Reign of terror on flag row estate

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Reign of terror on flag row estate      19th June
Residents who objected to the flying of Irish Tricolours in a
nationalist estate have been subjected to a reign of terror from
within.
In some cases, dead birds have been left outside people's doors,
excrement pushed through letterboxes and cars, gardens and homes
damaged.
The majority of people living on the Fisherwick estate in Ballymena
are opposed to the flags and just want to live in peace, two SDLP
representatives claim.
MLA Sean Farren and councillor Declan O'Loan, in a joint statement,
said residents were caught between Sinn Fein defending the flying of
tricolours and the PUP threatening to hold street protests at the
mouth of the estate.
Several people have already fled the area and others were trying to
sell their homes but could not because the flags controversy has seen
a drop in house values, said the SDLP men.
The SDLP statement said: ''Since that time, there has been a campaign
of intimidation against residents who were perceived as being opposed
to that sort of involvement.
''This has included the erection of tricolours outside their houses,
broken windows, verbal abuse and name-calling, personalised graffiti,
damage to cars, birds killed and left at houses, excrement through at
least one letterbox, a sharp knife left pointing at a house, stones
thrown at windows, trashing of houses after people have left,
snowballing by young people in hoods and balaclavas, entering and
damaging gardens and close observation of movements.
''We have been told that, as a result of this, people have been in
great emotional distress. They have been in a constant state of
apprehension and frightened to report incidents.
''Children will not go out of the house except when taken to school;
adults will only go in and out of the estate by car; a young person
was found crawling to the toilet so as not to be observed.
''People have felt powerless in the face of this campaign and a number
of residents have left the estate.''
The statement said that, after the flags controversy blew up last year
''Sinn Fein activists rapidly involved themselves in the estate,
providing Tricolours, leafleting houses, issuing statements and
seeking support among the residents.
''The great majority of the residents were strongly opposed to the
flying of flags in their estate.
''They did not want their estate to be politicised. A number of them
publicly expressed this view to Sinn Fein representatives who had come
into the estate.''