NORTHERN IRELAND: LONDONDERRY: RIOTERS CLASH WITH RUC OFFICERS

Описание: (7 Jul 1997) English/Nat

Shooting, rioting and a bomb attack on a west Belfast police station swept nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

Nationalists became outraged after British authorities forced a Protestant march through a hostile and predominantly Catholic neighbourhood along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

About four-hundred rioters took to the streets of central Londonderry on Sunday night throwing petrol bombs at shops and R-U-C vehicles.

Earlier in the day Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness called on nationalists to take to the streets in protest at the march.

Marching season in Northern Ireland has begun, triggering riots and protests.

In central Londonderry, about four-hundred rioters threw petrol bombs at shops in the shopping district not far from a mainly Catholic neighbourhood.

The rioters then vented their anger at R-U-C officers who rushed to the scene to give protection to firefighters.

Fire-bombs were thrown at R-U-C officers who responded by firing plastic bullets at the rioters.

The violence erupted after soldiers and police on Sunday cleared Catholic protesters from Garvaghy Road in the otherwise Protestant town of Portadown 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Belfast.

That operation allowed one-thousand members of Northern Ireland's main pro-British Protestant fraternal group, the Orange Order, to parade there in safety.

Last year, clashes over the annual march set off Northern Ireland's most widespread rioting in a generation.

Police initially blocked the march, leading to widespread Protestant rioting. Then they allowed it to proceed, setting off fiercer Catholic rioting.

This year, officials shifted tactics and let the Protestant parade proceed from the start.

The Orange Order, founded in 1795 near Portadown, is the central umbrella group for Northern Ireland's male Protestants and was instrumental in founding Northern Ireland as a Protestant-majority
state in 1920.

Its marches reach a climax on Saturday, the 307th anniversary of the victory of the Protestant William of Orange versus the dethroned Catholic king of England, James II.

Earlier in the day, more than three-thousand nationalists marched on police headquarters.

They had come out in force to support those on the Garvaghy Road.

Leading the rally was Martin McGuinness, the chief negotiator for the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party.

He urged nationalists to take to the streets in protest at the Garvaghy march.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There are those who advised the people of Derry (Londonderry) not to come onto the street. Well they have got their answer today because the people of Derry have decided, like the people of Nicaragua did, as the people of Chile did do, as the people of El Salvador do, as the people of South Africa did, that the place to be when you are demanding equality, justice and democracy is on the streets confronting your opponents.
SUPER CAPTION: Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's Chief Negotiator

The Orange Order stages more than two thousand marches each summer and nationalist militants since 1995 have tried to block Orange marches through their areas.

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