Two international observer groups have criticised the PSNI and Parades Commission for allowing "systematic violations" of official commission determinations governing contested loyal order parades in Northern Ireland last year.
The US-based Brehon Law Society and the Irish Parades Emergency Committee (IPEC), whose observers attend and monitor contested Orange Order and other loyal order parades, said the police were failing to enforce restrictions on some parades.
They made their claims in their fourth report, "Law and Lawlessness: Orange Parades in Northern Ireland" which is published just ahead of the North's annual marching season.
The report said that violations of Parades Commission rulings included displays of UDA and UVF flags during parades and senior UDA figures and "hangers-on" accompanying the July Twelfth parade past nationalist Ardoyne last year. "Loyalist paramilitary displays have been repeatedly documented at contested parades in Ardoyne, Springfield Road and Short Strand for the past several years," the report added.
Members of the 2004 Brehon and IPEC delegation, which included observers from the US, Italy and France, criticised the "hypocrisy" of mainstream unionists and Orangemen for participating in the North and West Belfast Parades Forum - which includes loyalist paramilitaries - while refusing to serve in government with Sinn Féin.
The observer report also faulted the "massive military and police deployments throughout Belfast in June and July, particularly the decision to deploy the paratrooper unit inside the Ardoyne community on July 12th" when serious violence erupted.
While British soldiers, who were blocking loyalist protesters from nationalists, came under fierce attack from a large group of nationalists the observers said the deployment of the paratroopers "reflected either gross negligence or an intention to trigger violent confrontation".
