Tensions are high ahead of Belfast parade

Tensions are beginning to mount in the Springfield Road area of west Belfast ahead of the first major contentious parade of this year's marching season.

Hundreds of RUC officers and British soldiers have been drafted into the area to prevent disturbances at the Whiterock parade.

Around 100 RUC land rovers are in the area and steel barricades have been erected to keep the nationalist and loyalist communities apart.

The Parades Commission decided yesterday to allow the Whiterock parade to pass into the nationalist side of the peace line on Springfield Road.

There is major concern that loyalist paramilitaries, especially the UDA, are planning major violence if nationalist residents attempt to block the parade.

A spokeswoman for the nationalist residents, Frances McAuley, said a massive demonstration is planned to protest against the Parades Commission's decision to let the march go ahead.

Two Catholic residents in the area have already claimed they were assaulted by RUC officers, who struck them with batons in their own front gardens.