>From the Sinn Fein news service
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>>>>>> Flash: Dozens injured as RUC attack Ormeau residents
There have been appalling scenes on the Lower Ormeau Road this morning as a peaceful sit-down protest against a sectarian march was viciously assaulted by RUC riot police.
Two or three hundred residents from the nationalist Lower Ormeau last night opted to stage a non-violent protest on the street against a triumphalist parade by the loyalist Apprentice Boys organisation. The marchers' had refused to reach an accomodation with the residents, and their position was backed up by a Parades Commission decision which called for the parade to be forced down the Lower Ormeau Road this morning.
Residents this morning linked arms and sat on the road in front of their houses. Hundreds of RUC riot police, moving in at dawn, set upon the crowd at around 7am. Residents were torn out of the group and pummelled before being thrown behind a line of armoured vehicles. Kicks and baton blows were used to unlink the arms of residents, while riot shields were used like knives to hack down on legs and torsos.
Horrific scenes from similar protests on Portadown's Garvaghy Road were replayed before the cameras. As time passed, the violence became uglier and more chaotic. Residents seized from the crowd were dragged along the asphalt, beaten by gangs of RUC men before being roughly flung against barricades and armoured vehicles. Hands, heads and limbs were smashed in the melee.
One of the injured, a woman in her 20s with a blood-stained bandage around her head, said she and other protesters had been struck by batons when police tried to remove them from the road.
She said: "I was trying to get off the road and look after my friend. The next thing I knew I was knocked out by a cop.
"Imagine hitting a woman. I split my head open."
Her friend added: "They had there batons out for no reason. People were just sitting there holding hands and singing songs."
A distraught Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, himself refused permission to pass RUC lines, could only look on as his community was abused.
In time, the residents -- young and old, men and women -- were gathered for removal. But when they again linked arms in defiance, they were beaten yet again.
Ambulances were available to ferry the injured to hospital, but many residents are reported to be seeking medical attention while now imprisoned in their homes behind lines of armoured vehicles.
At 8.30pm, the Apprentice Boys parade passed down the Ormeau Road. At the end of their march, which took place to the sound of a single drumbeat, loyalists cheered to claim a triumph.
A major effort is now underway by the RUC to blame residents for the conforntation on the Lower Ormeau. Meanhwile, RUC in Derry are also preparing the media to blame nationalists for any violence with claims that a planned protest in the city has been hijacked by "extremists".
Tens of thousands of loyalist marchers are due in Derry later today, and Nationalists in the city's Bogside area arebracing themselves in the knowledge that their community is next.
* Further updates will be published as events warrant.
c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit.
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-- James Heartfield
-- Jim heartfield