Reports obtained from:
(1) The Observer, (2) Daily Ireland, (3) Sunday Business Post
Sunday, 11 September, 2005
Loyalists shoot at police as riot hits Belfast
By Henry McDonald, Ireland editor The Observer
A policeman was fighting for his life last night after being shot in the eye as loyalist gunmen opened fire during rioting in Belfast. A barrage of blast and petrol bombs was hurled at officers and soldiers during street clashes over a bitterly disputed Orange Order parade in some of the city's worst violence in years. A member of the outlawed Ulster Defence Association was critically injured.
The officer and the UDA terrorist were hurt in separate attacks at a point where the Protestant West Circular Road meets the mainly Catholic Springfield Road.
Local sources suggested the UDA member hurt as a blast bomb he was about to hurl at the police and army lines exploded in his hand. A BBC TV crew was attacked and a cameraman abducted by gunmen and taken into the loyalist Lower Shankill estate. His camera was taken and his videotape destroyed before he was released.
The violence started after pro-Orange Order demonstrators blocked off main routes to the city centre as nationalist and loyalists fought running battles across Belfast.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) made an unprecedented attack on the order. Chief Constable Hugh Orde, said it 'must bear substantial responsibility for this. They publicly called for people to come onto the street and cannot abdicate responsibility.'
Nationalists blamed the order's decision to bring thousands of supporters on to the streets in support of Orangemen banned from walking along the Springfield Road.
The security situation in Belfast continued to deteriorate overnight. A thousand loyalist protesters gathered on the Shankill Road shortly before 8pm to confront police and soldiers. Loyalist terrorists used rifles and machine guns late last night to again attack soldiers and police officers at several different flashpoints across the city.
Earlier, vans were set alight, police and troops were attacked with bottles and bricks, and several youths tried to break through to a heavily-fortified barrier preventing the local Orange lodge from passing through Workman Avenue to the mainly nationalist Springfield Road.
At West Circular Road police and troops came under sustained petrol bomb attack from around 500 loyalist youths. The police confirmed that at least six officers were hurt in the violence, including one who was seriously injured. Loyalist paramilitary sources told The Observer they fired up to 600 shots at police and troops during the disturbances.
Nationalists accused the order of organising an orchestrated campaign of traffic disruption and violence in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. The trouble came at a delicate moment in the Northern Ireland peace process, as the IRA is preparing to decommission a huge arsenal of weapons in an attempt to find a permanent end to the fighting.
Copyright © 2005 The Observer
‘Harmless’?
By Ciarán Barnes, Daily Ireland
The PSNI was yesterday criticised after it described loyalist rush-hour protests that have brought areas of Belfast to a standstill as “harmless”.
A group of loyalist protesters yesterday prevented a young mother from getting home to give oxygen for her sick 13-month-old daughter. She said the protests could have tragic consequences.
Nationalist politicians last night rubbished PSNI claims that the protests were harmless. They called for action to be taken against those involved.
Loyalists are unhappy at a Parades Commission decision to restrict an Orange Order march that is due to pass through the predominantly nationalist Springfield Road area in west Belfast this afternoon. Orangemen have been instructed to go onto the Springfield Road via the former Mackies factory site rather than their proposed route along Workman Avenue. Angry at the Parades Commission’s refusal to reverse this decision, loyalists have been planning a mass demonstration on the road today. They have also staged several illegal rush-hour road blocks since Wednesday. These have seriously disrupted traffic but the PSNI has failed to do anything about the situation. When asked why officers had taken no action against the protesters, a PSNI spokeswoman said yesterday: “There has been no breach of the peace. The protests have been peaceful. “They are white-line protests involving women and children that are harmless in effect. “To go in and make arrests would inflame the situation.”
However, a 19-year-old woman who was stopped yesterday from taking her sick child home said last night that lives were being put at risk. The woman, who did not wish to be named, was travelling in a car that was stopped at north Belfast’s Ligoniel Road at 4pm yesterday. She said: “My 13-month-old daughter is on oxygen for an illness and I wanted to get her home because her supply was running out. “I explained this to the people protesting but they wouldn't let me through. One man said: ‘If we are not allowed to march down your road, you will not be allowed up our road.' “A woman also claimed that they would burn our car if we didn't turn around. “My daughter was becoming very distressed and I had to turn around and go to my mother's home instead but it was a very frightening experience."
On Wednesday evening, two nationalist community workers were attacked on the Springfield Road by loyalists involved in a roadblock.
Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hartley said the PSNI’s “harmless” comments reflect its double standards and tolerance of the loyalist protests. He said: “There has been massive disruption in Belfast as people are prevented from getting to work and keeping hospital appointments, while children have also been kept from school.”
The SDLP’s Margaret Walsh insisted the roadblocks were not harmless. She said: “People have a right to protest, but protests can be carried out in a way that doesn’t stop others going to work, school and hospital."
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, Duncan McCausland, said he feared disorder at today’s main loyalist protest on the Springfield Road. He said: “I am concerned that tomorrow may bring some disorder, but I am also hopeful that common sense will prevail.”
Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley and Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey have been putting pressure on Secretary of State Peter Hain. The minister’s refusal to move has led Mr Paisley to warn this “could be the spark which kindles a fire there would be no putting out”.
An eleventh hour request for the Parades' Commission to make a U-turn on their decision on the parade by the two leaders was turned down last night.
Sean Paul O'Hare, spokesman for the Springfield Road Residents' Association, said: “We feel that this is another move that will create more tension. We are calling for all sides to adhere to the Parades' Commission decision.”
Copyright © 2005 Daily Ireland
IRA has started its destruction of arms
By Paul T Colgan, Sunday Business Post, Dublin
The IRA is engaged in putting its weapons beyond use this weekend, at the start of a week of significant movement in the peace process.
A series of meetings is planned in the coming days involving Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, British prime minister Tony Blair and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams - all of whom are travelling to the United States.
Ahern and Blair are attending the United Nations summit, while Adams will also be in New York to meet prominent Irish-Americans.
Adams' visit is seen as a crucial part of the choreography, ahead of a statement from the international decommissioning body that IRA disarmament has been completed.
The three members of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) have not been contactable for a number of days.
According to an IICD spokesman, they will not be available for comment in the foreseeable future.
It had been expected that IICD chief General John de Chastelain would signal the beginning of the decommissioning process with a statement, but sources said the IICD's work could not be publicised for security reasons.
De Chastelain is overseeing decommissioning with Andrew Sens and Finnish brigadier Tauno Nieminen. The IICD representatives are joined by two clergymen, one Catholic and one Protestant.
The process is expected to take some time, as the weapons are stored in a number of arms dumps around the country. Political momentum has also been building on other fronts. The meeting between President Mary McAleese and PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde last week was seen as a strong endorsement of policing reform in the North.
It is thought that the meeting will help the republican movement sell a policing deal to its members. Sinn Féin still opposes republican membership of the PSNI and the policing bodies.
Copyright © 2005 Sunday Business Post