UDA ADMITS MURDER, WARNS OF FURTHER ATTACKS

Tuesday July 23, 2002 02:35

by McMean

The loyalist paramilitary UDA has admitted to the murder of a Catholic teenager in north Belfast and warned they may attack again.

In a statement, the loyalist group, using its alternative UFF
title, claimed the gunning down of 19-year-old Gerard Lawlor
early this morning was a "measured military response" to a
republican "onslaught".

Mr Lawlor, a father of one, was shot several times from point
blank range as he walked home alone after a night out at the
Bellevue Arms pub on the Antrim Road.

His body was found lying in the street, a few hundred yards from
his Whitewell Road home.

The mother of the dead man today appealed for no retaliation.

Sharon Lawlor said she would pray for his killers, and appealed
that no revenge should be taken for her son's death.

The murder was earlier claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, another
cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association.

Mr Lawlor, who lived at home with his parents and four brothers
aged between 10 and 20, was preparing to set up home with his
girlfriend and 18-month-old son.

Members of the family were on holiday in Newcastle, County Down,
when the news broke of his death.

The killing came after a spate of shootings left two men injured.

Sinn Fein North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly said up to
five Catholics could have been killed in north Belfast last
night.

"This is the tragic culmination of the UDA having upped the ante
in the last week," he said.

Mr Kelly said 10 shots had been fired at Catholics by members of
the UDA in five separate incidents in the area.

He said the group had "deliberately been increasing tensions"
ahead of the British prime minister's expected statement on the
state of the paramilitary ceasefires later this week.

"You have to ask what the UDA are at, you have to ask where is
the first strike policy," he said.

"You have to ask what the UDA are at, you have to ask where is
the first strike policy," he said.

The UDA statement claimed their organisation had "held their
ceasefire under extreme provocation from republican gunmen in
Provisional IRA controlled interface areas".

The statement also warned "that further attacks on our community
will be met with further military action".

In Portadown, County Armagh, a family escaped injury in another
gun attack. Shots were fired at the house in Charles Street
shortly after midnight.

The shootings last night and early this morning followed a series
of unprovoked and orchestrated loyalist assaults on nationalist
areas in north Belfast over the weekend, including a gun attack
and house wreckings in the nationalist Ligoniel district, petrol
bomb attacks on a Catholic home in Skegoniel Avenue, and the
bombardment of nationalist homes in Alliance, Deerpark Avenue and
Skegoniel Avenues. A Protestant home in Cliftonpark Avenue was
also hit by a petrol bomb blamed on republicans.

The UDA insisted the murder in the Whitewell area of the city was
in retaliation for an incident on Sunday evening in north Belfast
in which a Protestant in the Ardoyne area was shot.

Mr Kelly said he was convinced the IRA was not responsible for
the shooting of the Protestant man in the Glenbryn estate along
the fraught "peaceline" with the nationalist Alliance Avenue.
However, he said he could not speak for other smaller republican
groups in the area.

He said the attacks on Catholics in the last week had been
orchestrated by the UDA in an attempt to lure Republicans into
further violence.

"You can nearly take a map and by following the actions you can
see what the UDA is doing is opening up new interfaces," he said.
"This is a very deliberate attempt by the UDA to wind the
situation up."

The UDA attacks began last night in the nationalist Oldpark area,
where there were three different shooting incidents.

Sinn Fein councillor Eoin O'Broin said that if the loyalist
weapon had not jammed on at least one occasion, the death toll
would have been higher.

"Two men came down the Oldpark Road on a motorbike and one got
off, but as he aimed the gun at a man outside Henry Joy
McCracken's pub, it jammed," he said.

"They then made off towards the Shankill and the man was taken to
hospital and treated for shock.

"Literally, within five or 10 minutes, we heard more shooting. It
appeared to be just round the corner off Rosapenna Street.

"We went around to see and there was a young man, he's in his
early 30s, lying on the ground with a gun wound to the upper
thigh or so. It seemed to be about eight to 10 shots that we
heard."

The injured man, who was shot in the upper thigh, is in stable
condition in the Mater hospital.

Among the other incidents of the weekend, a device was thrown by
loyalists at a Catholic home in Magherafelt in County Derry, a
bomb was posted to a Sinn Fein councillor in Antrim, a parochial
house was burnt out in County Down in a petrol bomb attack and
two blast bombs were discovered hidden in a hedge near playing
fields in County Down.

All of the recent violence, culminating in the murder of Gerald
Lawlor, has been widely condemned.

British Secretary of State John Reid said that those responsible
would be hunted down. Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen
descrbied the murder as "a cowardly drive-by attack" and "a stark
reminder of where savage sectarian hatred can lead."

Martin Morgan, SDLP councillor for north Belfast, said it was
obvious the attacks were not spontaneous and were carefully
designed "both to injure and intimidate".

Martin McGuinness MP has reiterated advice for people to be
vigilant at all times. He said "it is clear that a concerted
campaign is being waged by pro-Union paramilitaries not just at
interface areas in Belfast but throughout the North.

"I am once more urging people to be vigilant and not to approach
suspicious objects. I am also calling on unionist politicians to
use whatever influence they have to have this campaign stopped
before it results in tragedy. While the focus is on the events in
Belfast attacks are taking place at an increasing rate in other
parts of the North.

"The continued perception of crisis projected by anti-Agreement
politicians and the pandering to them by David Trimble is
allowing the situation to develop where these groups can exist,"
he added.

Belfast Mayor, Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey has called a special
meeting of the city council to discuss the ongoing sectarian
attacks.

He called for an immediate end to all sectarian attacks, and
urged political and community leaders to use their influence to
restore peace in the affected areas.

"I would also call upon both the British and Irish governments to
acknowledge the seriousness of the situation which exists in
Belfast at this time, and to get to grips with tackling it," he
said.

"People should not have to live in fear of random, vicious and
murderous sectarian attacks," said Mayor Maskey.