PFC - Attacks during Belfast Pro-war Rally

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday April 08, 2003 16:48 by Joe Murphy doire98 at yahoo dot com

Pat Finucance Centre Update - Pro-war demonstrators attacked a number of business premises and individuals during a pro-Bush and pro-war rally in Belfast city centre last night.

Two Catholic pubs and a taxi company were targeted and passers-by were assaulted by a group who had marched from the loyalist Shankill area through the largely nationalist Castle St and King St area of the city. Passing vehicles were also attacked.

The 300 strong pro Bush and pro war rally had been organised by a senior member of the Unionist party, Sir John Gorman, a former British soldier. Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP, was pictured at the rally standing alongside a woman carrying a placard which bore the slogan, Bagdad, Basra, Crossmaglen? The apparent implication of the placard was to urge the British Army to ‘deal’ with republican areas of the north (Crossmaglen) in a similar way to Basra. The British Army require no such prompting since it has murdered innocent civilians here in Ireland for years and there is ample evidence that it is doing the same in Iraq.

Meanwhile a small group of loyalists, including members of the UDA, waved British flags and chanted anti-Catholic and pro war slogans on the fringes of the large anti-war protest at Hillsborough Castle organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the anti-war movement. There are also reports of UDA members and individuals associated with Combat 18 ‘trawling’ Belfast in cars looking for anti-war protesters who could be attacked. Combat 18 is an extreme right wing British fascist organisation with links to loyalist paramilitaries. The number 1and 8 in the alphabet refer to the initials AH or Adolf Hitler. Yesterday extreme loyalist websites were urging attacks on anti-war protesters.

Today (Tuesday) at approximately 1.45 pm riot police arrested a number of demonstrators who had sat down on one lane of the roadway outside Belfast city hall during a trade union rally against the presence of US President George Bush in Ireland. Protesters have complained about the behaviour of some of the riot police. In particular several witnesses have told the PFC that one officer dragged a young woman off the roadway by the hair. The number of the officer was 6277 according to a number of sources.