N. IRELAND: DRUMCREE STAND-OFF LATEST SITUATION (3)

(9 Jul 1998) English/Nat

The crisis over parades in Northern Ireland goes on after talks between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leading Portadown Orangemen in Downing Street failed to resolve the crisis.

Orangemen remain adamant they will walk down the largely Catholic Garvaghy Road after Blair insisted he could not reverse a Parades Commission ban on the march.

In Belfast, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble was briefed by senior Orangemen on the London talks and warned that time is running out to find a solution.

Meanwhile, more British paratroopers were sent in around Drumcree parish church, where Orangemen remain camped out for the fifth day of the standoff.

Protestant Orangemen held their ground outside Drumcree Anglican church after their leaders failed to reach an agreement with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to end the standoff.

Blair told the Orange Order delegation he could not reverse the Northern Ireland Parades Commission's decision to block their march down the Garvaghy Road
through a hostile Catholic neighborhood in Portadown.

British army soldiers spent Thursday reinforcing barriers and widened ditches meant to keep the Orangemen from crossing into nationalist areas.

They unrolled barbed wire fencing intended to keep both sides apart.

Violence continued across the province, despite constant calls from the Orange Order and politicians for peaceful protest.

The province reported 52 cases of people who had been forced out of their
homes by bombings and intimidation and a rash of 501 attacks on police and soldiers over four days.

Fifty officers have been injured since trouble broke out on Sunday - the day of the cancelled march.

Orange Order leaders, upset at clashes between protesters and the mainly Protestant police force, have appealed for calm.

They have accused unidentified groups of orchestrating violence to undermine their position, saying the major unionist parties remain unified.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There are members here from all the main unionist parties. Our support is drawn from all shades of unionism, putting an end to the scurrilous lies that this situation is about the referendum, or bringing down the Assembly. This protest is not party political, this protest is about stopping further cultural apartheid in Northern Ireland. It is about ensuring civil rights for and special privileges for none. It is about securing a just, equitable and tolerant society."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Saulters, Orange Order Grand Master

But nationalists contend that unionists are ignoring the facts and point to the severe troubles over the last three summers when the Orange Order did march down the largely Catholic Garvaghy Road.

Martin McGuinness, a leader of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party, said the Garvaghy Road residents he spoke to are fed up.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What we're seeing here is a besieged community, people who have stood up for democracy and are willing to engage in dialogue and discussions with those people who are opposed to them."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein

The Orangemen camped out near Drumcree have taken to staging marches right up to the police barrier in defiance of the actions taken against them.

In Belfast, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble visited the House of Orange headquarters to meet with senior members about the London meeting with Blair.

As newly elected First Minister of Northern Ireland's new Assembly, Trimble is taking a lead role in appealing for calm and a diffusion of the tensions.


SOUNDBITE: (English)











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