Republican News · Thursday 6 June 2002

The violence must stop

BY LAURA FRIEL

Interviewed by the Irish Times about the recent upsurge in violence in East Belfast, DUP Assembly member Sammy Wilson blamed "well known republicans" for orchestrating the violence, claiming their objective was "to drive people out of Protestant areas and take them over".

The Short Strand is a nationalist enclave of less than 3,000 people, a high proportion of whom are pensioners and children. A Protestant population of over 60,000 surrounds the district. The geography of the enclave, bounded by major roadways and permanent security walls, renders expansion impossible.

Indeed, the redevelopment of the Strand in the 1980s was accompanied by a sharp decline in the nationalist population in East Belfast, as housing was given over to roads. A nationalist population that was at one time around 9,000 now stands at a mere 3,000.

Even the most cursory glance at these simple facts would be sufficient to dispute the nonsensical claims by Sammy Wilson and other unionist apologists for loyalist sectarian violence. Instead, such nonsense is constantly repeated in the media. "Territory," writes Gerry Moriarty, "centrally that is what these vicious, sectarian days and nights of violence were about."

d then we have 'balance'. Like many mainstream journalists, Moriarty appears to believe that the 'neutral' status of the professional journalist is best served by a notion of 'balance' in which each claim is accompanied by a counter claim.

"Nationalists argue that loyalists are trying to force them from their homes," writes Moriarty. "Loyalists claim that nationalists are trying to encroach into 'their' terrain."

Moriarty forgoes the right as a journalist to make a judgement based upon the facts as they present themselves and opts for the safety of representing all 'views'. It is a method in which everything becomes unknowable. It is the antithesis of informed understanding and in the ensuing confusion ordinary people caught up in real events are left to pay the price of this ambiguity.

This current eruption of violence in East Belfast began on Friday evening and to date has continued for six consecutive days. During this period nationalists' homes on the interface have been bombarded with thousands of bricks, stones and bottles. They have also been attacked by petrol bombs, blast bombs and pipe bombs and by fireworks packed with shrapnel.

Over the last six days, loyalist gunmen have opened fire at least five times, the British army and PSNI have fired at least six gunshots and over 60 plastic bullets have been fired. A number of shots have been fired on two occasions from within the Short Strand.

Hand to hand fighting has broken out on a number of occasions, sometimes involving over a thousand people. Around 50 families have applied to be rehoused; many more have sought temporary refuge with relatives living outside East Belfast.

It would be foolish to suggest that there has been no reciprocal violence, or even that all actions emanating from the nationalist community have been retaliatory. It would be nonsense to suggest that ordinary Protestant residents, some of whom will also be pensioners and children, who have been caught up in the violence, haven't suffered. It would be immoral to imply that their experience of suffering is any the less significant or less worthy of being addressed.

But that doesn't mean we must collapse our understanding of what's happening into platitudes. The nationalist community of the Short Strand is under siege and the physical evidence is there for everyone to see.

It's there in the row after row of smashed windows. The ferocity of the bombardment is evidenced in the hundreds of broken roofing tiles and the carpet of debris left in its wake. It's in the fire damage and scorch marks. It's there in the abandoned homes.

d last but not least, it is evident in the testimonies of the families who live there - in the sleepless nights of worried parents and anxious children who can't wear their school uniform for fear of being identified as a Catholic on the way to school.

(See also pages 10/11)