Posted on 09/12/2005 9:58:07 PM PDT by Alter Kaker
The US government took the unusual step of accusing Northern Ireland's mainstream unionist parties of an "abdication of responsibility" towards the weekend violence that saw loyalist gunmen shooting live rounds at police officers in some of the worst unrest in years.
Fifty officers were injured and 400 plastic bullets were fired by police as they attempted to quell the demonstration.
Without identifying any party by name, Mitchell Reiss, George W. Bush's special envoy on Northern Ireland, said: "No political party, and certainly no responsible political leadership, deserves to serve in a government unless it co-operates and supports fully and unconditionally the police, and calls on its supporters to do so.
"It's true for unionism, it's true for all political parties, and I think that this was not the finest moment for politics in Northern Ireland over the weekend."
UK and Irish ministers have been more circumspect in their comments. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionists, blamed the riots on the Parades Commission which had earlier rerouted an Orange Order march.
Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland secretary, looks set to declare the ceasefires are over for the two main loyalist paramilitary organisations - the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.
Speaking after a meeting with Sir Hugh Orde, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, he said the evidence of paramilitary involvement in the rioting was "absolutely clear-cut."
Last night, loyalist protesters switched tactics from attacks on the police to setting up road blockades in Belfast and elsewhere to disrupt the evening rush hour.
The minister has powers to "specify" an organisation deemed in breach of ceasefire. Mr Hain realises this is largely a symbolic gesture.
The government's approach to the outbreak of lawlessness is to keep open the door to the more moderate voices within loyalism at the same time as police take a tough line in containing the rioting.
It is a balancing act. Ministers do not want to be accused by nationalists of condoning the violence.
For months it has been clear to the authorities that large pockets of the working class Protestant community in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland have lost faith with the peace process.
Their loyalism has always been highly selective - loyal to the crown and the Protestant faith, but equally ready to deploy illegal means to defy the police and army. Many loyalists see the re-routing of the orange Order parade - the trigger for Saturday's violence - as the latest in a slew of concessions given to republicans in an attempt to appease the IRA.
Reg Empey, leader of the moderate Ulster Unionist party, points to "a build-up of resentment that those who practise violence get listened to and have their concerns addressed".
While condemning the violence, unionist politicians and church leaders have been quick to point to deeper causes. Alienation runs deep in these economically deprived ghettos, which suffer high unemployment and some of the worst levels of educational under-achievement. The government has launched initiatives to try to bring jobs to some of the more economically blighted areas - with limited success.
Perhaps the biggest difference with republicanism is that Sinn Féin continues to exert a tight control over its community, while there is little effective political leadership within loyalism.
The government has tried to encourage some of the more level-headed of the former loyalist paramilitaries to develop their political skills.
David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionists, political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, both won seats in the first assembly set up after the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Only Mr Ervine has a seat in the current suspended assembly. But today there is little evidence that Mr Ervine has much influence over the UVF hardmen.
The Orangemen are not men at all....just weak, uncultured, uneducated morons.
Plus they screemed bloody murder until the IRA disarmed, now they're roaming about in the streets with gunmen -- they're making themselves out to be liars.
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