Belfast: Emergency Stormont meeting after night of violence
An emergency meeting of Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive will take place on Thursday morning after a night of violence in west Belfast.
During several hours of disorder police officers were attacked, petrol bombs were thrown and a bus was burnt.
Condemnation of the violence was led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said the scenes "deeply concerned" him.
The violence happened on both sides of an interface in the loyalist Shankill and nationalist Springfield Road areas.
The BBC's Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy said crowds of a few hundred people on each side were throwing petrol bombs in both directions.
On Thursday the Stormont assembly is being recalled to debate violence over Easter that left 41 police officers injured.
Politicians will consider a motion calling for an "immediate and complete end" to violence in loyalist areas.
The motion brought by Alliance Party asks MLAs to unequivocally condemn those involved and support the rule of law.
Leaders of the main political parties in Northern Ireland have condemned Wednesday night's violence, as has Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin.
"Now is the time for the two governments and leaders on all sides to work together to defuse tensions and restore calm," he wrote on social media.
Mr Johnson said: "The way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not violence or criminality."
I am deeply concerned by the scenes of violence in Northern Ireland, especially attacks on PSNI who are protecting the public and businesses, attacks on a bus driver and the assault of a journalist. The way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not violence or criminality.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 7, 2021
All of other the main parties have also criticised the trouble but they are divided over its causes.
In recent days 10 people have been arrested as a result of rioting by gangs of people, some as young as 13.
Unionist leaders have attributed the violence to the decision not to prosecute Sinn Féin members attending the funeral of republican Bobby Storey in June 2020.
It was attended by 2,000 mourners - including Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin vice-president - at a time when Covid-19 restrictions were in place.
Unionist leaders have also linked the violence to simmering loyalist tensions over the Irish Sea border imposed as a result of the UK-EU Brexit deal.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader and First Minister Arlene Foster described the violence as "an embarrassment to Northern Ireland".
"These actions do not represent unionism or loyalism. They... only serve to take the focus off the real law breakers in Sinn Féin," she posted on social media.
But Sinn Féin, the SDLP, and the Alliance Party have accused unionist politicians of ramping up rhetoric by calling for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Simon Byrne to stand down over the police handling of Mr Storey's funeral.
On Wednesday, Mrs First Minister Foster repeated her call for Mr Byrne to resign.
She said she had a duty to speak out about the PSNI's failure to uphold Covid-19 rules at a number of republican funerals over the past year.
The assembly recall has the support of the five main Stormont parties and was proposed by Alliance Party leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long.
On Wednesday she said it was "not acceptable to make the police service a lightning rod for people's anger".
She said she hoped the motion would get the Stormont parties to "unite around a call for calm".
It also calls for MLAs to "recognise that leadership comes with responsibility and recommits to upholding a culture of lawfulness in both actions and words".
April 08, 2021 at 05:59PM
By Jayne McCormack
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56664868
Labels: BBC News
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