Police Ombudsman to investigate handling of East Belfast rioting

The Police Ombudsman in the North is being asked to investigate the Police service’s handling of rioting in East Belfast.

Sinn Fein says the Police are one-sided in their approach to disturbances in the Short Strand, and are lying when they claim nationalists are instigating the trouble.

Local residents now say they have video evidence to prove it, after taping last night’s disturbances in the area, showing the build-up of violence.

They say the video shows the area under sustained attack for 6 hours from the loyalist side of the Police line, an area where the police and Army are supposed to have a 24-hour presence.

The video also shows police and army moving into the Nationalist Clandeboye Drive Area when it happened.

The footage has been given to the two local television stations in the North, and Sinn Fein confirmed it is also being given to the British and Irish Governments, and to the Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan. Local residents also say a water pipe used to douse flames of houses set alight by petrol bomb attacks by loyalists was punctured by the police.

Unionists and Loyalists have accused Short Strand residents of initiating much of the violence along the peace line this summer.