NINE QUIT ULSTER AFTER REPUBLICAN THREATS

Nine people have been ordered to leave Northern Ireland or face death
at the hands of republican paramilitaries, according to a report yesterday.

Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD) - believed to be an IRA cover name
- - selected the nine, who live in Bessbrook, South Armagh. Some,
including at least one woman and several parents, have fled the
Bessbrook area, said the Irish News.

DAAD has been relatively inactive since carrying out a campaign
against drug dealers between 1995 and 1998 in which nine men were shot
dead. The Royal Ulster Constabulary is understood to have warned the
nine after a letter was sent to the public housing body for Northern
Ireland, the Housing Executive.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau said it had spoken to three
of those under threat, had moved one to safety and was moving two
more. The director of the bureau, Vincent McKenna, urged the remaining
six to "take the threat seriously and contact us as soon as possible".
He said there was no doubt the IRA was behind the threats.

Mr McKenna said: "NIHRB calls for the Secretary of State to resign as
a result of the upsurge in terrorist expulsions and human rights
violations by those groups that the Secretary of State states are on
ceasefire."

The RUC is understood to have warned the nine that their lives could
be in danger. An RUC spokesman said the police could not discuss the
security of individuals, but added it was incumbent on the force to
warn individuals of any threat.

Danny Kennedy, an Ulster Unionist member of the Northern Ireland
Assembly, condemned the threats and said he viewed them as "very
serious and sinister". He said there was clear linkage between DAAD
and the IRA and the threats "once again call into question the
validity of the IRA ceasefire". Mr Kennedy said he had spoken to one
woman affected by the threat who was "worried sick" and very concerned
for her safety and that of her young child.

Sinn Fein dismissed the latest threats as mischief-making and nothing
to do with republicans. Conor Murphy, a Sinn Fein Assembly member,
said he had investigated the threats and people were "adamant that
this has nothing to do with republicans".

He said that he did not believe DAAD existed in the south Armagh area
and the threats were "complete fiction and probably mischief as well".

t A 16-year-old youth is recovering in hospital after being attacked
in Belfast by two masked men wielding iron bars. In another incident,
an RUC officer suffered head injuries when officers were attacked in
west Belfast as they made an arms find.