Police in armoured jeeps come under attack from youths throwing missiles on the Newtonards Road, Belfast June 21, 2011.

Northern Irish police warn Belfast riots may cause fatalities

BELFAST (Reuters) – Northern Irish police said on Wednesday they fear rioting in Belfast could escalate to the point where someone gets killed, threatening to upset a delicate peace between Catholics and Protestants in the British-controlled province.

A press photographer was shot and wounded on Tuesday evening in the second night of clashes between pro-British loyalists and Irish nationalists in some of the worst rioting in east Belfast in recent years.

"There are people potentially at risk of being killed by the level of violence," Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay told journalists. "We need to see cool heads to pull this back."

The violence in the Catholic Short Strand enclave of mainly Protestant east Belfast comes at the start of the "marching season," a time of annual parades by Protestants which has triggered violent protests by Catholics in the past.

Police blame members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), one of the deadliest pro-British paramilitary groups of Northern Ireland's bloody past, for initiating the disorder, though they said they may no longer be in control.

The UVF said two years ago that it had completed the decommissioning of its weapons in line with other militant groups after a 1998 peace agreement mostly ended three decades of violence in the province.

Local people said the paramilitaries were motivated by a feeling they had been marginalized since the peace deal.

"Protestants in this area feel that they have lost out on the promised dividends from the peace process," said John Kyle, a member of the Belfast council for the Progressive Unionist Party, which has historical links to the UVF.

"There's also a perception that the loyalist community's fears about attacks on their homes have never been addressed. But the violence is wrong, totally wrong."

An east Belfast resident with ties to the UVF said the militants were increasingly angry at investigations by the Historical Enquiries Team, set up to investigate killings between 1968 and 1998.

"The East Belfast UVF want to keep up their gangster activities," he said. He declined to give his name.

The trouble flared only 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the airport in Belfast where golfer Rory McIlroy was arriving home after his historic U.S. Open win and local newspapers lamented a rare piece of good news had been overshadowed.

Northern Ireland was torn apart during the violent "Troubles" between loyalists, mostly Protestants, who want it to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Irish nationalists, mostly Catholics, who want it to form part of a united Ireland.

The peace deal paved the way for a power-sharing government of loyalists and nationalists. Violence has subsided over the years, but there are still dissident armed groups opposed to the deal.

Annual protestant parades commemorating notable British victories peak on July 12 and are regarded by marchers as an expression of cultural identity. Many Catholics see them as provocative and they are often accompanied by violent protest.

Police fired plastic bullets and used water cannons on Tuesday night as rioters threw petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks. They said 350-400 people were involved, cutting their earlier estimate of 700 people.

The streets near where the riots flared were deserted on Wednesday, with many windows boarded up. Residents said they feared the riots could spiral out of control.

"On Tuesday night we heard loyalists shouting that they were going to burn us out," said Catholic Shauna O'Hara whose father John was murdered by loyalists 20 years ago. "People just don't know what is going to happen next."

(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Conor Humphries and David Stamp)

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