23.6.04
Fenian Voice
International observers denounce "pervasive" loyalist paramilitary
presence at 2003 Orange Order parades
Report on 2003 marching season documents UDA leader's participation
at head of July 12, 2003 Ardoyne parade, paramilitary bands and flags
at other Belfast parades through nationalist areas
June 20, 2004 Contact: Sean Cahill, 917-972-4965 (U.S.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ipec@ipecobservers.org
New York City – On the eve of the 2004 Orange marching season in
Northern Ireland, two U.S.-based international observer groups
blasted what they described as the "pervasive" presence of loyalist
paramilitaries at several contested Orange Order parades in June and
July 2003. Marching and Disorder, the report on last year's marching
season released today by the Irish Parades Emergency Committee and
the Brehon Law Society, provides photographic evidence that the North
Belfast commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) marched at
the front of the July 12th, 2003 Orange parade through Ardoyne. The
report also documents the promotion of loyalist paramilitaries at
other parades and the impact of intense militarization and sectarian
violence on communities.
Marching and Disorder is now available at www.ipecobservers.org.
Copies of the report are being provided to key members of the U.S.,
British and Irish governments, as well as to the Police Service of
Northern Ireland, the Parades Commission, the Police Ombudsman, and
political parties.
William John Borland* and other supporters of the UDA led off the
evening march in Ardoyne, many chanting "U-F-F!"—the initials of the
Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover name for the UDA. (Videotapes and
photographs are available upon request.) British soldiers and police
in riot gear escorted Borland and his supporters through the
nationalist, mostly Catholic community, which had been sealed off and
shut down for several hours in anticipation of the march. These UFF
supporters also sang the Sash, a song proscribed by Parades
Commission guidelines for marches through nationalist/Catholic areas
due to its sectarian nature. Marching and Disorder also documents the
promotion of outlawed loyalist paramilitary groups by bands and
Orangemen marching in parades in Springfield Road, Short Strand, and
elsewhere in Belfast.
"Last July 12th, hundreds of British soldiers and police in riot gear
escorted the head of the North Belfast UDA through Ardoyne, with the
help of dogs, water cannons and machine guns, past hundreds of
residents who had been under military lockdown for hours," said Sean
Cahill, a spokesperson for the international observers who has
traveled to the north every summer since 1996 as a human rights
observer. "This is deeply disturbing, particularly because in the
days and weeks leading up to the two marches through Ardoyne on July
12th, loyalist paramilitaries made repeated death threats against
Catholics and against individual residents of Ardoyne. The British
security forces' actions last July 12th certainly violated the Good
Friday Agreement's promise of freedom from sectarian harassment."
For the eighth year in a row, Irish Parades Emergency Committee and
Brehon Law Society observers will again observe contested Orange
marches in Northern Ireland this summer. A report on the 2002
marching season, Parading Paramilitarism, also documents paramilitary
participation in Orange marches through nationalist communities.
"Loyalist paramilitary presence was pervasive at several parades last
summer in Short Strand, Ardoyne and Springfield Road," Cahill
said. "This violates Parades Commission guidelines, public order
legislation, and both the spirit and letter of the Good Friday
Agreement."
"The impact of intense militarization in order to facilitate Orange
Order parades has an incalculable negative effect on the residents of
these communities," Cahill said. "Such deployments disrupt the life
of the community—in Ardoyne people were unable to attend Mass, shops
were closed, and movement was restricted. A 12-foot-high mobile wall
erected on the back of army trucks through a large stretch of Ardoyne
effectively silenced any attempted nonviolent protest by nationalist
residents against the sectarian and paramilitary march through their
neighborhood," Cahill continued.
"Such massive military and police deployments reinforce the belief
that an abnormally large and intimidating military and police
presence is needed to protect the parade participants from their
nationalist neighbors," Cahill concluded. "The use of excessive
military force stigmatizes the nationalist community. Both the
unionist and nationalist communities are pushed further away from
dialogue and mediation and the consensus needed if there is to be
demilitarization of society as a whole."
* Borland, who was convicted and served time in jail for his role in
a UDA extortion plot, was publicly revealed to be the leader of the
North Belfast UDA in September 2003. See Ciaran McGuigan, "Brigadier
Bonzer Exposed," Sunday Life, September 7, 2003. Andre Shoukri is
said to have regained control of the group after his release from
prison in March 2004. See Joe Oliver, "Shoukri is seeing psychics,"
The People, June 6, 2004.
