Nationalist and loyalist residents on the peaceline in east Belfast have expressed their anger about sectarian violence to the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid.
Dr Reid visited the area yesterday to meet local people to discuss the situation. He blamed paramilitaries for the ongoing trouble. However, residents on the loyalist side of the peaceline in Cluan Place told him he was six weeks too late. One placard called him "Dr Dolittle".
Ms Jean Barnes of the East Belfast Women's Concern Group blamed the Provisional IRA for the disturbances and said they wanted to take over the area. "The IRA has an awful lot to answer for. They want to expand and burn people out of their homes," she said. "If they can't get them out, they try to shoot them."
Dr Reid visited several homes, including one which had been burnt and daubed with the slogan "Burnt out by IRA scum".
The Northern Secretary told Ms Barnes that paramilitaries on both sides were to blame for the violence. "The paramilitaries and some of the young hotheads are interwoven with the community because we have all had trouble over the years. The first thing we have to do is recognise that the blame game has to stop.
"There are good, decent people here who are going though hell, some of them for 30 years, on both sides. The first thing the paramilitaries have got to do is recognise they are not defending their communities, they are destroying them."
DUP Assembly member, Mr Sammy Wilson, said the community's cynicism to Dr Reid's visit was understandable but it was "better late than never" and he hoped it would be followed by "real action from the government".
In the nationalist Short Strand, Dr Reid was confronted by angry residents who accused loyalist paramilitaries of starting a pogrom against their community. They also condemned the reaction of the PSNI, which many said was not welcome in the area.
One woman told Dr Reid: "This community has been under siege these past few months. I can't use the doctor's, the chemist's, the Post Office, the library. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to put the same police presence there as you have here?"
Dr Reid said aggression was not the answer. The woman replied: "You have to understand our anger."
Local people also criticised the media for its reporting of the violence.
One man said: "Residents are being shot with plastic bullets and we are calling for a full independent public inquiry into that. We are being subjected to a loyalist pogrom and are being attacked every night. Why are you not reporting that."
Addressing the media, another man said: "My children are on Valium because of what is going on and you never come here except when John Reid is here. Are his children on Valium?"
A plank of wood propped up against a house read: "John Reid's Open Prison". Some residents quoted the Belfast Agreement on "the right to live free from sectarian harassment".