CHIEF CONSTABLE Sir Hugh Orde has rejected claims his officers were slow to react to the needs of Romanians suffering racist attacks in south Belfast this week. Response times to calls for help were between one and 10 minutes, he said.
“It is a complicated picture,” he admitted. “We had seven calls for assistance over a period of 4½-five days. I have to say some of those calls were not, on arrival, discovered by the officers to be crimes between different communities. They were indeed, on one occasion, a dispute between different families from the Romanian community.”
Sir Hugh said those whose homes were attacked in the loyalist Village area of the city would have been properly protected by the PSNI had they decided to remain in their homes. His officers had done their best in what was a difficult situation, he said.
His defence follows criticisms made by Alliance Assembly member for south Belfast Anna Lo. She alleged some families had been threatened with what appeared to be a handgun and police officers had taken up to two hours to respond to calls. Some went unanswered, she claimed.
Another Romanian family was attacked on Wednesday night, in the Ballyhackamore area of east Belfast, about three miles from the Village where some 20 families fled their homes after intimidation on Tuesday night. More than 100 Romanians are in temporary accommodation. They are expected to remain at the secret location for the week. They were visited yesterday by Romanian consul general Mihai Delcea. He said he appreciated the response of locals and the authorities.