Republican Prisoners need YOUR Support.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Friday July 28, 2006 14:02 by Séan Ó Murchú - Republican Sinn Féin - Cork

The Republican Prisoners protest in Maghaberry Gaol which began on 19 June is been deliberately kept out of the main stream media.

YOU can change this by writing letters to your local papers/politicians highlighting the conditions in which the prisoners are kept and their five demands.

Letters of support to the Prisoners should be sent to:

Roe House
Maghaberry Prison
Old Road
Ballinderry Upper
Lisburn
BT28 2PT

The Republican Prisoners protest in Maghaberry Gaol which began on 19 June is been deliberately kept out of the main stream media.

YOU can change this by writing letters to your local papers/politicians highlighting the conditions in which the prisoners are kept and their five demands.

Please provide ANY SUPPORT YOU CAN to the REPUBLICAN PRISONERS ACTION GROUP or join your local prisoners action group – PHONE 028 90319004 (6 COUNTIES) OR 223 PARNELL ST, DUBLIN 1, 01 8729747 (26 COUNTIES)

The Demands, followed by some facts are below. See http://saoirse.info/ or http://www.rsfcork.com/pows.htm for further information

The Prisoners Demands:

1. RIGHT TO FREE ASSOCIATION
2. END TO CONTROLLED MOVEMENT
3. RIGHT TO FULL TIME EDUCATION
4. SEPARATE VISITING FACILITY
5. RIGHT TO ORGANISE OUR OWN LANDINGS

The Facts:

* Thirty-eight Republican Prisoners currently imprisoned in Maghaberry Gaol.

* "Controlled movement" is imposed on Republican landings with only three prisoners permitted out of their cells on the landing at any one time with each prisoners accompanied by two prison officers. Free Association on landings completely removed.

* Legislation introduced by British government following the Good Friday Agreement removed the right of Republican prisoners to organise themselves on their own landings and removed the right of Republican prisoners to spend their time in prison constructively.

* Prisoners made to chose between daily exercise or education. Prisoners denied educational facilities to enable them to organise their own education.
* Easter lilies banned in the prison. Other Republican handicrafts confiscated and destroyed by prison officers.

* PSNI/RUC approval required before prisoners permitted on Republican landing.

* Republican prisoners’ parole entitlement has been reduced to half that of other prisoners.

* Denial of compassionate paroles for family and religious occasions. Parole for funerals of immediate family members often restricted to 6 hours or less.

* Constant use of strip searching to humiliate prisoners contrary to international law. One prisoner received 31 strip searches and 1,135 rub down searches in a six month period.

* Prisoners locked in their cells for alternately 21/23 hours per day.

* Abuse of the sniffer dogs in an attempt to criminalise political prisoners.

* Families and prisoners are wrongly accused of smuggling drugs into the prison. Familes are forced to have closed family visits which take place through Perspex screen while prisoners returning from parole are placed in solitary confinement for 48 hours.

* Family visitors exposed to Loyalist visitors while visiting prison. Prisoners exposed to Loyalists going to and from legal visits.

* The power of the Governor to punish a prisoner by taking away remission was reintroduced specifically for Republican prisoners after it was banned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2002.

* Access to a doctor available only once a week.

* Interference with correspondence.

* Irish language and cultural items including handicrafts made relating to hunger strikes confiscated or destroyed by prison officers.

DO WHAT YOU CAN NOW - THE P.O.Ws NEED YOUR SUPPORT

POLITICAL STATUS IS A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE