PROTESTANT PENSIONERS UNDER DISSIDENT THREAT

Men ordered to leave their homes

TWO Protestant pensioners have been threatened by dissidents to get out of their homes.

The men, who both live off the Ravenhill Road in East Belfast, are community workers and one of them vowed yesterday he will not be leaving the area.

He said: “The warning from the police was worrying but we will not be forced from our homes. We have done nothing to deserve this and we will remain where we are. But I will ensure security is increased around our home.”

The men, who describe themselves as members of the Loyalist community, work with youths in Belfast.

The PSNI visited their homes to deliver the personal security warning to them. A source said: “They were told the threat was credible and the police were taking it seriously.

“They said it came from a dissident republican grouping. It’s a very worrying development and one that needs to be dealt with quickly. Our political leaders need to step up.”

A spokesman for the East Belfast Community Initiative said: “It is disgraceful two elderly community workers have been threatened by republicans. This is the latest attempt to heighten tensions in this area.

“This comes after false allegations linked the East Belfast UVF to a threat against Catholic families and now we have loyalist community workers being threatened, presumably by way of some kind of misplaced retaliation.

“We maintain there is a sinister agenda behind all of this and it is our belief that Sinn Fein must now justify their bogus allegations of loyalist threats which has created the situation in which groups within the republican community are now threatening loyalists.

“We would expect unequivocal condemnation of this intimidation directed towards two loyalist pensioners and hope political representatives would urgently contact the PSNI on behalf of the men to more firmly establish the origins of this threat.”

A week ago Catholic families living in a newly-developed shared neighbourhood off Ravenhill Road, were ordered to get out of their homes under sectarian threat.

They presented themselves to the Housing Executive as homeless.

The residents, who live in Cantrell Close, were visited by police and issued with advice about the threat, believed to be from loyalist paramilitaries.

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