A STRABANE Sinn Fein councillor who recently signed up to take his seat on the local District Policing Partnership said he is taking threats seriously issued over the weekend by dissident republicans.

Councillor Ivan Barr said he believed the group claiming to be behind the threats, the Irish Republican Liberation Army (IRLA), were a cover name for an already established paramilitary grouping.

The IRLA claimed over the weekend that any Sinn Fein members who refused to quit their positions on the DPPs before Christmas would face "military action". A spokesperson for the group also vowed to step up its campaign of violence in 2008.

SERIOUS

Speaking to the Strabane Chronicle on Tuesday, councillor Barr said he was taking the threats seriously and that he would be taking the limited personal security steps open to him.

"I would compare the threats with the situation we had a few years ago, when there were realistic threats against Sinn Fein representatives from loyalist paramilitaries.

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"There was a heightened state of alert at that time and we did increase our personal security measures. But as individuals, these were limited, because of a lack of resources.

"I always thought that we could take comfort in the fact that to be targetted in our locality by loyalists would have taken some effort because this is a largely nationalist town.

"The possibility was there but it would not have been a simple task for them to carry out the threats.

"But for the threats to be coming from within nationalist communities, and I expect republicans or former republicans, leaves us more vulnerable and accessible than on previous occasions.

"I hope these threats are never activated but I certainly won't be dismissing them.

"As a DPP member, I intend to carry out my commitments, but I'm at a loss to know what I can do to lessen the dangers," Mr Barr said.

"I hope these threats are never activated but I certainly won't be dismissing them." – Barr