Prison segregation row may spark violence
Sectarian fighting could also spill onto the streets if the government persists with a doomed integration scheme at Maghaberry jail in Co Antrim, campaigners warned.
The chilling threat of cell block clashes between sworn paramilitary enemies was issued as a special review team held talks on the security crisis.
Tom Roberts, project manager with the loyalist ex-prisoners organisation EPIC, declared: “If the present policy of forced integration is persisted with, the inevitability of clashes of a sectarian nature is clearly evident.”
The Prison Service has been under pressure to segregate terrorist inmates since dissident republicans began a dirty protest last month.
Even though the authorities refused to buckle, a special review panel was set up to study safety issues.
The team yesterday met representatives from EPIC and the Progressive Unionist Party, which are both linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force, and Sinn Féin.
Loyalists insisted their demands were based on the realities of life on the outside in Northern Ireland.
Mr Roberts said: “The majority of the population choose to live in areas that almost exclusively reflect their religious and political beliefs. It should be the right of prisoners to have a similar choice.”
Ex-IRA hunger striker Raymond McCartney said: “There is no logic in trying to force politically hostile prisoners to live together in prison.”
