Bangla2000 | International News - Ulster Protestants protest by divisive march

The scene of a car bomb explosion which occurred in the early hours of the morning outside a police station in Stewartstown, about 55 miles west of Belfast, Sunday July 9, 2000. Senior politicians and Protestant clergymen have appealed to Orange Order marchers to turn away from conflict Sunday July 9, 2000 when police and soldiers block them from marching through a Catholic neighbourhood in Portadown 30 miles southwest of Belfast. (AP Photo/Christine Nesbitt)

PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland (AP) - An estimated 2,000 grim-faced Protestant Orangemen stepped off Sunday for the most divisive march in Northern Ireland, an annual procession that has already inspired widespread violence.

Hours before Orange Order members set off for a march being blocked by police and soldiers from reaching Portadown's main Catholic district, a predominantly Catholic town to the north was rocked by a car bomb.

Nobody was reported wounded when the car exploded outside the unoccupied police station at Stewartstown, shattering windows of nearby houses and badly damaging a gasoline station.

No group claimed immediate reponsibility for the blast, but the head of Northern Ireland's police force said it was likely the work of IRA dissidents opposed to the outlawed group's 1997 cease-fire.

"Although it is too soon to be definitive we would assess that that's probably the work of the Real IRA," one of two splinter groups that have planted car bombs at fragile junctures in Northern Ireland's peace process, Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan said on BBC television.

Locals reported seeing a masked man park the car in front of the base, then flee in a waiting getaway car minutes before the blast.

A young girl watches as a resident removes broken glass from the window frame of her home after car bomb exploded near a police station in the early hours of the morning in Stewartstown, about 55 miles west of Belfast, Sunday July 9, 2000. Senior politicians and Protestant clergymen have appealed to Orange Order marchers to turn away from conflict Sunday July 9, 2000 when police and soldiers block them from marching through a Catholic neighbourhood in Portadown 30 miles southwest of Belfast. (AP Photo/Christine Nesbitt)

Britain's senior official in the province called the attack intensely provocative. "The intention of the bombers was to inflame an already tense situation," Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has appealed for calm after Orangemen reach the Drumcree Anglican church near Portadown, spiritual home for the conservative, 80,000-strong Protestant brotherhood.

In a letter Blair urged Portadown's Orange leaders to "condemn any violence that might, despite your best endeavors, occur." So far, they have failed to do so.

More than 1,000 riot police and soldiers manned armored barricades at all entrances to Garvaghy Road, the hostile Catholic quarter, to ensure that no Protestants would be allowed to march through following their church service.

An army helicopter monitored the procession of Orangemen, many of them in traditional bowler hats and orange collars.

Facing mounting criticism even from fellow Protestants, Portadown's Orange leaders promised they wouldn't mount a lengthy standoff with British security forces who have erected extensive barbed-wire barricades in fields between the church and Garvaghy Road.

A standoff between Orange crowds and police in 1998 ended only when three young Catholic brothers died in an arson attack in another town. Last year Orangemen dispersed at Drumcree and remained largely peaceful elsewhere.

But this year, notorious Protestant terrorists recently paroled from prison under the peace accord have been prominent at the Drumcree standoff. To the exasperation of many Protestants, Portadown's Orange leaders have welcomed their attendance - and called for wider protests until British authorities permit them to parade down Garvaghy Road.

After a smaller march at Drumcree was blocked from going down the Garvaghy Road last week, there was widespread rioting and attacks on police, particularly in Belfast.

Police chief Flanagan said he intended to allow Orange supporters to stage nonviolent protests indefinitely. "We will, as we have demonstrated from the outset, facilitate that but will not tolerate violence," Flanagan said.

The stalemate has defied resolution since 1995 largely because the Protestant side has refused to talk directly to their opponents.

Portadown Orangemen on Friday offered to get involved in wider talks - but only after Sunday's march is allowed down Garvaghy Road. Catholics and a government-appointed Parades Commission, which imposed the original ban, said talks must come first.