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N.Ireland rioting no surprise, says Protestant leader

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 10:34 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, said.

"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," he told reporters.

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.

Police blame the Orange Order for stoking unrest when their parade was diverted from a Catholic area on Saturday. Saulters countered heavy-handed policing sparked the violence, in which mobs hurled petrol bombs, set fire to cars and shot at police.

POLITICAL DEAL SOME WAY OFF

His comments will do little to ease tensions in Northern Ireland. The province's majority Protestant population, which wants British rule there to continue, is unhappy Britain has started to scale back its security presence before Irish nationalist guerrillas have proved they have given up weapons.

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.

"These are early days," Secretary of State Peter Hain said, adding the government was awaiting reports from a ceasefire monitoring body to test whether the IRA had met its commitments.

"We await the IMC (Independent Monitoring Commission) report in October and the further one early next year. The second one will be more important and significant because it will cover a longer period, to see if this is bedding down in the way the IRA promised," he told reporters on Wednesday.

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

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