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Terror Violence up Since Accord Signed Aug 12 2003



By Billy Kennedy


PARAMILITARY violence has increased significantly in the five years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement, PSNI figures confirm.

Shootings, beatings and injuries related to terrorism have all gone up since 1998, with republican and loyalist shootings more than doubling.

Loyalist paramilitaries shot 426 people between Easter, 1998, and Easter, 2003 - 124 per cent more than in the previous five years.

Republicans shot 426 people over the same period, an increase of 115 per cent over the previous five years.

Police officers also bore the brunt of the violence, with 2,584 officers, including reservists, sustaining injuries, a 60 per cent increase. One police officer was killed.

Civilian deaths dropped over the 1998-2003 period from 160 before the Belfast Agreement to 102, a figure which included the 29 people who died in the Omagh bombing.

A total of 3,596 civilians were injured in security situations in the five years since the Belfast Agreement, an increase of 10 per cent.

Paramilitary assaults in the five-year period were 441 by loyalists and 251 by republicans and, overall, all paramilitary shootings and beatings rose by 22.25 per cent.

A PSNI spokesman said the figures were a concern and he appealed to the public to work with police to eliminate this kind of crime.

b.kennedy@newsletter.co.uk