SINN FÉIN'S John O’Dowd has described an attack on a memorial to three IRA volunteers as a ‘hate crime’.
The MLA for Upper Bann hit out after the republican monument in Craigavon, Co. Armagh was covered with paint.
The monument is in memory of Gervaise McKerr, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns.
The three men died in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in November 1982 after RUC officers fired more than 100 rounds into a car in which the unarmed trio were travelling.
O’Dowd condemned the attack, branding it ‘cowardly’.
“This memorial commemorates the lives of IRA Volunteers Gervaise McKerr, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns who were unarmed when murdered by the RUC in Lurgan in November 1982 as part of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s shoot-to-kill policy in Ireland,” he said.
“The families of these three men have already suffered immense hurt and loss.
“Those responsible struck in the dead of night.
“I wholeheartedly condemn this cowardly attack which serves absolutely no purpose other than to add to the grief of the families.
“We have reported this as a hate crime to the PSNI.”
Three policemen were charged with murder over the young men's deaths but were acquitted in 1984.
John Stalker, Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, headed an inquiry which investigated the killings.
However he was removed from his position in 1986 shortly before he was due to present his report.
In a later book, he said his findings contradicted the official version of events and described the original investigation into the killings as 'slipshod'.
In 2001, the European Court of Human Rights ruled the three men's human rights had been violated.
The families of the three men are currently awaiting an inquest.
See More: IRA Memorial, John Stalker, Shoot To Kill, Sinn Féin
