Loyalist paramilitaries could inflame an already tense situation surrounding the controversially re-routed Whiterock Orange march in west Belfast, a senior PSNI officer has warned.
Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said recent rioting showed how paramilitaries were willing to confront the police. He appealed for community leaders to help ensure the march passed peacefully through the former Mackies site and away from the nationalist Springfield Road.
A troubled weekend could complicate plans by the Northern Ireland Office to revive the political process in the wake of the July IRA statement. Political development minister David Hanson is due to outline the British government's approach during a keynote address at Queen's University on Monday.
Unionists, including the Rev Ian Paisley and Sir Reg Empey, have bitterly criticised the decision of the Parades Commission not to allow Orangemen to parade along their chosen route.
Along with County Grand Master Dawson Bailie, they claimed that efforts to find accommodation with nationalists had been made. Protesters took to streets in the area for a third successive causing traffic chaos in Belfast's evening rush hour last night.
Mr McCausland said: "We are dealing with a situation in north Belfast which is extremely tense. We have seen over the last few days riot situations . . . potentially organised by paramilitaries."
He warned: "It is highly likely that the paramilitaries have been involved and are involved in potentially making their plans for dealing with the situation [ today]." Mr McCausland said he had sufficient officers and other resources to police today's parade which, he admitted, could prove "very difficult".
He was speaking after two shootings in Co Armagh linked to the UVF-LVF feud. A man was shot and seriously injured in Portadown and another was shot at his home in Lurgan. There were also sectarian attacks on Catholic churches a short distance away in Banbridge, Co Down.
The County Grand Orange Lodge of Belfast defiantly affirmed support for its members "to walk their traditional route".
A statement yesterday said: "The parade is an expression of Orange culture that the secretary of state, PSNI commanders and the discredited Parades Commission appear determined to deny to the Protestant and Unionist communities of north and west Belfast." It accused the commission of "appeasing nationalists and pleasing republicans".
"The Protestant, unionist and loyalist communities are ignored, discriminated against and continually demonised. All things green are progressive, positive and promoted, while all things Orange are negative, sectarian and suppressed."
Mr Bailie said called the re-routing "a further attempt to humiliate and suppress our culture" and urged support for "any legitimate protest action that the wider unionist community may be forced to take over the coming weeks".
"Nationalists and republicans will come to understand that exercising a cultural veto through their Parades Commission puppets will not be allowed to continue without consequences.
"We are no longer prepared to tolerate the erosion of our British identity and cultural traditions as a consolation prize for republican fascists who failed to achieve their so-called Ireland of Equals through their murderous terror campaign.
"We, the Orange Institution in Belfast, welcome the support of all strands of Unionism, as party differences are set aside to send a clear message to all those who oppose us. Enough is enough," he said.
Last night unionists emerged from a meeting with PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde promising to provide the Parades Commission with what Sir Reg Empey called "new evidence from a significant number of sources" which could prompt a review of the re-routing decision.