IRA featured game branded 'insensitive'
A COMPUTER game featuring an ex-IRA member as a character in a warfare style world has been branded as "offensive" and "insensitive" .
Unionists slammed the video game, designed for consoles such as the X-Box and Playstation 3, as "glorifying terrorism" among young people.
Far Cry 2 is styled as "the next-generation first person shooter" from makers Ubisoft and promises a "brand new gaming experience".
Set in an unnamed African nation in the midst of civil war, the gamer is tasked with tracking down and killing a notorious arms dealer known as The Jackal, who is supplying weapons to both sides.
You must choose a character to play from a group of mercenaries, most of which have an ex-security background.
Among them is Frank Bilders, described as a 36-year-old Fermanagh smuggler, whose experience includes "direct action" as a member of the Provisional IRA.
The fictional character's biography also includes details of a spell in The Maze prison, as well as the fact Bilders' was a loan shark and a police informant who went on to smuggle contraband goods into Morroco, Yemen and Chechnya.
Victims campaigner Willie Frazer said the game was "hurtful" to people who have lost loved ones at the hands of IRA atrocities.
Calling for the character to be removed from the game, the FAIR organiser said: "If it was an UVF man there would be some outcry from the nationalist community.
"It's particularly hurtful to people like ourselves who have lost loved ones to the hands of the IRA," he said.
"It's not an organisation that doesn't exist, it's still there.
"Can you imagine if you came into the room and your grandchild was playing this on the computer? It would be very offensive to people who have lost their loved ones."
Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson shared similar sentiments.
He said it was "highly insensitive" to have computer game characters who have terrorist links.
"I just wonder at times if people think through how offensive this kind of thing can be and how it effects victims of IRA terrorism."
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Monday 28 May 2012
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