ARMY TERROR... CONTINUED

Last week the British army occupying Northern Ireland 'expressed its re. grets' when it shot a woman walking down a street in Belfast.

The official report says the army was firing at a 'gunman' and 'unfortunately' a few shots hit an innocent woman bystander.

To the people of Ulster, however, it was by no means the first time this has happened. It was just one more case of the army terror which has been imposed on them since 1969.

The oppression continues daily. People are whipped off the streets or from their homes for 'questioning'. Some are released while others do not return so quickly.

Take the case of James Corbett from Ballymurphy, Belfast.

On December 26 last year he was interned. He spent three-and-a-half months in Long Kesh.

At the Palace Barracks, toly statement deter being lary tortured by the army. In June this year he was finally released.

That was not the end of the affair, as his mother, Mrs Margaret Corbett, told the Association for Legal Justice.

'Since Operation Motorman began on July 31 my son been arrested seven times.

"This morning [September 5] he was lifted at 5.30 a.m. He is now at Castlereagh police barracks "helping police with their enquiries".

'On each of these occasions James has been beaten and there are several eye-witnesses who have seen him being kicked out of Saracens. On Saturday August 12 a gun was clicked at his head in my presence and the presence of the children.' Two more families have reported how without any provocation the army fired rubber bullets at very young children.

Michael Tohill, from the Ardoyne district of Belfast, told about his six-year-old daughter, Katrina.

I was at the bottom of Clonard Street when my daughter came and told me Katrina had been hit by a rubber bullet. I rushed up to the house, but Katrina was already away at the hospital.

'The six-wheeler had been around the area about six times, when suddenly there was a report from the sixwheeler and Katrina was hit. It had been fired from the back 'After about one hour we were able to take Katrina home. She was in the house half an hour when she started to vomit up blood.

'I left the house North Howard Street to see the man in charge of the Green Jackets. I saw this officer and informed him what had happened to my daughter.

'He told me he already knew what had happened. "The innocent sometimes suffer," he said. "The injuries as far as I know are bruised ribs and vomiting up blood."' Another young child hit by a rubber bullet was six-yearold Geraldine Tohill. An eyewitness told of the army's blatant and unprovoked attack:

I was at the junction of Kane Street and Bombay Street when a Saracen had just turned the corner. The soldiers in the back of the Saracen fired one rubber bullet at children playing on the edge of the footpath.

'One child was hit in the ribs. It was six-year-old Geraldine Tohill. At this time there were no incidents in the area, and this attack was uncalled for.

'Mrs Tohill took Geraldine to the hospital and the doctor told her that if the rubber bullet had hit the child straight-on instead of at a side angle, the child would never have spoken again. • The child had severe bruising and lacerations and was hysterical. She refused to stay in hospital and had to be brought home.' Other people, like Mrs J. Walker, of Gibson Street, Belfast, have been terrorized without reason by the army. Shots have been taken at them standing in their homes and relatives beaten and taken away.

'On Friday afternoon, September 22, I was standing at my own door watching the children play in my hallway,' Mrs Walker said.

'A shot was fired in the Grosvenor Road. As soon as I heard it I rushed to get all the children into my house.

'I felt something hitting me in the face. Fragments of the wall had hit me. The army had fired at my house and were running up the street.

I shouted at the soldiers that they could have shot me or my children. Their answer was they should have aimed lower. Two soldiers rushed inside and came out again. When more soldiers came I told them two had already been in.

'At this they started to push me about. My sister was pushed and kicked because she told the soldiers to leave me alone. One of the soldiers tried to push her head through a window.

'Next morning at 8.45 they came and arrested my sister.

'When I complained to the army barracks I asked about my sister who had been taken away in a Saladin. I was told she was wanted for an incident.'