Maghaberry Segregation Recommended
By Liam Clarke
Segregation of loyalist and republican prisoners in Maghaberry is recommended on security grounds in a review of Northern Ireland's largest jail. The review will be presented this week to Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland secretary of state, by John Steele, who was head of the Northern Ireland Prison Service from 1987 to 1992 and is a former head of security policy at the Northern Ireland Office.
Segregation in Maghaberry would raise fears of a Maze-type regime. In the H-Blocks, paramilitary leaders, who were referred to as officers commanding, ran their own wings with the co-operation of the prison staff who visited only by appointment.
The Prison Officers' Association is opposed to any move towards segregation but Steele is expected to say that separating the main factions and putting them into different areas of the prison is the best way to maintain order.
The forthcoming change of policy is being quietly welcomed by unionist and nationalist politicians who fear the protests by dissident republican and loyalist prisoners have the capacity to destabilise the peace process and weaken the Sinn Fein leadership.
There have already been violent clashes between rival factions in Maghaberry. A gun has been used by loyalists, while some of the jail's 36 dissident republicans have staged an H-Block style dirty protest. There are fears that this could escalate into a hunger strike, with prisoners' representatives winning seats in the assembly elections.
David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, has warned that the protests in Maghaberry are making it more difficult for Sinn Fein and the IRA to move on decommissioning and disbandment, which have been requested by the British and Irish governments.
Trimble said: "It seems to me that there is no prospect of IRA movement, partly because they will be using the turmoil within the Unionist party as an excuse for not moving, but also because they are concerned about the Maghaberry situation.
"What are Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness going to say if someone goes on hunger strike or if hunger strike people go up for election? They will be terrified about something like that giving the Real IRA a leg up."
Trimble needs the IRA to make a move to bolster his leadership of the Ulster Unionist party, which comes under scrutiny at a meeting of the Ulster Unionist council next Saturday. If he falls, progress towards the return of power sharing between nationalists and unionists is likely to be stalled for years.