the use of paid informers, plastic bullets, tazers, the use of 28 day detention and the list goes on. More pointedly in terms of this local community, you have seen through the illegal and immoral arrest of a local man, Terry Mc Cafferty, who has now been interned without trial or charge for over six months, how little the practices of a police force within an occupied country have changed.

We are still governed by emergency laws, tried before emergency courts and subject to the most draconian legislation of any European country. To sit with the people who are enforcing this oppressive regime upon us is not challenging their malpractice, rather it is giving it a credibility that it does not deserve and only perpetuates the Nationalist nightmare that we all wish to end.

In addition to the injustices still being carried out on this community, it is also an indictment on the political nature of this paramilitary force that it still employs masked men and women with guns to ensure that we stay in our place, still refuses to allow us free access to our streets while supporting the triumphalist marches of the Orange Order and has political bars in place to prevent the vast majority of Republicans from participating in creating a proper policing service for our communities.

For these reasons, and many more that we don’t have the time to go through, we are asking you here tonight to show support and leadership for your community by exposing the veneer that is attempting to be put on political policing by: leaving this meeting, putting an end to the charade of ‘policing boards’, by calling for the end to draconian legislation and calling for the immediate release of Terry Mc Cafferty. Our communities deserve better and through unity rather than tokenism we can achieve the type of policing our communities are screaming out for.