The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has told a group of south Armagh farmers and other residents that he will bring their complaints against the British army and the RUC "to Downing Street".
The South Armagh Farmers' and Residents' Committee was formed last September to campaign against "a 50 per cent increase in activity and harassment" by the security forces. At a meeting with the Taoiseach in Government Buildings yesterday, a delegation asked him to use his influence with the British authorities to have an immediate de-escalation of military activity in south Armagh, followed by demilitarisation. According to the committee, the British government's response to the resumption of the IRA ceasefire last July was to immediately commence refurbishing and expanding some of the 20 lookout posts and military bases in South Armagh. A total of 31 lookout posts and watchtowers exist in a 20-square mile radius, they said. These include five "massive jointbarracks".
Ms Toni Carragher, secretary of the group, told a press conference that, in addition to health worries over the presence of infrared cameras and surveillance equipment, local people were extremely concerned that there was an average of 187 helicopter flights into each post every month.
Since July 1997, a total of 1,864 helicopter flights had been recorded into the Glassdrummond lookout post close to where she and her husband, Peter, are farmers. Between April 10th, the date of the Belfast Agreement, and April 27th, there were 87 flights into the base. According to Ms Carragher, 159 incursion flights had also occurred over the Border into Co Louth.
The committee also told Mr Ahern that local funerals were being disrupted because of the noise from hovering helicopters.
A local farmer, Mr Henry McElroy, said that British army helicopters are deliberately flown low over South Armagh farmland to stampede livestock and cause serious animal losses. He produced pictures of dead animals which he said had been killed in such incidents. When stopped for a search by the army on one recent occasion, a soldier had threatened to shoot him. When he reported the matter to the RUC, Mr McElroy said, a police officer had said he would do the same.