Clashes as marches wind down in Ulster

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 12. Violent clashes marked the culmination of the annual marching season in Northern Ireland today as thousands of Protestant Orangemen confronted the police in several parts of the province in a bid to defy a ban on marching through predominantly Catholic areas.

A number of security personnel and civilians were reported to have been injured in the clashes but in most places the day passed off without any major incident. Today is an important day in the Orange Order's calendar as it marks the climax of its commemoration of the Protestant William of Orange's defeat of the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Catholics in the province regard the Orange marches as a provocation and particularly object to the Orangemen's insistence on walking through Catholic districts.

The most contentious parades take place in Portadown and Londonderry, often resulting in riots which then spread to other parts of Northern Ireland. As many as 100,000 marches were planned in different regions of Northern Ireland today adding to the prevailing sense of gloom over the stalled peace process.

Tensions ran high today after clashes in Portadown where police used water cannon and fired plastic bullets to disperse a loyalist procession. Orangemen, protesting the ban on parades, threw petrol bombs and other missiles at security forces and in Belfast, loyalists fired shots in the air to denounce the ban. All eyes were on Londonderry, a traditional flashpoint during the marching season though the authorities hoped that the ``marchers'' would disperse after a symbolic protest as happened at Drumcree on Sunday. Thousands of bonfires lit the skyline throughout Northern Ireland on Wednesday night ahead of the parades today and there were fears that loyalist paramilitary forces, having pulled out of the Good Friday Agreement two days ago, might try to mark their presence.

This is the fourth year that Orangemen have been banned from marching through Catholic quarters and much to everyone's relief, the tension this time has been less evident than in the past. This is attributed to widespread public impatience with sectarian politics which is increasingly seen by the common people as a disruptive influence on their lives. The pressure from below is beginning to tell on extremists on both sides forcing them to tone down their confrontationist tactics.

Meanwhile, there is little hope of an immediate breakthrough when peace talks at Weston Park resume tomorrow (Friday) after a day's recess. The stalemate over arms decommissioning by the IRA continued with Unionists insisting that there could be no further progress on the Good Friday Agreement as long as the IRA held on to its weapons.

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Section  : International
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