N. IRELAND: NATIONALIST RIOTERS CLASH WITH POLICE UPDATE

Описание: (7 Jul 1997) English/Nat

Violent shock waves continue to ripple across Northern Ireland after soldiers and police enabled Protestants to march through a predominantly Catholic neighbourhood in Portadown.

The march took all of ten minutes. But it ignited rioting, car hijackings and gun attacks across nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

Police say a small homemade bomb exploded outside the wall of a heavily fortified police station in west Belfast early Monday.

The day after the rioting of the night before.

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

Rioting swept Northern Ireland when Nationalists became outraged after British authorities forced a Protestant march through a predominantly Catholic neighbourhood along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

As daylight broke Monday, nationalist areas of Belfast revealed the ugly results of the decision to allow the march to go ahead.

Soldiers patrolled the burned out shops and cars along the Ormeau Road in South Belfast.

Police said a small homemade bomb exploded outside the perimeter wall of the heavily fortified New Barnsley police station in west Belfast early Monday.

At the same time, a gunman fired at the police station and officers returned the fire, but nobody was hurt.

In the early hours of Monday nationalist rioters clashed with police on the Old Park Road in north Belfast.

Rioters threw fire-bombs at police, who in turn fired plastic bullets.

The police then crossed over from their position on the loyalist side to the nationalist, chasing rioters.

On the lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast, fire fighters rushed to extinguish a timber mill that had been set alight.

Rioters threw rocks at security forces while fire fighters tried to contain the fire.

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.

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

Earlier in the day, more than three-thousand nationalists marched on Londonderry's 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

Northern Ireland's main pro-British Protestant fraternal group, the Orange Order conduct marches throughout the province every year.

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.

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