'Lives will be lost in East Belfast'

Lives will be lost unless the violence in east Belfast ends, the British government was warned tonight.

Stormont Enterprise Minister Reg Empey invited Security Minister Jane Kennedy to visit the interface area after a week of sectarian rioting left 19 police officers injured and both sides of the peaceline devastated.

After Catholic residents protested at a lack of police action to protect their homes, the senior Ulster Unionist called for an increased security force presence in the area.

He claimed CCTV cameras should be mounted to prevent violence and accused Sinn Fein of orchestrating attacks on the loyalist Cluan Place as part of a campaign against the force.

"Sinn Fein are organising this campaign against the police," he claimed.

"The police have suffered 32 casualties in the last fortnight in the Short Strand, 32 casualties, yet they’re complaining that they’re being attacked.

"The people who are preventing the police doing their job in there is Sinn Fein and therefore it is all part of the Sinn Fein campaign to undermine the Police Service of Northern Ireland and to prevent the nationalist community backing it."

However, Sinn Fein rejected the claim.

Councillor Joe O’Donnell said police did nothing to protect workmen carrying out repairs to Catholic homes in Clandeboye after they came under attack from loyalist stone-throwers today.

"This is unacceptable and once again shows that the PSNI are facilitating the loyalist siege of the area," he added.

Catholic residents in the Short Strand had earlier protested at the headquarters of the Policing Board over what they claimed was the failure of police to protect their homes.

They brought bags of metal nuts, bolts and fireworks which they claimed were thrown by loyalists over the peaceline.

Spokeswoman Deborah Devenney said residents felt "frustration, despair, anger and fear".

"Pipe bombs, blast bombs and petrol bombs are being thrown at our homes while the police sit idly by allowing it to happen," she added.

Ms Devenney said the violence was originating from the loyalist Cluan Place, while Catholics in the adjoining Clandeboye area merely retaliated after sustained attacks.

"People are forced to protect their own homes because the police are failing to do so," she said.

"The people in Cluan Place are not under attack. Only three homes in Cluan Place are occupied so why are hundreds of loyalists allowed to gather there to throw missiles across the peaceline?"

Mr O’Donnell and party chairman, Mitchell McLaughlin, are to meet with Northern Ireland Office minister Des Browne tomorrow to discuss ongoing violence at interface areas.