UK: PORTADOWN: ORANGE ORDER STAND OFF WITH POLICE LATEST (4)

Описание: (4 Jul 1999) English/Nat

While leaders of Northern Ireland's Orange Order say they will not use violence to defy a ban on their traditional march through a nationalist area, some Orangemen on Sunday started a fire at the main police barricade.

The Protestant Orangemen made a small bonfire of papers beneath the steel barrier erected to block their way down the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road.

Meanwhile, an Irish American woman who described herself as a human rights worker has claimed she was beaten up by men taking part in the Orange Order Parade.

The woman, who said she feared for her life and would only give her first name, claimed she was repeatedly punched during the attack.

Garvaghy Road Residents Association leader Brendan McKenna, said the local community firmly opposed the march and that it shouldn't take place without their consent.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
I was watching the parade at the churchyard and people walking along the side of the parade started pulling me into the parade and a man came out of the parade with a flag and started whacking me on the head and then the woman on the other side started pulling me back. They climbed over the wall and chased us throwing a bottle with some kind of liquid in it and when they had me they were just hitting me all around my stomach and my back and I went running. There was no RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), there was nobody and I finally ran into the RUC , hysterical, with them still chasing.
Q: Were these men members of the Orange Order?
Yes. The first man who went at me had a sash rolled up in his hand. The other two next to him I didn't see. The man who came at me and did this came out of the middle of the of the march with a flag pole and did this.
SUPER CAPTION: "Shannon", victim of alleged attack by Orangemen

SOUNDBITE: (English)
And the only way that a march can legitimately take place on the Garvaghy Road is when it has the full consent of this community because the first Orange march down the Garvaghy Road this year, whether it's next week or the week after or the week after that or the month after that is not a solution.
SUPER CAPTION: Brendan McKenna, leader of Garvaghy Road residents association

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