Punishment attacks on children in North soar since peace agreement

SHOOTINGS and beatings of children by paramilitary organisations in the North have increased almost fivefold since the Good Friday Agreement supposedly put the peace process on a firm footing.

At least one child is shot every three weeks in the North in so-called “punishment” attacks by loyalist and republican gangs while beatings take place with at least the same regularity.

The youngest victim known to date was a 13-year-old shot last year by loyalists although many beatings and expulsions are believed to go unreported.

A leading academic has now called for a specialist Anti-Intimidation Unit to be set up in the North to tackle the problem which, his research shows, has worsened since the so-called paramilitary ceasefires and the landmark Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Liam Kennedy, Professor of Economic and Social History at Queens University, Belfast, has also called for a system of “political penalties” for political parties linked to paramilitaries such as the IRA, UDA and UVF.

He was critical of the IRA for failing to make a “public and explicit” statement denouncing punishment attacks during the crisis talks prior to the postponement of the Northern Assembly elections earlier this year, and criticised the British and Irish governments for not pushing the issue more.

Prof Kennedy’s report, They Shoot Children, Don’t They?, published yesterday for the human rights group, Northern Ireland Campaign Against Terror, is the third in a series chronicling the plight of child victims, classified as aged 17 and under, of paramilitary “punishments”.

He said the onus was now on the British and Irish governments to respond to the problem.

“This has such a low priority in London and Dublin that Sinn Féin and the IRA are under no pressure to clean up that part of its act. Dealing with the loyalist side is more difficult because it’s so fragmented but they do have some political representation through the Progressive Unionist Party and similarly they could be put under pressure to stop this if London and Dublin were serious about it.”

Prof Kennedy’s research shows while republicans carry out a smaller number of attacks in total, a greater percentage of their attacks are on children. Children make up 26% of all republican beating victims and 12.5% of their shooting targets. The corresponding ratio for loyalists is 10% in shootings and beatings.

Shootings are, considered the more serious form of attack but medical evidence shows beatings can often result in greater long-term damage.

None of the attacks carried out in recent years resulted in prosecutions because the victims or their families were threatened.

Prof Kennedy said the “crime” of the victim cited in most cases was “anti-social behaviour” but he pointed out that the “evidence” gathered by paramilitaries was often based on rumour and cases of mistaken targets were inevitable. He also said it was a matter of luck none of the victims had died.

The increase on attacks against children is in line with the escalation in attacks on adults in the same period. Shootings by both paramilitary groupings increased from 72 in 1997 to 173 in 2002 although the total number of beatings fell slightly from 150 to 139.