Appeal for Calm in N. Ireland
B E L F A S T, Northern Ireland, July 5 -- — Police commanders andpoliticians appealed today for Protestant hard-liners to calloff street protests that have caused rioting, fear and destructionacross Northern Ireland.
At daybreak, Belfast commuters picked their way carefully downroads strewn with shattered glass, rubble and occasional burned-outvehicles, the product of a third consecutive night of unrest inhard-line Protestant neighborhoods.
In the most serious incident,unidentified gunmen exchanged fire with police in north Belfast butnobody was reported injured.
Goal: Reverse Parade Ban
The mounting attacks on police and Catholic properties aredesigned to force British authorities to reverse their decision tobar a traditional Protestant parade from a Catholic neighborhoodthis Sunday. The now-annual dispute first triggered widespreadviolence in 1996, when police eventually reversed a decision toblock the same parade by the Orange Order.
Many Catholics despise Orange parades, which often featuredrum-thumping “kick the pope” bands and commemorate 300-year-oldProtestant victories over Catholics. More than 2,000 such paradesare staged each summer, only a few dozen of which go throughpredominantly Catholic areas.
This time Northern Ireland’s police force, the Royal UlsterConstabulary, has responded firmly when challenged, particularly infarm fields near Portadown, 30 miles southwest of Belfast.
There, security forces for the past three nights have preventedProtestant mobs from reaching the nearby Garvaghy Road, where mostof Portadown’s Catholic minority lives.
This morning, British army engineers erected a20-foot-high steel barricade backed by concrete across theOrangemen’s intended path.
Firecrackers, Slingshots and Acid
Late Tuesday, police came under attack from a 500-strongProtestant mob. Attackers hurled firecrackers and rocks, fired ballbearings from slingshots, and squirted acid from syringes at rowsof riot police, who were heavily girded with body armor, helmets,shields and flame-retardant uniforms. Police said nine officerssuffered injuries ranging from acid burns to punctured eardrums.
