Political status still denied

national | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Saturday March 25, 2006 06:25 by Barry - 32csm

Protest for Political Status.
Saturday 1st April.
Assemble 2.30pm Free Derry Corner.
Derry City.

The IRPWA urge ALL republicans to attend a protest for political status on Saturday 1st April in Derry City. This protest is to highlight the fact that 25 years on from the heroic sacrifices of 10 brave IRA/INLA volunteers, political status is again denied to this generation of Republican prisoners.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which was supported and endorsed by all constitutional nationalist parties in Ireland, the British government has deemed captured Republican volunteers as criminals and has portrayed their struggle as a criminal conspiracy rather than a legitimate resistance to colonial rule.

As a result of the criminalisation policy adopted by the British and supported by the SDLP,PSF, the Unionists and the Free State government, Republicans lost all they had gained from many years of struggle. The regime which Republican POW’s currently encounter in Maghaberry is extremely restricted due to a practice known as controlled movement whereby no more than two prisoners can be unlocked at any one time. Access to education, recreation and washing facilities is minimal and 23 hour lock up is a daily occurrence. Strip searches are frequent with up to seven a day not unusual. POW’s have reported a high level of behaviour meant to demean and degrade with some likening this process to sexual assault. Arbitrary sentencing of men to the punishment blocks for long periods of isolation is another common feature of life for Republican prisoners, the slighted ‘breech’ of prison protocol can affect parole later on down the line. Another result of this criminalisation is the criminalisation of friends and family visiting the POW. Visitors are frequently denied access to their loved ones by a sniffer dog that is there to allegedly detect drugs. Republican visitors have stopped on numerous occasions but when they have challenged the prison staff to search them and call the police to have them undergo drug testing the prison has refused. Given the large quantity of drugs in the criminal and loyalist wings in Maghaberry it would appear the dog is better trained at sniffing out republicans than illegal substances.

We also take this opportunity to call for the immediate repatriation of the seven Republican POW’s in English gaols and urge the Dublin government to intervene to uphold their rights as Irish citizens.
These seven men have been ghosted around the English prison system at a moments notice which has caused untold distress both emotionally and financially for their visiting relatives.

The IRPWA urge the Republican community to resist this criminalisation policy and to confront it and those who have endorsed it wherever and whenever they can. The Republican community must demand answers as to why the POW’s must endure a label that criminalises not just the prisoner but all those who reject British rule in Ireland. While Britain maintains its illegal sovereign claim over part of Ireland there are always going to be POW’s incarcerated in British and Irish gaols.
Join us to ensure they regain the political status that so many brave volunteers have fought and died to achieve.

Press Release: Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.
24/03/2006.
Contact: Martin Mulholland/Marian Price
Telephone 07801729412 or 02871261063
e-mail: irpwa@hotmail.com