The editorial of the North Belfast News (28/4/03) entitled ROUGH JUSTICE in response to the INLA's recent tarring punishment meted out to two young adults in Ardoyne gave the impression that they had acted without reference to the programmes operated by local community groups.

This is clearly not true. The Republican Socialist Movement seeks to direct young people who are experiencing difficulties towards community groups which may help divert them from anti-social behaviour. We have done that in different parts of Belfast with some degree of success. We also did it recently in the Ardoyne area concerning the misuse of young children by the Special Branch.

However sometimes even the best efforts of the wider society fails to have any effect on the activities of the young people. The young individuals in Ardoyne were punished for a wide range of anti-social actions that warranted and deserved a response. They were not shot in the elbows and feet. They were not assaulted. They were not tortured. They were humiliated in public.

Republican Socialists are aware of the human rights of individuals. We do not seek to permanently overturn those rights. However rights also carry with them responsibilities and in the case your editorial mentioned some people including the young people themselves have failed to live up to their responsibilities.

Republican Socialists can not ignore the ongoing terror that is being inflicted on ordinary people by anti community elements. In general, adolescents who engage in thuggery and instill fear not only in the adult community but also among their peers have rejected at every opportunity help and assistance offered not only by Republicans of all shades but also their parents, their peers, local community groups, the Catholic church and others.

These young thugs chose as their victims ordinary working class people, friends, neighbours and the wider community. These are people who demand and are entitled to live their lives free from intimidation and fear.

The INLA felt it had no other option because of the failure of the two young men to take responsibility for their own actions and desist from attacks on their own community. Others in the wider community who washed their hands of the problem can explain their own actions or inaction. A valid question the North Belfast News should have asked is what exactly are the statutory agencies and government departments who are charged with helping and assisting young people at risk doing at present to help local communities?

The IRSP remain resolute in our rejection of violent punishment beatings and shootings as a means of social control and we will redouble our efforts to ensure that an alternative community justice system is effective. In the case highlighted in your editorial it had clearly failed.

The assistance offered to the two young men in the local community is still there and the RSM will do all within its power to ensure that there is no repeat of the initial anti-social behavior and hence no requirement for any punitive measures. But if young people want respect and dignity in society then they also have an obligation to give respect and dignity to their neighbours. Is that too much to ask?

We in the IRSP support the North Belfast News' position that local communities should exercise patience. We will do all we can to ensure that such incidents as you describe do not happen again. But a massive effort is need from all of us to ensure that working class communities have space to live their lives freed from thuggery vandalism and anti-social behaviour. All of us should pledge to the local community full support in its endeavors to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour.

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