LOYALIST RIOTS END CEASEFIRE IN ULSTER

Sep 13 2005

Hain: Truce is a farce

By Paul Sinclair


ULSTER Secretary Peter Hain is set to declare that the loyalist ceasefire is over Hain said it was "absolutely clear-cut" following the weekend riots that the socalled truce was a farce.

He added: "I will be making an announcement in the next few days."

Fifty police officers were hurt in two nights of rioting which gripped Belfast and surrounding towns after an Orange Order march was re-routed away from Catholic homes.

And last night there was more violence as petrol bombers attacked a Belfast police station Cars were set on fire and main roads shut during the third night of disorder.

A crowd forced the closure of Broadway roundabout, in west Belfast, causing chaos on the M1.

Up to 60 women and children also blocked off the main Lisburn to Dunmurry Road in County Antrim.

Hain said he was horrified when he saw CCTV footage of snipers firing at security lines during the weekend mayhem.

He said: "The evidence I have seen this morning is absolutely clear-cut. If it wasn't clear-cut before, it'sabsolutely categorical now." Hain also urged unionist leaders to condemn the violence, adding: "Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of law and order, applied fairly and equally to every citizen?

"Or are you against law and order, siding with those firing bullets at the police, throwing petrol bombs and blast bombs at police and attacking them?"

The riots follow months of bloody feuding between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Loyalist Volunteer Force. Police chief Sir Hugh Orde has blamed both groups for the weekend riots.

Last night, unionist leaders went on the defensive after being accused of not doing enough to defuse the anger surrounding the march ban.

Nelson McCausland, a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said the Parades Commission and the Government had given in to republican terrorism.

He said: "They reward republican violence."

Six of those arrested at the weekend, including a 15year-old youth, appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court yesterday

 
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