BELFAST (Reuters)- Belfast (Reuters)-British loyalist militants said on Friday that their fears and frustration over Brexit and other problems were “spectacular collective failure” as the police braced for further street clashes after a week of riots.
The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) stated in a declaration that the new border arrangements must be agreed with Ireland as an EU Member State.
Despite calls for calm from London, Dublin, and Washington on Thursday, the pro-British disasters continued to spread into the Irish nationalist parts of Belfast, where police responded to oil bombs and stone attacks by water cannon.
The police said that nineteen officers and a police dog had been wounded.
The conflicts were one of the most serious violations in Northern Ireland in years. The 1998 peace agreement effectively ended three decades of sectarian and political strife, which killed 3,600 people.
The LCC, which speaks for the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Red Hand Commando and the militants of the Ulster Defense Association, said it did not participate in the disturbances and called for peace.
As they are identified, the loyalist paramilitaries set up their arms in the years following the Good Friday Agreement. But Unionist indignation was mistaken by the LCC.
‘To date, the extent and essence of Unionist and Loyalist rage have been spectacularly misunderstood collectively,’ he said.
The Council raised concerns about trade barriers and police barriers post-Brexit in light of a decision not to prosecute Irish nationalist rivals Sinn Fein last June for an alleged violation of the COVID-19 rules at a former IRA leader’s funeral.
After the UK left the European Union at the beginning of this year, some goods moved from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland were checked and tariffed, since now the province was bordering on the block through EU Member Ireland.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed that as a result of Brexit, no hard frontier would be struck between Ireland and Northern Ireland and unrestricted trade would proceed between the province and the rest of the United Kingdom.
But opponents of the Northern Ireland Protocol’s departure agreement argue that the border now operates in the Irish Sea and that trade unionists who would like to remain in the UK are betrayed.
“We have urged HM governments, political leaders and institutions repeatedly to take our warnings seriously of the dangerous implications of placing these difficult borders on us and the need for meaningful dialogue. We are now reiterating this letter, “The LCC said.
It said that a new protocol had to be agreed.
“We reiterate our determination to abolish the tough borders that the NI Protocol imposes on us between Northern Ireland and the rest of our world.”
LONG HOT SUMMER?
With protests scheduled for later on Friday, one shopping mall on Belfast’s north outskirts in Newtownabbey said it would shut down to allow employees and customers to vacate the site.
Leader Sinn Fein Mary Lou McDonald said she feared the protests might set the stage for a violent summer, when thousands of pro-British protestants march, a practice which is sometimes offensive for the mostly Catholic nationalists wishing to join a united Ireland.
“We have communities which might be prepared for a very challenging weekend, deep fears that the violence could continue and that this might set the pace and set the stage for this summer,” McDonald told RTE, a national Irish broadcaster.
“A very strong call must be made that the upcoming weekend demonstrations are to be stopped before people are seriously injured or worse.”
The United States, which has historically devoted great interest to Irish affairs, cautioned on Thursday that Brexit could not be defeated by the Good Friday Agreement that it helped to negotiate.
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