BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) – Rioters set fire to a hijacked bus and hurled petrol bombs at Belfast police in at least the fourth night of serious violence in a week in Northern Ireland, where Brexit was an uncomfortable one. unleashed political balance.
Youths hurled projectiles and petrol bombs at police in the Protestant Shankill Road area on Wednesday night, while rioters looted bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs in both directions over the concrete ‘peace wall’ separating Shankill Road from a neighboring Irish nationalist area.
Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Police Service said hundreds of people had gathered on either side of a gate in the wall, where ‘crowds committed serious criminal offenses, and the police attacked and attacked each other.’
He said a total of 55 police officers were injured over several nights of disorderly conduct.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the riots and the Northern Ireland government in Belfast held an emergency meeting on Thursday over the riots.
Johnson called for calm, saying “the way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not through violence or crime.” Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Arlene Foster of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, and Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalist Sinn Fein condemned both the disorder and the attacks on the police.
The recent violence, largely in pro-British loyalist areas, has flared up amid growing tensions over trade rules to Northern Ireland after Brexit and the worsening of relations between the parties in the Belfast government with power-sharing.
The latest unrest followed unrest over the long weekend of Easter in trade unionism in and around Belfast and Londonderry, also known as Derry, in which cars were set on fire and projectiles and petrol bombs were hurled at police officers.
Authorities accuse banned paramilitary groups of inciting young people to wreak havoc.
“We have seen young people engage in serious disorder and commit serious criminal offenses, and they have been supported and encouraged, and the actions have been organized by adults at certain times,” said Roberts, the senior police officer.
Britain’s economic split from the European Union at the end of 2020 upset the political balance in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom where some people identify themselves as British and others as Irish.
A new trade agreement between the UK and the EU has imposed customs and border controls on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The arrangement was designed to avoid checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland, a member of the EU, because an open Irish border helped support the peace process built on the Good Friday agreement in 1998.
The agreement ended decades of violence involving Irish Republicans, British loyalists and British armed forces, in which more than 3,000 people died. But union members say the new checks come down to a new border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK
Trade unions are also angry at a police decision not to prosecute Sinn Fein politicians who attended the funeral of a former Irish Republican army commander in June. Bobby Storey’s funeral drew a large crowd, despite the rules of the coronavirus banning mass gatherings.
The main trade union parties have demanded the resignation of the Northern Ireland Police Chief over the controversy, claiming that he has lost the trust of their community.
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Lawless reports from London.