North: Pressure to review march guidelines after riot
The British government faced new demands today to review guidelines on parades in the North after 60 police officers were injured, one seriously, when rioting erupted in north Belfast.
Two journalists were also hurt when missiles and suspected pipe bombs exploded in the flashpoint Ardoyne district after a contentious Orange parade. The security forces had attempted to hold back nationalist protesters as hundreds of Orangemen marched along the Crumlin Road on two occasions yesterday.
But even though senior republicans urged youths not to attack police and soldiers, bricks rained down from rooftops as the rioting broke out shortly before 8pm.
Officers used water cannons and fired several rounds of sponge-tipped plastic bullets in a bid to quell the violence.
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey called on Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to address the parades issue as a matter of urgency.
Mr Empey said: “I’m calling on the Secretary of State to take a grip on this and put it on the table for discussion in the autumn because we need a solution.
“We can’t allow what is an issue of cultural rights to be turned into a political football and there has to be a consensus on how this is dealt with. It can’t be left to haphazard local arrangements, which is a high risk strategy.”
The PSNI confirmed one police officer was seriously injured in the trouble but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
A car was also set on fire close to police lines where a massive security operation had been put in place for the most controversial of all the Twelfth of July demonstrations taking place across the North.
As tensions heightened, a water cannon was used to douse large crowds of nationalists.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who was at the scene along with senior party colleagues in an attempt to keep the situation calm, was among dozens doused by the jets, and criticised the police for resorting too quickly to the water cannon.
The trouble escalated even before the Orangemen had made their return from the city centre up along the contentious route past Ardoyne’s shopfronts.
A number of explosions occurred as devices were hurled from the crowd that had gathered. One hit a BBC journalist who was carried away by police officers. He was taken to the Mater Hospital where he was treated for flesh wounds to the back.
The PSNI confirmed another member of the media was hurt as the trouble flared.
At least one policeman was wounded and had to be taken away by his colleagues.
Mr Adams and his senior party colleague Gerry Kelly held talks with police commanders in the area amid attempts to stop any further serious disorder.
The Sinn Féin president insisted that in spite of the attacks and blast bombs the situation could have been much worse.
Mr Adams said: “The fact is that the vast majority of people have demonstrated peacefully and in a calm manner.”
The West Belfast MP also blamed the strategy adopted by police for what followed.
“When the police moved in what I think was quite a reckless manner, they took management completely away from the stewards,” he said.
“They brought the water cannon in too quickly. We should have been allowed to keep order.
“In a situation where people on the front line like myself, Gerry Kelly, different MLAs and Fr (Aidan) Troy were completely soaked on six or seven different occasions.”
SDLP West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood praised the police and condemned those responsible for the rioting.
He said: “The scenes are an utter disgrace. It is in complete contrast of the conduct of so many during the day including the police, the protesters and so many others. The rioters represent no one but a minority. Those responsible have a great deal to account for.”
At the height of the trouble nationalist youths with scarves over their faces were seen with stockpiles of petrol or paint bombs.
Yesterday morning police in riot gear moved in to clear a sit-down republican protest in the Ardoyne area.
Around 60 demonstrators, some of whom chained themselves to a set of traffic lights, were lifted from the Crumlin Road during a 30-minute operation.
Mr Adams and Mr Kelly called for calm as police moved in on the protesters shortly after 8am.
In Derry, a female police officer suffered minor facial injuries after petrol bombs were thrown at officers.
The trouble flared at Butcher Street and St Joseph’s Place areas of the city after the main Orange parade had finished.
A PSNI spokeswoman said several arrests were made following the “minor disturbance”.
Yesterday’s Orange parade was the first on the city’s nationalist Westbank for 13 years.
It followed an agreement between business leaders in the city and senior members of the Orange Order.
Supt Gary White said there were people intent on causing trouble as the parade passed.
He said: “I think that it went wrong from the point of view that there seemed to me to be a clear intent from the outset, that there were people who were intent on attacking that parade.”
The Orange Order called on the Parades Commission to ban all future protests at Ardoyne following the rioting.
A Grand Orange Lodge spokesman claimed lives were being put at risk.
“The rioting happens so often that the Ardoyne has become synonymous with serious, orchestrated violence,” the spokesman said. “Do we have to wait for people to die before the Parades Commission acts to put a stop to it?”
Meanwhile, in Co Antrim, riot police moved into a village as a stand-off developed between Orangemen and nationalist protesters in Dunloy.
It was later resolved after Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness arrived to help broker a resolution.
Around 30 nationalists who had staged a sit-down protest were removed from the road by police and Orangemen made their way to a local church to perform a wreath-laying ceremony.
