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Violence follows murder of Protestant militant leader

1 dead, 3 hurt in Northern Ireland shooting

December 27, 1997
Web posted at: 10:57 p.m. EST (0357 GMT)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Saturday's assassination of a leading Protestant paramilitary leader at a prison in Northern Ireland touched off a wave of violence overnight in which one man was killed, three others wounded and several cars set ablaze.

Late Saturday, in what police believe may have been a reprisal shooting, an unidentified gunman opened fire on customers outside a hotel in Dungannon, a mostly Roman Catholic area about 40 miles (64 km) west of Belfast.

One man died and three others were injured in the first public shooting related to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland since a cease fire was declared in 1994.

Elsewhere, masked Protestants commandeered at least six vehicles at gunpoint and set them on fire. Many Catholic-frequented pubs and social venues closed early because of fears of attacks.

Police closed roads in religiously-divided West Belfast and tightened security as political leaders on both sides appealed for calm.

"For God's sake, hold things tight for the next 24, the next 48 hours," said Ken Maginnis, a member of the British Parliament representing the Ulster Unionists, Northern Ireland's leading Protestant party.

Violence triggered by prison shooting

The latest round of violence came after Billy Wright, a leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, a pro-British Protestant paramilitary group, was shot five times at Maze Prison, where he was imprisoned after being convicted of threatening witnesses in a court case.

Using handguns smuggled into the prison, a group of Catholic inmates -- members of the Irish National Liberation Army, a more-militant offshoot of the Irish Republican Army -- were accused of shooting Wright in the back as he was being led into a visitors' area at the prison, located 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Belfast.

Three Liberation Army members handed two handguns over to a Catholic chaplain and surrendered within five minutes of the attack.

Both the LVF and the INLA oppose the peace process, in which the British government and moderate local Protestant and Catholic political parties -- as well as Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm -- are trying to forge a agreement to end nearly three decades of sectarian violence in the British-controlled northern end of the Irish island.

Moderate Catholic political leader John Hume warned that Wright's assailants "have the success of the entire peace process in their sights."

Wright known as 'King Rat'

Wright, who had been given the nickname "King Rat," was considered among the most ruthless of the Protestant militants to have emerged from Northern Ireland's culture of violence.

Maginnis comments on alleged security lapses at the prison
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Maginnis sites examples of security lapses at the prison
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Maginnis compares security lapses at the Maze with hypothetical security lapses in the prison holding Oklahoma city bomber Timothy McVeigh
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A forbidding figure with icy blue eyes, tattooed arms and close-cropped blond hair, he boasted in a 1992 interview with the Associated Press that he had planned the killings of more than a dozen Catholics. He called his approach "terrorizing the terrorists."

After his murder Saturday, the LVF issued a statement in which it threatened "to widen its theater of operations in the coming weeks and months." It called Wright "a loyal son of Ulster whose bravery and dedication will never be forgotten."

Ulster is the name Protestants who support British rule use to refer to Northern Ireland.

Attack raises questions about security

The attack also raised new questions about security at Maze, one of Europe's largest prisons which houses about 700 inmates being held on terrorism-related charges, both Catholic and Protestant.

Maginnis demanded the resignation of both the British government's Northern Ireland secretary, Mo Mowlam, and the chief of the prison service.

"To think that somebody could come across the roof of the block where he was imprisoned ... and kill him is beyond belief," Maginnis told CNN, adding that the security breach "really rocks the confidence of the entire community in Northern Ireland."

Saturday's shooting comes on the heels of two other serious lapses of security at Maze this year. In December, an IRA member dressed as a woman and walked out of the prison during a Christmas party. In March, officials discovered a 40-foot-long tunnel leading from a cell block housing IRA prisoners.

But Mowlam, while conceding that there had been a "very serious lapse in security" Saturday, termed Maginnis' demand for resignations "inappropriate, unhelpful and premature."

She, too, made a public appeal for calm.

"Taking to the streets and taking other action at this point will not stop the chaos and misery that we have lived through in Northern Ireland for so many years," she said.

In Washington, President Bill Clinton, who has been trying to broker the peace process in Northern Ireland, issued a statement calling the murder of Wright "a cowardly act."

"We urge the leaders, parties and people of Northern Ireland not to allow this cowardly act to distract them from the important work at hand, not to engage in acts of revenge," the White House statement said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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