Republican group claims parade panel will be 'gerrymandered'

The Republican Network for Unity (RNU) said the draft arrangements to

phase out the Parades Commission will create "gerrymandered mediation and adjudication panels."

Yesterday (Tuesday, April 20) First Minister Rt. Hon Peter D Robinson MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA launched the public consultation on the draft Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill (Northern Ireland).

The draft legislation contains proposals for a new and improved framework for the handling of public assemblies here, including parades and protests.

The First Minister said: "Following the agreement reached at Hillsborough Castle on 5 February, we set a challenging timetable for the Working Group on Parades to produce a report.

"The group presented its report to us on 23 February. Today we publish the draft legislation for public consultation."

The deputy First Minister said: "A consultation process across a range of stakeholders including public representatives and representatives of residents' groups has informed the report.

"We look forward to considering the comments and submissions received in response to the draft document in the coming months."

But opponents of the current Sinn Fin and DUP partnership at Stormont the RNU issued a statemnt asking "has the DUP been given 'product' in the guise of a thinly veiled blueprint to open the way for Orange feet to march down nationalist roads and to close down nationalist protests."

Spokesperson, Danny McBrearty, stated: "This DUP-Sinn Fein deal casts away the legal procedures and protections which have blocked Orange marches from trampling on nationalist victims on the Garvaghy Road and most other although not all routes.

"The DUP, advised by the Orange Order, demanded and is apparently satisfied that the new arrangements will deliver product.

"The cornerstone of the new deal conceded to the DUP will be a handpicked adjudications panel.

"The working group picked to agree the blueprint was comprised of DUP or Sinn Fein nominees who could be counted upon to follow whatever deal was struck at the top.

"Nationalists were pledged that Sinn Fein was not playing poker and would not pay the price of Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road, or Ardoyne.

"Residents of those areas now question whether they have been played like poker chips. Has their right to be free of sectarian Orange parades in their areas been bartered away beneath the political cover of a deal that has satisfied the DUP and Orange Order?

"Have the DUP and Orange been told that such parades could not be granted outright, but would be delivered by a gerrymandered adjudication panel that would also outlaw nationalist protests?

"We challenge Republicans to look at the reality of this blueprint. DUP member Nelson McCausland has hailed the proposals as a new era of Orange parades where the right to parade is 'firmly enshrined' and what he deems preferential treatment for protests is outlawed.

"Is this an idle boast or will this blueprint foreshadow DUP-Sinn Fein nominees complicit in pushing an agreed number of Orange sectarian parades through nationalist areas and banning the protests of nationalist residents?

"RNU will continue to confer with residents in these areas and will support join with other nationalists and Republicans to support them against any attempt to facilitate Orange marches in their streets."

The public consultation will run for 12 weeks from 20 April to 14 July 2010, with responses to be received no later than 1.00pm on 14 July 2010.

The consultation document can be found at http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/featured-consultation/ and all comments or submissions in response to this consultation should be e-mailed to [email protected].