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N Ireland leaders call for calm after violence escalates
(AP) — Authorities in
Northern Ireland sought
to restore calm Thurs-
day after Protestant and
Catholic youths in Belfast
hurled bricks, fireworks
and gasoline bombs at
police and each other. It
was the worst mayhem in
a week of street violence
in the region, where Brit-
ain’s exit from the Euro-
pean Union has unsettled
an uneasy political bal-
ance.
Crowds including children
as young as 12 or 13 clashed
across a concrete “peace wall”
in west Belfast that separates
a British loyalist Protestant
neighborhood from an Irish
nationalist Catholic area. Po-
lice fired rubber bullets at the
crowd, and nearby a city bus violence since the 1998 Good
was hijacked and set on fire. Friday peace accord ended
Northern Ireland has seen “the Troubles” — decades of
sporadic outbreaks of street Catholic-Protestant blood- But Police Service of North- when politics are perceived solution will require political
Monkey business: 2
dozen Barbary macaques
escape German zoo
(AP) — About two dozen monkeys have broken
out of a southwestern German zoo and are
roaming the area despite efforts to recapture
them, authorities said Thursday.
The Barbary macaques, commonly known as Barbary
apes, escaped from the zoo in Loeffingen, southwest
of Stuttgart and not far from the Swiss border, the dpa
news agency reported.
It was not entirely clear how they got away, but
constriction work at the zoo might have been a factor,
police said.
The primates were spotted roaming the area in a pack,
but zoo employees were unable to recapture them and
eventually lost track of them.
Police say the animals tend to be harmless and shy,
but that people should not attempt to capture them or
approach them otherwise, lest they provoke them.
The Barbary macaque is native to the Atlas Mountains
of North Africa and has a small but famous presence
across the water in Europe in the British territory of
Gibraltar.
world news Diasabra 10 aPriL 2021
have accused outlawed para-
military groups — which re-
main a force in working class
communities — of inciting
young people to cause may-
hem. They expressed outrage
that a new generation was
being exposed to, and pulled
into, violence.
Northern Ireland Justice
Minister Naomi Long,
from the centrist Alliance
Party, said she was horri-
fied to watch footage of
adults “standing by cheering
and goading and encourag-
ing young people on as they
wreaked havoc in their own
community.”
“This is nothing short of
child abuse,” she said.
Both Britain and the EU have
expressed concerns about
how the Brexit agreement is
shed over the status of the deep political challenges working, and the Democratic
region in which more than ahead.” Unionist Party wants it to be
3,000 people died. “We should all know that scrapped. But any long-term
ern Ireland Assistant Chief to fail, those who fill the vac- commitment that appears in
Constable Jonathan Roberts uum cause despair,” said Fos- short supply. Britain and the
said Wednesday’s mayhem ter, who heads the Northern EU are squabbling over the
“was at a scale we have not Ireland government.
new trade arrangements and
seen in recent years.” He said Deputy First Minister Mi- show little of the goodwill
a total of 55 police officers chelle O’Neill, of Irish na-
needed to make their new
had been injured over several tionalist party Sinn Fein, relationship work. Sinn Fein
nights of disorder and it was called the violence “utterly and the DUP have blamed
lucky no one had been seri- deplorable.” one another for the deterio-
ously hurt or killed. Despite the united message, rating situation.
Northern Ireland’s politi- Katy Hayward, a politics pro-
Britain’s split from the EU cians are deeply divided, fessor at Queen’s University
has highlighted the contested and events on the street are Belfast and senior fellow of
status of Northern Ireland, in many cases beyond their the U.K. in a Changing Eu-
where some people identify control. rope think tank, said union-
as British and want to stay As many predicted it would, ists felt that “Northern Ire-
part of the U.K., while others the situation has been desta- land’s place is under threat
see themselves as Irish and bilized by Britain’s departure in the union, and they feel
seek unity with the neigh- from the EU — after almost betrayed by London.”
boring Republic of Ireland, 50 years of membership — Unionists are also angry at a
an EU member. that became final on Dec. 31. police decision not to pros-
Unrest has erupted over the A post-Brexit U.K.-EU trade ecute Sinn Fein politicians
past week — largely in loyal- deal has imposed customs and who attended the funeral of
ist, Protestant areas — amid border checks on some goods a former Irish Republican
rising tensions over post- moving between Northern Army commander in June.
Brexit trade rules and wors- Ireland and the rest of the The funeral of Bobby Storey
ening relations between the U.K. The arrangement was drew a large crowd, despite
parties in the Protestant- designed to avoid checks be- coronavirus rules barring
Catholic power-sharing Bel- tween Northern Ireland and mass gatherings.
fast government.
Ireland because an open Irish The main unionist parties
U.K. Prime Minister Boris border has helped underpin have demanded the resigna-
Johnson condemned the un- the peace process built. tion of Northern Ireland’s
rest, saying “the way to re- But unionists says the new police chief over the contro-
solve differences is through checks amount to the cre-
versy, claiming he has lost the
dialogue, not violence or ation of a border between confidence of their commu-
criminality.” He sent North-
Northern Ireland and the nity.
ern Ireland Secretary Bran- rest of the U.K. — something “You have a very fizzy po-
don Lewis to Belfast for talks they fear undermines the re-
litical atmosphere in which
with the region’s political gion’s place in the United those who are trying to urge
leaders.
Kingdom.
for calm and restraint are sort
Meanwhile, Northern Ire- The latest disturbances fol- of undermined,” Hayward
land’s Belfast-based assembly lowed unrest over the Easter said.
and government held emer- long weekend in pro-British “It’s really easy to see how it
gency meetings Thursday unionist areas in and around could get worse,” she added.
and called for an end to the Belfast and Londonderry, “There’s many factors, in-
violence. also known as Derry, that saw cluding, obviously, criminal
First Minister Arlene Foster, cars set on fire and projectiles gangs at work who benefit
of the pro-British Demo- and gasoline bombs hurled at from chaos like this. ... So
cratic Unionist Party, warned police officers. that you could see how things
that “Northern Ireland faces Some politicians and police can definitely escalate.”