IAIS: COLIN DUFFY SPEAKS OU Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit COLIN DUFFY SPEAKS OUT 11/10/97 11:01 EST Lurgan republican Colin Duffy, twice wrongly charged with IRA murders, today spoke out about the continuing "campaign of harassment" waged by the Northern Ireland security forces against him. And he revealed that last week he received a bouquet of flowers with a card signed with the words 'King Rat' - the notorious Portadown loyalist who is believed to have killed at least 20 Catholics. Duffy has been imprisoned three times and was released on every occasion when the charges were dropped. Last month he was freed when charges that he shot dead two RUC officers in Lurgan during the summer were withdrawn. Speaking on Raidio na Gaeltachta, Duffy said: "I'm a republican and the RUC doesn't care if you're innocent or guilty as long as they get someone. "The RUC are giving me trouble, and especially the RIR." He said he, his wife and two daughters - one just three weeks old - were stopped and questioned in their car by RIR soldiers last night for half an hour. "They were saying they wanted to search my car; but it was only an excuse to harass me." Last month Duffy clashed with a member of the RIR after being stopped in Lurgan town centre, and a file on the incident is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions with a view to bringing further charges against him. "A couple of false bombs have also been sent to my house," he added. Mystery surrounds the death of a prominent loyalist found dead after a boat exploded in Northern Ireland at the weekend. Robert John Kerr (54) from Portadown was found near the burnt-out shell of a cabin cruiser on the Newry-Warrenpoint Road. It is understood a tractor pulling the trailer and boat broke down, and it is thought the explosion was caused by vapour. Kerr was a leading figure among loyalists and was described by one former associate as "a full-time gangster who wheeled and dealed to survive". Lately he was said to be heavily involved in the drug trade. A Protestant man was found battered to death yesterday in a quarry near Belfast. Raymond McCord (22) from North Belfast was found dumped near Newtownabbey. The RUC have launched a murder inquiry. It is believed loyalists may have carried out the killing. The spot where the body was found has been used in the past by loyalist paramilitaries to dump the bodies of their Catholic victims. Police said the murder was "particularly brutal". A solution may soon be found to end the loyalist picket at Harryville. Loyalists have picketed Catholic Mass in the town for more than a year in what they claim is a protest over loyalists not being allowed to march through the nationalist village of Dunloy 15 miles away. The SDLP's Sean Farren said: "At this stage the signs are more hopeful than they have been up to now that a resolution could be in sight which would end the picket at Harryville and perhaps also find a basis for moving forward with respect to the parade controversy in Dunloy." Democratic Unionists today claimed that an IRA return to violence is "inevitable". Over the weekend republicans moved to play down the significance of divisions within the IRA and Sinn Fein after recent resignations from both organizations. The DUP's Nigel Dodds says a return to violence by the IRA is only a matter of time. He called on the British government to resist any pressure from republicans. The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization provding up-to-the-minute objective coverage of news as it happens in Ireland and the North. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.iais.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-11.15.97-01:57:58-23893