New film footage of sectarian rioting at an east Belfast flashpoint will refute republican propaganda over who was responsible for the violence, it was claimed today.
Exactly onr year after trouble erupted at the Short Strand interface, loyalists have compiled a previously unseen video dossier they say proves republicans were to blame for many of the gun and bomb attacks that followed.
Councillor Frankie Gallagher said: "It's time the truth was exposed so we can reduce the chances of the same mistakes being made again."
Scores of police and civilians were injured during clashes between rival mobs along the peaceline which rumbled right through last summer.
The staunchly nationalist Short Strand enclave blamed loyalist paramilitaries for most of the attacks, while Protestants living in Cluan Place were enraged after five people were shot and wounded.
They claimed IRA gunmen opened fire on innocent members of their community.
The new video has been produced by the Community Safety Group, an organisation involving churchmen, politicians and loyalist paramilitaries, using camcorder footage.
But after Sinn Fein released a film version of events, loyalists have now decided to issue a video of events in Cluan Place in 2002.
PA News