14 are held in Belfast anti-war protest

DEMONSTRATIONS:  Fourteen people were arrested yesterday as anti-war demonstrators blocked Belfast city centre in protest at…

DEMONSTRATIONS:  Fourteen people were arrested yesterday as anti-war demonstrators blocked Belfast city centre in protest at President Bush's war summit.

Riot police removed protesters from the road following a rally outside City Hall. The demonstrators described police action as "very heavy-handed" and said a blind man was among those arrested.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it had no alternative but to clear the road and said five officers had been injured in the disturbance. Around 150 people took part in the rally. Around 60 then blocked the road at Donegall Square North and refused to move. They said they posed no threat and accused the PSNI of deliberately attempting to stir up tensions.

Ms Alisa Keane, of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "These people were separate from our protest but the riot gear exacerbated the situation. It was quite tense but we thought with a little bit of patience we could have got them moved."

READ MORE

The PSNI said repeated warnings had been given before the arrests were made.

A spokesman said: "Despite appeals from organisers and from police, and a number of warnings, the group still remained blocking the road. We were facilitating a peaceful, lawful protest but we also have a duty to ensure members of the public not involved in it can go about their business."

o Meanwhile, a new organisation, Doctors Against War (DAW), held its inaugural meeting in Dublin yesterday. The group includes Iraqi doctor, Kalid Safi, a renal transplant specialist at Beaumont Hospital.

Dr Juliet Breesan, a Dublin GP, said DAW had been founded to cater for a "huge demand across the country from medical practitioners for a medical response to this war, to put forward a message of reality".

"This is a very serious humanitarian crisis and our Government is taking part in it by ushering Bush's army through Shannon."

The organisation has gathered about 100 doctors' signatures so far to a letter to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin. The letter urges the Government "to withdraw its military aid to the US and to join in the worldwide growing majority of citizens who oppose war as a solution to the current Middle East crisis".