Riots flare in N.Ireland over Protestant marches

AFP

13 07 2010

BELFAST — Fresh rioting by Catholics opposed to Protestant marches in Belfast injured another 28 police officers, officials said, as pressure mounted on Northern Ireland’s political leaders.

The new unrest late Monday prompted a top police officer to issue a rare challenge to Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson and his deputy Martin McGuinness to condemn the violence publicly.

« I did not have a call from either of them in the run-up to this event and where are they today jointly speaking out against what has happened? » Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay told BBC radio.

His comments came after dissident republicans threw petrol bombs, concrete slabs and bottles at Protestant Orangemen and their police escort marching through Ardoyne, a mainly Catholic area of northern Belfast.

The violence was described as « recreational rioting with a sinister edge » by Police Service of Northern Ireland chief Matt Baggott as he released footage of riot police being attacked with iron bars and wooden posts.

His officers responded with rubber bullets and water cannon in a bid to subdue the demonstrators. Earlier, police in body armour had removed more than 100 people who staged a sit-down protest in the road.

Fifty-five officers have been injured in 48 hours of rioting in the British province.

The 28 new victims included a female officer who had a breeze block thrown on to her head and was pelted with missiles as emergency services tended to her.

She and another officer are still in hospital but none of their injuries were life-threatening, they added.

Rioting late Sunday and early Monday left 27 police injured, including three with gunshot wounds, officials said.

Baggott called for a debate on how to handle disputes over the annual marching season, which remains a flashpoint despite the peace process in the province.

He said the cost of policing them was equivalent to the price of a new hospital ward or primary school.

Finlay echoed this, saying: « Northern Ireland cannot afford to have violent images beamed across the world every summer — images which are totally unrepresentative of the vast majority of people who have embraced a peaceful and vibrant future ».

July 12 is the biggest day in Northern Ireland’s marching season and sees Protestants mark Prince William of Orange’s victory over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

A local lawmaker blamed dissident republicans determined to wreck Northern Ireland’s peace process for provoking the unrest, which he said came during what would otherwise have been a peaceful protest.

« All that was achieved by this was that it undermined local residents and prevented them holding their planned protest, » said Gerry Kelly, a Belfast lawmaker from the republican, Catholic Sinn Fein party.

« But it is obvious by the small numbers involved that there was no mass mobilisation. »

Another local lawmaker, Jimmy Spratt of the pro-British Protestant Democratic Unionists, told the BBC the violence had been « orchestrated by a very small number of people ».

« I think a lot of progress has been made in terms of the violence we have seen in previous years, » he said.

Unrest also flared in other parts of Northern Ireland Monday. Rioters tried unsuccessfully to set a Dublin-Belfast train alight at Lurgan, southwest of Belfast.

In the nationalist Bogside area of Londonderry, northwest of Belfast, a masked gunman fired five shots in the direction of security services but no-one was hurt.

Despite the relative calm in Northern Ireland since a peace agreement in 1998, violence frequently breaks out around July 12 as Catholics try to prevent the marches from going ahead.

Irlande du Nord : une parade orangiste tourne à l’émeute à Belfast

Guide-Irlande.com

13-07-10

Une parade orangiste, organisée à Belfast en Irlande du Nord ce lundi 12 juillet, a rapidement tourné à l’émeute, suite à un jeu de provocation entre unionistes protestants et républicains catholiques nord-irlandais…

Comme chaque année, se tient en effet une parade des plus controversée : la parade de l’Ordre d’Orange, qui célèbre la victoire des protestants sur les catholiques, lors de la célèbre Bataille de la Boyne du 12 juillet 1690. Depuis ce jour, l’ordre d’Orange, un groupuscule unioniste et protestant, organise chaque année un défilé, et traversent les quartiers protestants comme catholiques… Une vraie provocation aux yeux des républicains catholiques, qui refusent catégoriquement de laisser progresser le défilé jusque dans leurs quartiers…

Ce lundi 12 juillet 2010 n’a pas fait exception à la règle. Alors que la parade orangiste tentait de pénétrer dans le quartier catholique d’Ardoyne au Nord de Belfast, des émeutiers catholiques ont accueillis le défilé à coup de jet de pierre et de bombe incendiaire, blessant de nombreux policiers chargés de contrôler la parade…

Très vite, la PSNI (Police Nord-Irlandaise) s’est alors déployée en ripostant face aux émeutiers à l’aide de balles en caoutchouc et de canons à eau. Les affrontements ont été brutaux, et de nombreux policiers ont été sévèrement blessés… Une policière notamment a été hospitalisée d’urgence, après avoir reçu une pierre en pleine tête…

« Les émeutes dont nous avons été témoins ce soir sont une erreur, sont contre-productives et n’auraient pas dû avoir lieu« , a déclaré Gerry Kelly, membre du Sinn Féin (parti républicain nord-irlandais).

Il faut dire que ces frictions et tensions entre catholiques et protestants sont encore régulières malgré la mise en place du Processus de Paix…

~ par Alain Bertho sur 13 juillet 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots