WORKERS ON ALERT AFTER LOYALIST THREATS

Date: 5th Aug '02

Name: RM Irish news article

WORKERS ON ALERT AFTER LOYALIST THREATS

Hospital workers in the North have been put on alert following a
series of death threats.

The loyalist 'Red Hand Defenders', a cover name for the UDA
threatened Catholic hospital workers at the Mater and Ulster
hospitals.

This followed an apparently bogus republican death threat which
was phoned in to the Mater and Royal Victoria hospitals in
Belfast, without a codeword, on behalf of the little-known
"Catholic Reaction Force".

Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly said he suspected the bogus
threat was the work of loyalists trying to stoke up sectarian
tensions.

"The Catholic Reaction Force is a non-existent organisation," he
said. "It is clearly the work of the UDA attempting to raise
sectarian tensions.

"It is well known that in the past any threats against hospitals
or attacks on people or property claimed under this name have
been traced back to the UDA."

In a joint statement last night hospital management and trade
union officials called on the public to "voice their concerns on
behalf of health workers everywhere and demand that these threats
be removed immediately."


MAYOR THREATENED

News of the warnings came 48 hours after an anti-sectarian trade
union rally in Belfast.

It also emerged today that Belfast Mayor Alex Maskey received a
bullet in the mail from the loyalist Orange Volunteer Force a day
before he organised the anti-sectarian rally.

Sinn Fein's first mayor of the city said he was concerned, but
would not be intimidated, by the death threat.

He said: "It just ironic on the day that you're trying to
establish a campaign on anti-sectarianism that yet again you
become, let's say, a victim almost of more sectarianism.

"So I think it's just important to highlight that this sectarian
problem is still rampant with us but as far as I'm concerned it
certainly will not detract me from doing what I know that I have
to do as a civic leader."


POST WORKERS THREATENED

Meanwhile, postal staff in Derry have agreed to return to work
following a threat to a Catholic worker.

Around 130 employees at the Great James Street sorting office are
to review the weekend suspension of services which almost
paralysed city services.

It followed a threat against a Catholic employee in a telephone
call to the Samaritans on Friday night.

It came as the city prepared for the funeral of construction
worker David Caldwell who was killed by a booby-trap device
planted by republican dissidents at a British Army base in Derry.

Postal services were previously disrupted after the UDA murder of
postman Daniel McColgan as he arrived for work at a Rathcoole
sorting office in north Belfast in January.

A subsequent threat against Catholic workers, including teachers
and postal staff, was later withdrawn.

c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.

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