Belfast Telegraph Home > News 11 August 2003  Terror toll soars in wake of Agreement Police reveal grim statistics By Paul Dykes newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk SHOOTINGS, beatings and injuries related to terrorism have all escalated in the five years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, official police figures reveal. Far from heralding a period of peace, the years since the deal was struck have set stark new statistics for torture and rioting compared with the five years preceding the signing. Paramilitary shootings by both sides have more than doubled, police injuries have soared by 67%, and more than 100 people have died. Loyalist terrorists shot 426 people between Easter 1998 and Easter 2003 - 124% more than in the five preceding years. Republicans shot 239 people over the same period - 115% more than in the five years before the deal. Police officers, including reservists, suffered 2,584 injuries, and one death, in the five years after the Agreement was signed, up from 1,541 in the previous five-year period. Civilian deaths dropped from 160 before the deal to 102 in the five years after, but that still equates to more than 20 deaths a year. And 3,596 civilians were injured in security situations in the five years since the deal - up 10% from 3,262 in the previous five years. The PSNI figures demonstrate that the Agreement has also failed to curb loyalist punishment beatings, but beatings by republican groups have almost halved. Since the Agreement, police figures show that loyalists have assaulted 441 people, 19.8% more than in the five years up to the signing of the deal. Conversely, republican beatings have dropped 43% in the past five years, from 441 in the five years leading up to the deal to 251 since the signing. Overall, all paramilitary shootings and beatings rose by 22.25% over the five years since the Agreement, with 1,357 victims compared with 1,110 in the five years afterwards. Since the UDA declaration that it was embarking on a 12-month ceasefire, police figures indicate that at least 23 people have been shot by loyalist terror groups, and 28 have been beaten by paramilitaries in the five months to July 20. The police figures for republican terror groups for the same period show 18 shootings and 13 beatings. A police spokesman acknowledged that the figures highlighted a rise in the number of paramilitary- style attacks over recent years, and asked communities to work with police to eliminate this kind of crime. "Paramilitary attacks must be taken seriously by society as a whole and cannot be resolved by police action alone," he said. "Ultimately, police can only prevent paramilitary-style attacks when they have information and equally they can only properly investigate these crimes when the community comes forward with information." He said there was a responsibility on society to encourage adherence to the law and to discourage paramilitary involvement in social issues. "Communities can do this by coming forward with information and resisting asking paramilitary groupings for this kind of intervention," he said.