• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

N.Ireland rioting no surprise says Protestant leader

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 07:30 CDT

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST (Reuters) - The Protestant group blamed for instigating riots in Belfast at the weekend warned on Wednesday that Northern Ireland's pro-British community was resorting to violence because it felt sidelined by the government.

The head of the Orange Order said the province's worst riots in decades reflected insecurity among Protestants who feel Britain is appeasing Irish Republican guerrillas who have made a show of peace moves but have yet to give up their guns.

"For years we have seen nationalists achieve what they want by violence and the threat of violence. In these circumstances, when frustrated and with no other option, we should not be surprised that some individuals resort to violence," Robert Saulters, head of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, told reporters.

"I am deeply concerned at the attempt to demonize the institution (the Orange Order), to make us the scapegoats for what happened on Saturday. We may have put the lance in place to lance the boil, but the boil already existed and it was not of our making."

The Orange Order, a religious organization whose origins lie in the victory of Protestant William of Orange over Catholic King James more than 300 years ago, says it aims to celebrate and defend the rights and culture of Northern Irish Protestants.

Saulters said heavy-handed policing had sparked the violence, which saw mobs hurling petrol bombs, setting fire to cars and shooting at police.

His comments will do little to ease tensions in Belfast and are likely to anger the British government, which said on Wednesday the riots showed pro-British paramilitary groups had broken promises to cease violence.

The province's majority Protestant population, which wants British rule in the province to continue, is unhappy that Britain has started to scale back its security presence there after Irish nationalist guerrillas pledged in July to disarm.

Hopes were high the Irish Republican Army would act swiftly to destroy its arsenal, but seven weeks after the group's formal end to armed struggle it has yet to show any sign of disarming.

POLITICAL DEAL SOME WAY OFF

Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde has blamed the Orange Order for inciting the weekend's disturbances.

The Ulster Volunteer Force, one of two paramilitary groups deemed by Britain on Wednesday to have broken ceasefires declared in the 1990s, was also said to be behind the riots.

"What I've done in this decision overnight is to send an absolutely crystal-clear signal out to everybody that we will not tolerate violence," Secretary of State Peter Hain said after announcing the UVF's ceasefire had collapsed.

The action is largely symbolic but could make it more difficult for the groups to get their views heard by government.

Guerrilla groups on both sides of the conflict declared ceasefires last decade, paving the way for a 1998 peace deal that attempted to forge a political settlement acceptable to Irish nationalists and those supporting British rule.

Although the sectarian violence that killed 3,600 people over three decades has subsided since the Good Friday Agreement, outbreaks of fighting and accusations of broken promises mean parties have been unable to make local government stick.

The main pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, refuses even to discuss restoring a Belfast-based assembly, set up under the 1998 accord and in which Protestants and Catholics together ran Northern Irish affairs, until the IRA proves it has given up arms for good. The assembly has been on ice since 2002.

Gerry Adams, president of Northern Ireland's main Catholic party and the IRA's political ally, will meet U.S. officials on Thursday to brief them on the latest violence and other recent developments, raising speculation an IRA move may be imminent.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category