IRA TELLS NINE ALLEGED DRUG DEALERS TO GET OUT OR DIE

A group using an IRA cover name has ordered nine people to get out of south
Armagh or face execution over allegations of drugs dealing, it emerged
yesterday.

The threat came in a letter to the housing executive in Newry, and police
visited those named to advise them on security. Two men on the list have
already fled their homes in the village of Bessbrook.

The letter purported to come from Direct Action Against Drugs, a name used
by the IRA during the ceasefire when murdering drug dealers. Sinn Fein
denied any republican involvement, but the RUC said yesterday it was taking
the threat seriously.

Police suspect some on the list of involvement in the village's burgeoning
drugs trade and of petty crime.

But a 27-year-old woman appears to be on the list solely because she is the
estranged wife of an acquaintance of a murdered drugs dealer. The IRA is
suspected of shooting Brendan Fegan, 24, in May. The woman has a
three-year-old girl. One theory is that she has been ordered to move away to
punish her husband by making it more difficult for him to see their daughter.

Unionists said the latest threat was the inevitable consequence of Northern
Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam's decision last month to rule the IRA's
ceasefire intact. They believe she gave the green light to terrorists to
step up paramilitary policing in the working-class areas they control.

Danny Kennedy, an Ulster Unionist assembly member, who was approached by the
young mother, said: "It is the latest in a long line of incidents which
calls into question the IRA's ceasefire. There can be no place for rough
justice like this in a civilised society."

DAAD murdered eight men for alleged drugs dealing during the IRA's first
ceasefire, which lasted 17 months until collapsing in February 1996. All its
victims were Catholic.

It also claimed responsibility in February last year for assassinating
another Catholic, Brendan Campbell, 33, a known drugs dealer. Campbell had
earlier mounted a grenade attack on Sinn Fein's headquarters in west
Belfast, and had survived a murder attempt a month earlier. His was one of
two killings which led to Sinn Fein's temporary expulsion from the
multi-party talks at Stormont. The party was suspended from the negotiations
for six working days.

Locals believe the drugs trade in Bessbrook was able to expand because the
tight security surrounding the mixed village, which has a large army base,
discouraged terrorists from meting out punishment beatings.

Stephen Restorick, 24, the last British soldier to die during the Troubles,
was murdered by an IRA sniper in Bessbrook while on checkpoint duty in
February 1997.

The IRA is suspected of the murders this year of two leading drugs dealers,
both Catholics. As well as shooting "Speedy" Fegan in a Newry bar in May, it
is believed to have similarly executed Paul "The Bull" Downey, 37, in south
Armagh the following month.

Police had little evidence against the IRA for those murders. But RUC chief
constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan was convinced the IRA murdered Belfast
taxi-driver Charles Bennett, 22, another Catholic, in July and was behind a
gun smuggling operation from Florida.

Ms Mowlam subsequently judged that the IRA ceasefire had been breached but
had not broken down. Her decision will be the subject of a judicial review
at Belfast high court next month.

The Northern Ireland human rights bureau last week claimed terrorists have
forced more than 1,600 people from their homes since the Good Friday
agreement was negotiated 18 months ago. The figure includes family members
forced to flee with those threatened. A poll last week on the republican
Ardowen estate in Craigavon, Co Armagh, indicated residents were
overwhelmingly opposed to terrorists' rough justice. It was conducted
shortly after the IRA beat up a 14-year-old boy for anti-social behaviour.