FATHER Eamon Stack of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition said the actions of the security forces and the British government last weekend had severely traumatised" local people. One woman, he said, was having a nervous breakdown.
Trauma counsellors are being contacted and the coalition's Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith said legal advice was being taken this week to see what recourse the residents now had.
Mr Mac Cionnaith, at a press conference yesterday, said the residents would continue their peaceful campaign and, while welcoming the shows of solidarity across the North, he appealed for peaceful protests. "Let no one divert attention from the reality and truth of what happened in Portadown because the British government and the RUC would love someone to focus attention away from what happened."
Garvaghy Road residents are planning a peaceful march and rally tomorrow night. On Sunday, the Felle planned for last Sunday will go ahead.
Mr Warren Allmand, former solicitor general in the Canadian government and president of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Montreal, said he and his companions, who acted as independent observers, felt there was "an excessive military presence" which was "unnecessarily provocative and threatening".
"It came across as protecting the rights of the Orange community, not of the Catholic community," he said, referring to the military's protection of the Orange community's right to go to its church while the Catholic community could not get to its church but had a Mass on the road.
"The Catholic community's movement was restricted throughout the day until after the parade," said Mr Allmand. The decision merely bought short- term peace, he said, and was a short-term solution which had created greater polarisation and damaged the peace process. Mr Allmand, who has requested meetings with all sides, said: "We also observed abuse of authority by the police."
Referring to the removal of people from the road, he said: "There were examples where they picked up individuals, dropped them on the road, picked them up, dropped them on the road again, picked them up and dropped them on the road again. Some of them were kicked unnecessarily instead of simply carrying them off the road."
There was "improper and excessive use of the plastic bullet". He said that plastic bullets should be used as a last resort and aimed at the lower part of the body, not at the head or the upper part of the body. "But they were shooting at random," he said.
Mr Allmand said there were alternatives that would have respected the right to march and suggested that the Orangemen march back by the same route or partially the same route. "These would have been accepted and there would not have been the need for the excessive military and police presence and there would not have been the violence."
Mr Allmand said this was not the sort of decision that should have been left to the local constabulary. "There are much wider political implications than simply public security. With the RUC being so identified with one side, the way the decision came about, with no explanation, the whole interpretation by the nationalist community was that it was a decision favouring one side and not being a balanced decision in not bringing justice."
He used the analogy of the civil rights problems in the US's deep south, when the American federal government felt it could no longer leave the problem to the governors of the southern states in order to protect the black people of the south.
Representatives of other human rights organisations voiced similar views, including Peace Watch Ireland and Table. Mr Mac Cionnaith said Dr Mo Mowlam's telephone call to him on Saturday night was not to say that a decision had yet to be made or to engage in further dialogue but because Mr Mac Cionnaith had been criticising what was happening to the press.
"She was browned off with it," he said. He told her the residents were also browned off that there had been no contact with Dr Mowlam since the previous Wednesday, despite media reports suggesting negotiations continued.
"An attempt was being made to seek a solution to the Drumcree issue at the expense and exclusion of the nationalist community in Portadown," he said. In detailing a variety of attacks, Mr Mac Cionnaith said a member of the South African government who came to observe, Mr Gora Ebraham, described weekend events as "Sharpeville without the dead bodies".
Referring to Dr Mowlam's alleged remark that the Garvaghy Road was a black-and-white issue, Mr Mac Cionnaith said: "Given what Gora Ebraham said yesterday I now know what she meant - that the nationalist community are the blacks of the six counties."
Restating the coalition's commitment to the peace process and the use of non-violent means, Mr Mac Cionnaith referred to talks by British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and Dr Mowlam, about the peace process. He said: "If what Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam inflicted on this community yesterday is their version of the peace process, well, I'm sorry, it's one peace process that our community could well do without.
"Since the Curragh mutiny at the beginning of this century, not one British government has ever stood up to the threats of violence from the unionists - not one. They have continually bent down whenever there has been sabre-rattling or threats made by the unionists. Time and time again it has been the nationalist community which has paid the price."
Referring to comments by the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, that the decision was taken to protect the Catholic community, Mr Mac Cionnaith said: "Protect us from what? Was the beating of men, women and kids protection? Is he going to say that imposing martial law on my people and turning this area into an open-air concentration camp was providing us with protection?
"We saw the protection that the RUC provides for this community several weeks ago in Portadown. Young Robert Ham ill was kicked to death in Portadown town centre. Heavily armed RUC officers did not intervene. They allowed a young man to be kicked to death and they did not even try to render medical assistance. Yes, Ronnie, we know how your men provide us with protection and, that is a protection that we also can do without."
Mr Mac Cionnaith said the security forces and British government had literally tried to beat the residents into the ground. "When the Orange march came down that road they were hoping that this community would be so demoralised, so shattered and so beaten that people would have gone home instead of standing up for their rights and for justice."
But it was not the residents who were afraid - it was the RUC and the British army.