Tensions linger in Belfast after riots & Protestants Riot in N. Ireland for 3rd Day
Hmm, I haven't really been paying attention to the news of late, but I know I had not heard any mention of this going on...
Seems the Orange Order boys are a might bit upset at not getting to march where they want to... Then again, it is marching season in Northern Ireland, this is what happens during marching season...
Wonder when they are going to start blaming the IRA for all of it...
Tensions linger in Belfast after riots
Monday September 12, 10:32 PM BELFAST (Reuters) - Belfast ground to a halt on Monday evening after Protestant demonstrators blocked roads and nervous commuters, fearing a resumption of the weekend's rioting, scrambled to leave the city early.
Violence flared in pockets and one police station was attacked with petrol bombs but there was no repeat of the sustained fighting seen on Saturday and Sunday when rioters hurled blast Advertisement
bombs, set light to hijacked cars and shot at police in the worst unrest in Northern Ireland for years.
Tension in the province's Protestant communities has mounted since Britain started to scale back its security presence there following a pledge by the IRA in July to disarm.
Protestants fear Britain is moving too fast at a time when the IRA has shown no sign of getting rid of its weapons.
The latest violence could hamper efforts to forge a lasting political deal in the province, emerging from three decades of sectarian conflict in which 3,600 people were killed.
"The weekend's violence was much more deep-seated than many are perhaps prepared to accept," said Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
"There has been a build-up of resentment that those who practise violence get listened to and have their concerns addressed ... Republicans are seen to influence government by threatening force and getting rewarded for their efforts."
HORRIFIED AT ATTACKS
U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, warned Protestant political leaders they must take the lead in discouraging violence.
"I think it is a time for the Unionist leadership to really assert itself. This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable. It doesn't serve anybody's agenda except for the lowest common denominators in society," he told reporters.
In what analysts said was a strong warning to Protestant paramilitaries to end their violence, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he was reviewing their cease-fire status, which could close off negotiating channels for the militants.
"I was horrified at the evidence I have been shown of the severity of the attacks on police officers," Hain told reporters. "We've seen scores of bullets fired by paramilitaries without any objective other than to kill police officers."
Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland largely ended when ceasefires were declared in 1997 but violence persists within communities as rival factions jockey for power, hampering a lasting political settlement.
Belfast-based government sharing power between Catholics and Protestants has been on ice since 2002.
Repeated efforts to get all sides back to the negotiating table have been thwarted repeatedly by allegations of broken promises and outbreaks of violence.
Northern Ireland minister David Hanson insisted on Monday the IRA's July statement raised the prospect of restoring local government. "Direct rule is not the right way for Northern Ireland to be governed. Devolution is," he said. "We want to -- and we will -- hand back to politicians as soon as we can."
But analysts said the government faced an uphill battle while Protestants felt the British government was ignoring their concerns.
"In terms of Northern Ireland politics, having a significant section of the Protestant community really angry about a whole lot of things ... is a potentially dangerous situation," said Richard English, professor of politics at Queen's University.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Smith in Dublin)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12092005/325/tensions-linger-belfast-riots.html
And...
Protestants Riot in N. Ireland for 3rd Day By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Crowds of Protestant hard-liners blocked key roads in Belfast and rioted for a third straight night Monday in a long-building explosion of frustration at Northern Ireland's peace process.
At least 50 officers were wounded over the weekend when extremists fought riot police and British troops in the worst Protestant violence in a decade. The British governor and the territory's police chief said two outlawed Protestant paramilitary groups mounted machine-gun and grenade attacks on police.
The rampage followed British authorities' refusal Saturday to permit the Orange Order, Northern Ireland's major Protestant brotherhood, to parade as it usually does each year along the boundary of Catholic west Belfast.
Monday's road blockades, formed by men, women and children, caused traffic jams that lasted for hours. Adding to the chaos were troublemakers who called Belfast businesses and, pretending to be police officers, ordered them to send workers home and close early on security grounds.
Protestant riots resumed at nightfall Monday in several parts of Belfast, although the mobs were smaller, the level of destruction much less severe and the intensity of violence greatly reduced from the weekend. No new injuries were reported.
Protestants threw fire bombs at a heavily fortified police base on the line between British Protestant and Irish Catholic turf in west Belfast. Gangs pelted passing cars on the city's two major highways with stones, forcing police to divert traffic to smaller roads.
Gangs also hijacked and burned more vehicles on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, although police prevented the hijacking of a bus and seized crates of Molotov cocktails and paint-filled balloons.
Several thousand police equipped with shields, body armor, flame-retardant suits, guns loaded with plastic bullets, armored personnel carriers, mobile water cannon and tear gas were on standby in fortified barracks across this city of 600,000. About 1,200 British soldiers also were deployed to support the police.
