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Posted on 07/08/2003 10:24:01 AM PDT by bedolido
A so-called dirty protest by dissident republican prisoners in Northern Ireland has intensified.
With up to 10 men smearing excrement on their cell walls at Maghaberry Jail near Lisburn, Co Antrim, high powered hoses were brought in to clean up the mess.
The prisoners, most of whom are linked to the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, are demanding to be segregated from loyalists.
Prison authorities confirmed a number of men had been moved from their cells, but denied anybody was hurt during the cleaning operation.
The campaign for segregation is being resisted because of fears prisoners will attempt to take control of their own areas.
Unlike the 1981 IRA hunger strike when 10 republicans died at the Maze, this protest by dissidents opposed to the peace process has virtually no support in republican areas.
The authorities are determined not to give in.
A prison service spokesman said: "We are committed to running an integrated regime because it provides the safest conditions for staff and prisoners.
"By far the most serious incidents in Northern Ireland prisons took place in segregated conditions."
Story filed: 17:18 Tuesday 8th July 2003
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