Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [The evil Sinn Fein wants to unite Northern Ireland - the world's longest standing colony - with...Ireland. The Blair imperials, so adept at fragmenting nations in sanguinary fratricidal conflicts, seem constitutionally averse to unity.] Thursday September 6, 9:42 PM London faces political pressure after Belfast school riots BELFAST, Sept 6 (AFP) - Police escorted Catholic schoolgirls through a volatile Protestant neighborhood in Belfast without serious incident for the first time in four days Thursday, but London faced a worsening political situation in Northern Ireland. Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, who cut short his holidays to tackle the mounting sectarian crisis, is to meet police and security chiefs Thursday and make a press statement at 4:00pm local time (1500 GMT) from near Belfast's airport, a government spokeswoman said. Also expected to attend is Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy, who in the last 24 hours has held behind the scenes talks with local leaders to try and negotiate a way out of the crisis. Protesters whistled and turned their backs on the parents and children Thursday as they passed through a heavily guarded corridor lined with army Land Rovers as tension remained high a day after a bomb blast injured four police officers. The Protestant loyalists -- militants who want to maintain British rule -- whitled, booed, blew fog horns, and banged dustbin lids but there was no repetition of the violence of the previous three days. "Any legitimate grievances of protesters have been drowned out by this violent sectarian bigotry," Reid said in a press statement Wednesday. "Children should not have to pay the price of the failure of adults to live together in peace. What we have seen develop in the past few days is the path to barbarism. I cannot believe the people of north Belfast want that," he said. Since classes resumed Monday after summer recess, militant residents from the Glenbryn estate have set out to stop the Catholic children using Ardoyne Road to get to Holy Cross primary school, in order to protest alleged nationalist attacks on their homes. A number of the Catholic parents have so far been determined as a point of principle to stick to the main route, now littered with broken bottles and metal from the protests. Some of them received threats from the Red Hand Defenders, a Protestant paramilitary organisation that claimed responsibility for a bomb that injured four policemen Wednesday. The home-made device caused panic among Catholic schoolgirls and their parents as they ran for cover amidst a volley of bottles and stones thrown by the nearby Protestants. The group, who are part of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association, have told parents of the schoolgirls that they are in danger if they continue to walk their children to school through the Protestant neighbourhood, police said. "To go down the street would not only put my life and that of my daughter in danger but also those who are close to me," said mother Philomena Flood after receiving such a threat. Ulster Unionist Party chairman James Cooper appealed Thursday to community leaders on either side of the Holy Cross dispute to pull back and allow dialogue to take place. "All sides need to examine the cause of the problems," he added. Gerry Kelly, Sinn Fein's north Belfast assemblyman, accepted loyalist protests were an improvement but insisted more needed to be done. "It's better than yesterday, the physical attacks did not happen, but children were still frightened," he said. "To describe it as a peaceful protest is erroneous." The troubles came at a delicate stage in Northern Ireland's fragile peace process, as the province's main parties decide whether to endorse key police reforms proposed by the British government. The primarily Catholic republicans and nationalists want to unite Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic, while mostly Protestant loyalists and unionists back continued rule by Britain over the province. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