British governor Peter Hain and police commander Hugh Orde said the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defense Association, which are supposed to be observing cease-fires in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, carried out the weekend attacks on police.
Hain said he would issue a policy statement within the next few days, raising widespread expectations he will withdraw Britain's recognition of the groups' 1994 cease-fire. Their truce has been repeatedly violated over the past decade - but rarely so brazenly as last weekend.
"The evidence I have seen is absolutely clear-cut. If it wasn't clear-cut before, it's absolutely categorical now," said Hain, who viewed surveillance footage of the weekend's riots at the police headquarters in east Belfast.
Police have accused the Ulster Volunteer Force, which wields brutal authority in many Protestant parts of Belfast and runs a range of criminal rackets including counterfeiting and smuggling cigarettes, of killing four Protestant men this summer in a turf war with a breakaway drug dealing gang.
Hain could order a return to prison for dozens of UVF and UDA convicts who received prison paroles as part of the 1998 peace deal. Catholic leaders demanded sterner action against both groups.
But police and political analysts warned that the deep-seated Protestant alienation fueling the riots required a diplomatic rather than security solution. Protestant politicians said rioting was inevitable given the belief of many Protestants that Britain has focused a decade of peacemaking on the demands of Catholics and the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
"Quite clearly, what you have here is a politics of fatalism, a community that sees itself as not being listened to," said University of Ulster social scientist Peter Shirlow.
Confrontations over Protestant parades, particularly near Catholic areas, have triggered riots in the past. The most widespread violence happened from 1996 to 1998, when Catholic militants blockaded Protestants' parade routes.
Since then, a government-appointed Parades Commission imposed restrictions on disputed Protestant parades. Until now, Orangemen usually accepted with sullen resignation.
But when the commission ordered Saturday's marchers to parade through a factory site instead of the main road, Orange leaders called for illegal sit-down protests all over Belfast. Orangemen refused to accept any responsibility for the rioting.
Mitchell Reiss, President Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, accused Protestant leaders of making bogus excuses for rioters.
"I think all of us are pretty disappointed with the abdication of responsibility by many (Protestant) unionist leaders," Reiss said in Belfast. "No political party, and certainly no responsible political leadership, deserves to serve in a government unless it cooperates and supports fully and unconditionally the police, and calls on its supporters to do so."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050913/ap_on_re_eu/nireland_riots;_ylt=AmPmH54IIOI85BHI1QeCnUus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-
Seems the Orange Order boys are a might bit upset at not getting to march where they want to... Then again, it is marching season in Northern Ireland, this is what happens during marching season...
Wonder when they are going to start blaming the IRA for all of it...
Tensions linger in Belfast after riots
Monday September 12, 10:32 PM BELFAST (Reuters) - Belfast ground to a halt on Monday evening after Protestant demonstrators blocked roads and nervous commuters, fearing a resumption of the weekend's rioting, scrambled to leave the city early.
Violence flared in pockets and one police station was attacked with petrol bombs but there was no repeat of the sustained fighting seen on Saturday and Sunday when rioters hurled blast Advertisement
bombs, set light to hijacked cars and shot at police in the worst unrest in Northern Ireland for years.
Tension in the province's Protestant communities has mounted since Britain started to scale back its security presence there following a pledge by the IRA in July to disarm.
Protestants fear Britain is moving too fast at a time when the IRA has shown no sign of getting rid of its weapons.
The latest violence could hamper efforts to forge a lasting political deal in the province, emerging from three decades of sectarian conflict in which 3,600 people were killed.
"The weekend's violence was much more deep-seated than many are perhaps prepared to accept," said Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
"There has been a build-up of resentment that those who practise violence get listened to and have their concerns addressed ... Republicans are seen to influence government by threatening force and getting rewarded for their efforts."
HORRIFIED AT ATTACKS
U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, warned Protestant political leaders they must take the lead in discouraging violence.
"I think it is a time for the Unionist leadership to really assert itself. This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable. It doesn't serve anybody's agenda except for the lowest common denominators in society," he told reporters.
In what analysts said was a strong warning to Protestant paramilitaries to end their violence, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he was reviewing their cease-fire status, which could close off negotiating channels for the militants.
"I was horrified at the evidence I have been shown of the severity of the attacks on police officers," Hain told reporters. "We've seen scores of bullets fired by paramilitaries without any objective other than to kill police officers."
Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland largely ended when ceasefires were declared in 1997 but violence persists within communities as rival factions jockey for power, hampering a lasting political settlement.
Belfast-based government sharing power between Catholics and Protestants has been on ice since 2002.
Repeated efforts to get all sides back to the negotiating table have been thwarted repeatedly by allegations of broken promises and outbreaks of violence.
