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The Red Hand Defenders (RHD) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires.〔(Red Hand Defenders ), Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)〕 Its members were drawn mostly from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).〔 The name had first been used by Red Hand Commandos dissident Frankie Curry in 1996 and he was the leading figure in what was a somewhat unstructured organization until he was killed in 1999.〔Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, ''UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror'', Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2004, pp. 307-308〕 It is named after the Red Hand of Ulster.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Terrorist Organization Profiles - START - National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism )〕 The RHD emerged when it claimed responsibility for a blast bomb attack on 7 September 1998 during a loyalist protest in Portadown. Loyalists had been protesting against the decision to ban the Orange Order from marching through the town's mainly Catholic and Irish nationalist quarter (see Drumcree conflict). The attack killed a Catholic Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer.〔 Since then, the RHD has claimed responsibility for killing a further ten people. It has also claimed responsibility for many pipe bomb attacks, mostly on the homes of Catholics.〔 One of the RHD's most notable attacks was the assassination of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson on 15 March 1999.〔 She had represented alleged Irish republican paramilitaries, the family of Robert Hamill, and the Garvaghy Road Residents Association. Of the eleven people the RHD claimed to have killed, nine were civilians, one was a former UDA member and one was an RUC officer. ==Links with the wider loyalist movement== It has been alleged that the name "Red Hand Defenders" is merely a covername for members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) so the organizations can claim on the surface to have honored their ceasefire agreements.〔〔()〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Red Hand Defenders )〕〔()〕 Similar accusations have been made regarding the name "Orange Volunteers", another loyalist paramilitary group that emerged in 1998.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Northern Ireland Loyalist Paramilitaries (U.K., extremists) )〕 Interestingly, claims of responsibility by the RHD for certain attacks have overlapped with those of the Orange Volunteers.〔 The Council on Foreign Relations indicates the membership of the RHD, LVF and Orange Volunteers likely overlap.〔 These organizations are generally composed of young Ulster Protestant males from Northern Ireland.〔 McDonald (2001) characterizes the LVF and UDA ceasefire agreements as "official fiction".〔() 2001-09-29〕 The LVF denies these claims, stating that its armed campaign has ended.〔() 1999-03-16〕 LVF members were aware that any breach of the ceasefire could result in the return to jail for those paramilitary prisoners freed as part of the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998.〔 This essentially served as an incentive for the groups to create a cover name.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations - 'R' )〕 As a result, the actual existence of the RHD has consistently been called into question.〔 Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald have argued that the RHD and the Orange Volunteers are both overseen by a Christian fundamentalist preacher they identify only as the Pastor. The Pastor, a former associate of William McGrath, John McKeague and George Seawright and a long-established British intelligence agent, is said by the authors to provide his own form of fundamentalist, anti-Catholic Protestantism to the two groups' fluid membership of young men, most of whom are also UDA or LVF members.〔Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF: Endgame'', Poolbeg, 2008, pp. 376-382〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Red Hand Defenders」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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