Northern Secretary Peter Hain and the PSNI have rejected an assertion by the head of the Orange Order in Belfast, Dawson Bailie, that his members were blameless for the violence that followed Saturday's rerouted Whiterock parade in west Belfast.
Had he Saturday to live all over again he wouldn't do one thing differently, Mr Bailie said at a press conference on the Shankill Road in Belfast yesterday. He said the PSNI was chiefly to blame for the violence.
There was further traffic disruption in Belfast yesterday evening as protesters staged pickets at arterial roads in support of the Orange Order.
Mr Bailie disputed police film footage of Saturday's violence which showed Orangemen attacking police lines, one Orangeman threatening police with a ceremonial sword, and another threatening and jostling police officers.
Over 80 PSNI officers were injured in the past five days of loyalist violence and protests during which the UVF, chiefly, but also the UDA were involved in gun and bomb attacks on police. Scores more protesters and innocent people caught up in the disturbances were also injured.
But yesterday the Orange Order portrayed the PSNI as chiefly responsible for the trouble. The order also blamed the Parades Commission and nationalists and said there was no evidence of Orange involvement in the violence.
"As far as we are concerned the violence was started by the police," said Mr Bailie. He did not condone the violence, but challenged claims by PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde that Orangemen were involved in the trouble.
"I did not see any members of the Orange Order throwing stones. I don't accept any responsibility whatsoever." Asked would he like to be able to alter any elements of Saturday's events he replied, "Not one thing."
Robert Saulters, grand master of the Orange Order, said he was saddened by Saturday's events which he had condemned in Monday's Belfast-based News Letter. It was a matter for the Grand Lodge of Ireland whether any members would be disciplined. Asked did he accept Orangemen engaged in violence he replied: "Not violence. They may have protected themselves but there certainly wasn't violence.
"If a policeman comes at you with a baton you are going to put your hand or something to protect yourself."
He said perhaps the most worrying thing about the weekend's events was the widespread feelings of frustration within the Protestant community.
"The extent to which ordinary, decent and responsible men have been goaded into behaving out of character by the authorities and their insistence on appeasing and rewarding nationalists at the expense of loyalists. In my view the situation in Belfast at the weekend was exacerbated by the actions of the PSNI. "The chief constable Sir Hugh Orde described his force's performance on Saturday as world-class policing. It wasn't. It was third-class policing."
Northern Secretary Peter Hain said he was "surprised" at the Orange Order's response.
"I saw for myself the chief constable's video evidence, which is absolutely categorical, of Orange Order members taking off their collarettes and literally picking up rocks and throwing them with ferocity at police officers on the front line," he said.
A police spokesperson said that the chief constable clearly put on record on Saturday night that the Orange Order "must bear substantial responsibility" for the serious disorder over the weekend. "We stand by that."
