Belfast accusations fly after riots

BELFAST - The air in Belfast, which on Saturday was thick with loyalist petrol bombs and blast bombs, was yesterday filled with recriminations following one of the city's worst nights of rioting for years.

The city drew breath following a lawless night in which police and troops came under sustained attack after the authorities refused to allow a controversial Orange parade to pass through a nationalist area of West Belfast.

Following an Orange call for supporters to take to the streets, disturbances broke out across County Antrim, with violence in the towns of Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne, as well as the north Belfast suburbs of Glengormley and Rathcoole.

In the village of Ahoghill where sectarian violence has been directed at Catholic residents in recent weeks, youths went on the rampage setting cars on fire and throwing fireworks at police.

A bomb factory was discovered yesterday as part of the follow-up security operation in the aftermath of the violence which left 32 police officers injured.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde revealed yesterday that seven weapons were also recovered in north Belfast, where some of the worst rioting took place last night.

He added that 1,000 police officers and 1,000 troops were deployed to tackle the disturbances. The Government and police blamed the Orange Order, but it in turn claimed heavy-handed policing had caused much of the trouble.

Ironically, most attention in political terms has been focussed on republicans with the authorities waiting hopefully for the IRA to fulfil the public promise it made some weeks ago to decommission all its weapons.

But alongside the anticipation that this promise has generated the summer has been marred by bouts of loyalist violence of several sorts, culminating in the weekend's rioting.

Four men have been shot dead in internal loyalist feuding while trouble has broken out on the streets on a number of occasions.

In the disturbances, shots were fired at police on several occasions in north Belfast, with several bullets hitting armoured vehicles.

The Army, which is rarely used now and appears only at times of severe pressure on police, was deployed in Belfast as the disturbances became widespread at up to half a dozen locations in the city.

One man, believed to be a loyalist figure, was critically ill in hospital yesterday after the explosion of a blast bomb while at least six police officers required medical treatment.

The Orange Order's call for supporters to take to the streets was clearly answered not just by its supporters but also by armed paramilitary groups, who evidently had guns and blast bombs at the ready.

Sir Hugh Orde said yesterday it was fortunate none of his officers had died in the violence. "My officers and the soldiers have acted like heroes. They have taken incredible violence and responded with minimal force. It is truly world class policing."

He insisted: "The Orange Order must bear substantial responsibility for this. They publicly called people onto the streets."

The Orange Order responded by claiming that police actions were "brutal and heavy handed".

It said: "All we would say is that if what we saw was policing, it was policing at its worse."

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said there had been: "a concerted effort to draw young nationalists and republicans into the trouble".

- INDEPENDENT