23 June 2011

Fresh Belfast Riots Halted By Stewards

The danger of further rioting in the Short Strand area of east Belfast has been avoided after community stewards stepped in to quell new confrontations, during Wednesday evening and into the early hours of Thursday morning.

The flashpoint area on the Lower Newtownards Road remained largely peaceful despite two nights of violence, rioting and shooting incidents.

Loyalist and republican groups faced off in the area over several hours before short scuffles broke out, but local community workers stepped in to extinguish the flash violence.

Reports on Thursday morning also suggested that a group of nationalist youths attacked police vehicles, but were stopped by the local stewards.

Earlier this week the rioting saw violent scenes, which have drawn considerable internation attention, and were described as "orchestrated" by MLAs in Stormont.

SDLP's Conall McDevitt said in the Assembly on Tuesday that the incidents stemmed from an "orchestrated attack".

Mr McDevitt said the rioting developed from a "serious attempt to attack a community in the Short Strand and the retaliation from within that community".

Chris Lyttle of the Alliance party, agreed that the initial attacks were "organised and orchestrated", and said such violence was "unjustifiable and unrepresentative".

"It is destroying the cross-community peace-building and community development work that has happened in the area. It is completely wrong that people there should be living in fear and terror at the hands of a small minority at the moment."

Community workers and politicians met on Wednesday on the direction of the First Minister Peter Robinson, while a senior NI Government official has been appointed to work with both communities.

Speculation is growing in some quarters that an initiative from a US based private funding foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, could be used to help relations between the two communities in the area.

The Contested Space Programme - a funding programme designed to limit violence in interface areas - was planned to be implanted in 2014, while some six areas were expected to be involved in the pilot scheme.

(DW/BMcC)