LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Police in Northern Ireland fired
plastic bullets and water cannon on rioters late on Monday in a
second night of sectarian clashes between Catholics and
Protestants that left nine police officers injured.
Police fired plastic rounds for the first time during the
disturbances after protesters threw petrol bombs, fireworks,
bricks and stones at officers trying to separate rival groups in
north Belfast.
Rioters from the Protestant group hijacked a van at one
point and pushed it at police lines. At least three of the
injured officers were taken to a hospital.
The second night of disturbances followed a march by a
Catholic Irish nationalist band in an area where Protestant
groups were recently barred from marching.
At least 47 officers were hurt in clashes on Sunday in the
dispute over the rights of the two communities to hold parades
in the area.
Last weekend, seven police officers were hurt in the same
area when a Protestant band marched past a Catholic church
playing music in defiance of a ban from the parades commission,
which regulates marches in the province.
Paramilitary violence between the province’s mainly Catholic
republicans and pro-British Protestants, which raged on and off
for three decades, has largely ended since a peace agreement was
signed in 1998, but much of Belfast remains divided along
sectarian lines.
Riots often erupt during the summer months when Protestant
groups hold traditional parades that are seen as provocative by
Catholic nationalists, many of whom want to be part of a united
Ireland.
