O’Loan asked to investigate police handling of flashpoint violence
Mr McLaughlin accused police and the Army of having a one-sided approach to disturbances early on Friday morning in the Short Strand after a night of sustained violence along the peace line.
Mr McLaughlin said police were lying when they claimed nationalists were instigating clashes in the area.
He said a video taken by nationalist residents showed the area under sustained attack for six hours from the loyalist side of the peace line.
“I think the policing operation, the security operation, is part of the age-old problem here. There is a lot of politics in the policing situation here and the police themselves, I think, have a very partisan approach and they are blind to a lot of the violence that emanates.
“There appears to be an institutionalised form of an acceptable level of violence so long as that is visited upon the nationalist community.
“A lot of the violence they appear to be quite blind to. In relation to the loyalists, it is quite clear they are off ceasefire, they are opposed to the peace process and they are attempting to provoke the IRA back into conflict.”
Mr McLaughlin toured the glass-strewn streets of the Short Strand where residents said they came under six hours of constant attack with nuts, bolts, fireworks, glass bombs and pipe bombs.
Nationalist residents angrily denounced the police who they said were pointing the finger at them for initiating some of the trouble.
They also alleged that a water pipe used to douse the flames of houses set alight by fireworks, blast bombs and petrol bombs thrown from the loyalist side was punctured by the police.
Unionist politicians and loyalists also accused Short Strand residents of initiating much of the violence along the peace line this summer.
Democratic Unionist MP for East Belfast, Peter Robinson claimed the violence in the Short Strand would not stop unless the police and Army seized control of nationalist area and maintained a permanent police presence.
Meanwhile, about 50 Catholic families have fled homes in a Co Antrim town since May because of loyalist paramilitary threats.
Sinn Féin accused the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force of orchestrating a major intimidation campaign.
Martin Meehan, a councillor for Antrim town, said other political parties have ignored the crisis.
“The situation is that there is pipe bombs, petrol bombs, paint bombs, physical and mental assaults, not only in homes but nationalist people in the centre of Antrim itself.”
I have called at council level for a civic forum, with all political representatives, all community associations to tackle this particular issue.It seems for whatever reason to have fallen on deaf ears."
Mr Meehan's claims were dismissed by Ulster Unionist councillor Paddy Marks.
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