Nationalist
homes are under attack on a nightly basis by Loyalist
mobs, say residents living in the small nationalist
enclave of Unity Walk, situated at the foot of the
Shankill Road district, Belfast.
Residents
believe the recent onslaught against their community
is orchestrated by what one Unity resident described
as “Loyalist elements from the Lower Shankill
who are feuding with the UVF”.
One
resident said, “In general, Catholic communities
are always apprehensive when loyalists are feuding,”
because, she said, “loyalist leaders seek to
end internal conflict by calling for Loyalist to
unite against what they call the real enemy of Ulster,
which means Catholics to me and many others.”
The
woman questioning the PSNI response to the attacks
said, “For the past 3 nights running the loyalist
attacks occured. Why do the police saturate our
community and then harass our young people?”
“Last
night,” she continued, “at about 7:30pm,
a gang of more than 60 Loyalists attacked the area
with bricks and bottles,” and, she said, “when
members of the community came out to chase the gang,
6 police land rovers immediately rushed into our
area and proceeded to harass us.” The woman
asked, “why do they (PSNI) wait until after
our community is attacked to respond – can
they not intervene and stop the attacks in the first
place?”
