Security forces prepare for worst scenario
by Joe Oliver
POLICE and Army chiefs are planning for the "worst possible scenario" as Portadown lurches towards yet another crisis over the Drumcree parade.
A massive security operation has already been mounted with the deployment of a huge 30ft by 20ft steel protective barrier topped with barbed wire to stop loyalist mobs reaching the nationalist Garvaghy Road. But security forces will today dig out drains on land adjacent to Drumcree Church and flood them to provide another barrier.
RUC officers are already trained in riot control. But in the past few weeks they have received additional training, with the emphasis on blast bombs.
That have been warned that the lethal devices, one of which killed police officer Frankie O'Reilly during disturbances in Portadown two years ago, are being turned into even deadlier weapons.
It is known that hardline loyalists have added phosphorus to the bombs, to make them burn more fiercely. Police have moved to counter the threat with high-tech fire resistant riot gear.
All police leave has been cancelled amid fears that violence will escalate from Sunday to Wednesday - the Twelfth.
Security forces are particularly worried at the continuing presence of ex-UFF leader Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair at Drumcree.
He has formed an alliance with the LVF, formed by murdered Portadown godfather Billy Wright. One security source said: "People are certainly justified in wondering just what Adair and other paramilitaries are doing at an Orange protest.
"It would be fair to assume they are not there intending to play a peacekeeping role."
On Tuesday night loyalist gunmen opened fire on police with semi-automatic weapons at Carlisle Circus in north Belfast and there were also reports of gunfire in Lurgan, Co. Armagh.
© Irish Examiner, 2000