Northern Ireland minister David Hanson insisted on Monday the IRA's July statement raised the prospect of restoring local government. "Direct rule is not the right way for Northern Ireland to be governed. Devolution is," he said. "We want to -- and we will -- hand back to politicians as soon as we can."
But analysts said the government faced an uphill battle while Protestants felt the British government was ignoring their concerns.
"In terms of Northern Ireland politics, having a significant section of the Protestant community really angry about a whole lot of things ... is a potentially dangerous situation," said Richard English, professor of politics at Queen's University.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Smith in Dublin)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12092005/325/tensions-linger-belfast-riots.html
And...
Protestants Riot in N. Ireland for 3rd Day By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Crowds of Protestant hard-liners blocked key roads in Belfast and rioted for a third straight night Monday in a long-building explosion of frustration at Northern Ireland's peace process.
At least 50 officers were wounded over the weekend when extremists fought riot police and British troops in the worst Protestant violence in a decade. The British governor and the territory's police chief said two outlawed Protestant paramilitary groups mounted machine-gun and grenade attacks on police.
The rampage followed British authorities' refusal Saturday to permit the Orange Order, Northern Ireland's major Protestant brotherhood, to parade as it usually does each year along the boundary of Catholic west Belfast.
Monday's road blockades, formed by men, women and children, caused traffic jams that lasted for hours. Adding to the chaos were troublemakers who called Belfast businesses and, pretending to be police officers, ordered them to send workers home and close early on security grounds.
Protestant riots resumed at nightfall Monday in several parts of Belfast, although the mobs were smaller, the level of destruction much less severe and the intensity of violence greatly reduced from the weekend. No new injuries were reported.
Protestants threw fire bombs at a heavily fortified police base on the line between British Protestant and Irish Catholic turf in west Belfast. Gangs pelted passing cars on the city's two major highways with stones, forcing police to divert traffic to smaller roads.
Gangs also hijacked and burned more vehicles on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, although police prevented the hijacking of a bus and seized crates of Molotov cocktails and paint-filled balloons.
Several thousand police equipped with shields, body armor, flame-retardant suits, guns loaded with plastic bullets, armored personnel carriers, mobile water cannon and tear gas were on standby in fortified barracks across this city of 600,000. About 1,200 British soldiers also were deployed to support the police.
British governor Peter Hain and police commander Hugh Orde said the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defense Association, which are supposed to be observing cease-fires in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, carried out the weekend attacks on police.
Hain said he would issue a policy statement within the next few days, raising widespread expectations he will withdraw Britain's recognition of the groups' 1994 cease-fire. Their truce has been repeatedly violated over the past decade - but rarely so brazenly as last weekend.
"The evidence I have seen is absolutely clear-cut. If it wasn't clear-cut before, it's absolutely categorical now," said Hain, who viewed surveillance footage of the weekend's riots at the police headquarters in east Belfast.
Police have accused the Ulster Volunteer Force, which wields brutal authority in many Protestant parts of Belfast and runs a range of criminal rackets including counterfeiting and smuggling cigarettes, of killing four Protestant men this summer in a turf war with a breakaway drug dealing gang.
Hain could order a return to prison for dozens of UVF and UDA convicts who received prison paroles as part of the 1998 peace deal. Catholic leaders demanded sterner action against both groups.
But police and political analysts warned that the deep-seated Protestant alienation fueling the riots required a diplomatic rather than security solution. Protestant politicians said rioting was inevitable given the belief of many Protestants that Britain has focused a decade of peacemaking on the demands of Catholics and the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
"Quite clearly, what you have here is a politics of fatalism, a community that sees itself as not being listened to," said University of Ulster social scientist Peter Shirlow.
Confrontations over Protestant parades, particularly near Catholic areas, have triggered riots in the past. The most widespread violence happened from 1996 to 1998, when Catholic militants blockaded Protestants' parade routes.
Since then, a government-appointed Parades Commission imposed restrictions on disputed Protestant parades. Until now, Orangemen usually accepted with sullen resignation.
But when the commission ordered Saturday's marchers to parade through a factory site instead of the main road, Orange leaders called for illegal sit-down protests all over Belfast. Orangemen refused to accept any responsibility for the rioting.
Mitchell Reiss, President Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, accused Protestant leaders of making bogus excuses for rioters.
"I think all of us are pretty disappointed with the abdication of responsibility by many (Protestant) unionist leaders," Reiss said in Belfast. "No political party, and certainly no responsible political leadership, deserves to serve in a government unless it cooperates and supports fully and unconditionally the police, and calls on its supporters to do so."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050913/ap_on_re_eu/nireland_riots;_ylt=AmPmH54IIOI85BHI1QeCnUus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-