Belfast health workers to protest death threats
Workers in three Belfast hospitals have organised a joint protest for lunchtime tomorrow following loyalist death threats against Catholic staff members.
The Red Hand Defenders, a cover-name for the UDA, issued the threats by telephone using a recognised code-word.
They were directed against Catholic workers in the Mater Hospital, the Ulster Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital. Police are investigating the threats.
A group calling itself the Catholic Reaction Force also issued a threat to Protestant workers at the Mater Hospital, but Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly said he suspected the threat was the work of loyalists trying to stoke up sectarian tension.
"The Catholic Reaction Force is a non-existent organisation," he said.
Over the weekend, postmen in Derry suspended deliveries after receiving death threats from a loyalist paramilitary group, but the service resumed this morning when the group in question insisted that it did not make the threat.
