Republican News · Thursday 22 August 2002

Caught on camera...

PSNI started Short Strand trouble

BY FERN LANE

The residents of the besieged Short Strand have submitted video evidence to the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, which gives the lie to RUC/PSNI claims that the violence which erupted in the area on Thursday night and Saturday night was instigated by nationalists. Copies of the videotapes have also been handed to both the British and Irish governments.

The tape shows that on Thursday night around 11.30pm, the British Army and RUC placed the Short Stand effectively under curfew, ignoring the fact that for hours beforehand, bottles, bricks, bolts, fireworks, glass and pipe bombs had been thrown into Clandeboye in a sustained loyalist attack. The video footage shows that, although missiles were continually thrown over the peace wall by loyalists, no attempt by the British Army or RUC/PSNI was made to enter Cluan Place or Paullet Avenue.

The video footage also captured the events of Saturday evening, when once again police claimed that they had come under attack from the nationalist community.

The video clearly shows that police attacked nationalist residents, injuring a number of people in the process, including cameraman Paddy McDaid, who sustained a broken hand after being batoned. The video also shows police officers kicking in doors in Clandeboye Gardens and throwing bricks at residents. Three other residents were injured, one receiving a broken hand as he attempted to make a note of the officer's number, another with a head wound which required stitches and the third who received severe bruising to the body after being beaten. In the ensuing disturbance, police say six of their officers were injured.

Sinn Féin representative Stiofán Long said police claims that they had come into the area to keep the two communities apart was flatly contradicted by the videotape.

The tape of these events was handed to the press, including the BBC, ITV and RTE. Although ITV showed a short section of it on Monday evening, neither the BBC nor RTE, at time of writing, has aired the footage. After inquiries by residents' representatives, the BBC staff claimed they had not done so because the tape they had been sent was blank. A second tape was immediately despatched to the corporation, but once again BBC staff claimed it was blank.

Asked about this failure by the BBC to show the evidence gathered by the Short Strand residents, Councillor Joe O'Donnell said the reasons were clear. "It doesn't suit their agenda," he said. "They are running completely with the PSNI and British government agenda, which claims that this is all a tit for tat sectarian conflict with the police in the middle of it heroically trying to keep the two sides apart."

"Nothing is further from the truth and this video footage demonstrates that."