North Belfast News, Serpintine- middle class peaceline

Date: 16th Sept '01

Name: Red Pol

Serpentine - a middle class peaceline

With it semi-detached houses and neatly
mown lawns Serpentine Gardens would
be like any other middle class area in
Belfast, if it wasnt for the fact that house
windows are boarded-up even though
people still live in them.
Residents say that for the past three
years since the peaceline was erected
this once quiet street has borne the brunt
of sectarian attacks from the
neighbouring White City estate.
Sixty nine year-old Tony, whose house
has been petrol bombed five times since
July, stoically describes his home as an
open-prison.
His back and side windows are
covered-up with chipboard and old-doors
blocking not only stones and bottles but
any natural light from the house.
The pensioner says that during the day
he has to keep the lights switched on
because of the total darkness inside the
house.
And the psychological effect on the
pensioners is so bad that couple admit
they havent had a nights sleep since
July.
We are at our wits end at this stage,
says an exhausted Tony.
The doctor prescribed us sleeping pills
but we dont take them in case they make
us so drowsy we cant wake up if the
house is attacked.
Ive lived here for 14 years and Ive never
experienced this level of intimidation
before.
Every night we wait for the thud of a petrol
bomb or the sound of bricks against the
windows.
I dont call this living in a home anymore,
its more like living in a prison.
Last week, loyalists were suspected of
being behind two abduction attempts in
what is being seen as revenge for the
killing of White City teenager Thomas
McDonald who died after being hit by a
car driven a nationalist.
Since July 2001 more than 20 petrol
bombs have been thrown into the street,
along with six blast bombs and hundreds
of stones and bottles.
Community workers in Serpentine say the
petrol bombings are just part of a litany of
sectarian violence directed at the
peaceline houses.
When the peaceline was erected three
years ago, residents welcomed the move
and said they hoped for a return to the
relative normality which the area had
enjoyed in previous years.
Now community workers are calling on
the NIO to replace large gaps in the
peaceline which offer vantage points for
loyalist attack.
This peaceline is a joke, instead of
offering protection to residents it offers
cover to the people throwing pipe bombs
and petrol bombs, says one local
community worker.
People feel powerless to stop this but at
the same time we are doing our best to
keep the community together, says
James, a local community worker.
Most of the streets residents are either
elderly couples or young families buying
their first homes.
Often the thugs throw the devices not
knowing where or who they will hit.
Last week Tony kicked a piece of metal
lying at his garden gate, it turned out to be
an unexploded pipe bomb.
Community workers say that unless
something is done soon someone will
die.
We want to know why the RUC cant put
a 24-hour patrol beside the point where
the loyalists are throwing stones, it would
be an effective way to stop this.
If that doesnt happen someone will die.
People are living here in fear.
Every day brings something new and as
soon as night comes it begins all over
again.
Sinn Feins Danny Lavery says the area is
a community under siege and is asking
why the situation has been allowed to get
to this stage.
When the trouble flared three years ago
efforts were made on the nationalist side
to talk with loyalists in White City.
Three years on and the trouble is worse.
People living along the peaceline feel
vulnerable and frightened.
The RUC have done nothing to help the
residents, many of them pensioners.
The whole Whitewell area has become a
sectarian flashpoint in recent years but
the one lesson in it all is that if the trouble
and the sectarian intimidation goes
unchecked and unchallenged not only
does it continue, but it escalates.
These sectarian attacks need to stop
now.
Until then Tony and Catherine say the
only solution is to board-up their home.
Who wants to live like this.
Our grandchildren havent been able to
visit us since the summer, we wouldnt
allow them to play out in the back garden.
To be honest Id hate to let them see
their grandad and granny living in a
house with its windows boarded up.

Journalist:Colm Heatley

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