International observers denounce "pervasive" loyalist paramilitary
presence at 2003 Orange Order parades
Report on 2003 marching season documents UDA leader's participation
at head of July 12, 2003 Ardoyne parade, paramilitary bands and flags
at other Belfast parades through nationalist areas
June 20, 2004 Contact: Sean Cahill, 917-972-4965 (U.S.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ipec@ipecobservers.org
New York City – On the eve of the 2004 Orange marching season in
Northern Ireland, two U.S.-based international observer groups
blasted what they described as the "pervasive" presence of loyalist
paramilitaries at several contested Orange Order parades in June and
July 2003. Marching and Disorder, the report on last year's marching
season released today by the Irish Parades Emergency Committee and
the Brehon Law Society, provides photographic evidence that the North
Belfast commander of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) marched at
the front of the July 12th, 2003 Orange parade through Ardoyne. The
report also documents the promotion of loyalist paramilitaries at
other parades and the impact of intense militarization and sectarian
violence on communities.
Marching and Disorder is now available at www.ipecobservers.org.
Copies of the report are being provided to key members of the U.S.,
British and Irish governments, as well as to the Police Service of
Northern Ireland, the Parades Commission, the Police Ombudsman, and
political parties.
William John Borland* and other supporters of the UDA led off the
evening march in Ardoyne, many chanting "U-F-F!"—the initials of the
Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover name for the UDA. (Videotapes and
photographs are available upon request.) British soldiers and police
in riot gear escorted Borland and his supporters through the
nationalist, mostly Catholic community, which had been sealed off and
shut down for several hours in anticipation of the march. These UFF
supporters also sang the Sash, a song proscribed by Parades
Commission guidelines for marches through nationalist/Catholic areas
due to its sectarian nature. Marching and Disorder also documents the
promotion of outlawed loyalist paramilitary groups by bands and
Orangemen marching in parades in Springfield Road, Short Strand, and
elsewhere in Belfast.
"Last July 12th, hundreds of British soldiers and police in riot gear
escorted the head of the North Belfast UDA through Ardoyne, with the
help of dogs, water cannons and machine guns, past hundreds of
residents who had been under military lockdown for hours," said Sean
Cahill, a spokesperson for the international observers who has
traveled to the north every summer since 1996 as a human rights
observer. "This is deeply disturbing, particularly because in the
days and weeks leading up to the two marches through Ardoyne on July
12th, loyalist paramilitaries made repeated death threats against
Catholics and against individual residents of Ardoyne. The British
security forces' actions last July 12th certainly violated the Good
Friday Agreement's promise of freedom from sectarian harassment."
For the eighth year in a row, Irish Parades Emergency Committee and
Brehon Law Society observers will again observe contested Orange
marches in Northern Ireland this summer. A report on the 2002
marching season, Parading Paramilitarism, also documents paramilitary
participation in Orange marches through nationalist communities.
"Loyalist paramilitary presence was pervasive at several parades last
summer in Short Strand, Ardoyne and Springfield Road," Cahill
said. "This violates Parades Commission guidelines, public order
legislation, and both the spirit and letter of the Good Friday
Agreement."
"The impact of intense militarization in order to facilitate Orange
Order parades has an incalculable negative effect on the residents of
these communities," Cahill said. "Such deployments disrupt the life
of the community—in Ardoyne people were unable to attend Mass, shops
were closed, and movement was restricted. A 12-foot-high mobile wall
erected on the back of army trucks through a large stretch of Ardoyne
effectively silenced any attempted nonviolent protest by nationalist
residents against the sectarian and paramilitary march through their
neighborhood," Cahill continued.
"Such massive military and police deployments reinforce the belief
that an abnormally large and intimidating military and police
presence is needed to protect the parade participants from their
nationalist neighbors," Cahill concluded. "The use of excessive
military force stigmatizes the nationalist community. Both the
unionist and nationalist communities are pushed further away from
dialogue and mediation and the consensus needed if there is to be
demilitarization of society as a whole."
* Borland, who was convicted and served time in jail for his role in
a UDA extortion plot, was publicly revealed to be the leader of the
North Belfast UDA in September 2003. See Ciaran McGuigan, "Brigadier
Bonzer Exposed," Sunday Life, September 7, 2003. Andre Shoukri is
said to have regained control of the group after his release from
prison in March 2004. See Joe Oliver, "Shoukri is seeing psychics,"
The People, June 6, 2004.
