The SDLP is calling for immediate talks between nationalist residents and loyalist marchers in an attempt to avoid serious conflict on the streets this summer. The party's parades spokeswoman, Ms Brid Rodgers, made the appeal at a conference on marches in Belfast yesterday.
About 200 people attended the event, at which a study by an international team of researchers on the experience of parades in 10 countries was presented. The report, Politics in Public, is published by the Belfast think-tank, Democratic Dialogue.
The conference was organised by INCORE, the joint project between the United Nations University and the University of Ulster.
Addressing delegates, Ms Rodgers said: 'A repeat of last year's parades debacle is not an option for the North of Ireland. Direct negotiations at local level are the obvious and most sensible way of solving the parades problem. Where this is not possible, a process of mediation should be entered into immediately by those directly affected.
'The politics of stand-off has left us where we started, with escalating fear and tension in both communities. The people do not want, and must not be subjected to, another year of vacillation on the issues and confrontation on the ground.'
Ms Rodgers said no group had the absolute right to behave however it pleased.
'All rights carry responsibilities. So-called traditional routes are the product of sectarian coat-trailing of previous generations. They are based on an inequality of power between the two communities, exercised irresponsibly and with total disregard for the existence, let alone the rights, of nationalists.'
The SDLP representative was strongly criticised by sections of the audience. One man said that Orangemen in Drumcree in Portadown were not engaging in 'triumphalism and coat-trailing as Brid Rodgers says' but simply wanted to march from their church.
The UUP talks delegate, Mr Dermot Nesbitt, told delegates the conflict between nationalist residents and marchers was over identity and allegiance. Orange marchers felt that 'their country was changing' and their rights were being denied, while nationalists believed they were being 'trod upon', he said.
Mr Nesbitt recalled how nationalists and unionists in the past lent each other musical instruments for their respective marches. He said there was no intrinsic reason why nationalists should object to Orange marches and noted that British people joined in celebrations of the American War of Independence, even though they were 'on the losing side'.
According to the report issued at the conference, lessons could be learned from the experience of other countries in dealing with parades.