Orangemen riot as Drumcree protest turns violent

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday July 08, 2002 06:22 by McMean

With some loyalists sitting on top of the barrier taunting the security forces, others broke through part of the metal fence. Some cynically waved US flags in a bid to curry international favour for their actions.

Pledges by the Protestant Orange Order that their protest today
against the decision to reroute their annual parade in Portadown
would be peaceful this year have rung hollow after a pitched
battle on Drumcree bridge.

After the parade by the Portadown Orangemen reached the reduced
security barricade preventing them from entering the nationalist
Garvaghy Road, the Orangemen and their loyalist supporters made
speeches and then simply rioted.

Clashing violently with riot police, they forced their way
through the barricade and razor wire and surged towards the
Garvaghy Road. In chaotic scenes, reinforcements of RUC/PSNI
police surged forward in a bid to halt the attack before
retreating to their trucks.

With some loyalists sitting on top of the barrier taunting the
security forces, others broke through part of the metal fence.
Some cynically waved US flags in a bid to curry international
favour for their actions.

A mob of several hundred cheered as the attack continued. With
the security barrier breached, riot squad officers again surged
forward and formed a human wall in a bid to stop the loyalists
forcing their way through.

As the clashes continued and the missiles rained down, terrified
residents in the Catholic enclave feared the reduced security
which marked this year's standoff would be insufficient.

Orangemen joined the clashes, attacking police with umbrellas.
Some took off their sashes before surging forward, while others
still wore full regalia as they attacked the security lines.

it appeared the mob could invade the Ballyoran and Garvaghy
estates until the heavy steel and concrete barrier used in
previous protests was brought in.

The police claimed later that some 20 officers had been injured,
two seriously. The Orangemen also claimed injuries.

Earlier the Portadown Orangemen criticised the nationalist
residents of the Garvaghy Road over their opposition to the
parade.

In a speech to protesters gathered on the hill Deputy District
Master David Burrows said, without irony: "What they are doing is
not nationalism, it is fascism, the same sought of paranoid
fascism that saw Nazi's imprisoning polish Jews in the Warsaw
getto during the Second World War."