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During 12–17 August 1969, Northern Ireland was rocked by intense political and sectarian rioting. There had been sporadic violence throughout the year arising from the civil rights campaign, which was demanding an end to discrimination against Irish Catholics. Civil rights marches were repeatedly attacked by both Ulster Protestant loyalists and by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a unionist and largely Protestant police force. The disorder led to the Battle of the Bogside in Derry, a three-day riot in the Bogside district between the RUC and the nationalist/Catholic residents. In support of the Bogsiders, nationalists and Catholics launched protests elsewhere in Northern Ireland. Some of these led to attacks by loyalists working alongside the police. The most bloody rioting was in Belfast, where seven people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Scores of houses, most of them owned by Catholics, as well as businesses and factories were burned-out. In addition, thousands of mostly Catholic families were driven from their homes. In certain areas, the RUC helped the loyalists and failed to protect Catholic areas. Events in Belfast have been viewed by some as a pogrom against the Catholic and nationalist minority.〔Fields, Rona M. ''Northern Ireland: Society Under Siege''. Transaction Publishers, 1977. p.19〕〔Tonge, Jonathan. ''Northern Ireland: Conflict and Change''. 2002. p.39〕〔Shanahan, Timothy. ''The Provisional IRA and the morality of terrorism''. Edinburgh University Press, 2009. p.13〕 The British Army was deployed to restore order and state control and peace lines began to be built to separate the two sides. The events of August 1969 are widely seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as the Troubles. ==Background== Northern Ireland was destabilised throughout 1968 by sporadic rioting arising out of the civil disobedience campaign of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), which was demanding an end to discrimination against Catholics in voting rights, housing and employment. NICRA was opposed by Ian Paisley's Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) and other loyalist groups. During the summer of 1969, before the riots broke out, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a highly critical report on the British government's policy in Northern Ireland. ''The Times'' wrote that this report "criticised the Northern Ireland Government for police brutality, religious discrimination (Catholics ) and gerrymandering in politics".〔Rose, Peter. ''How The Troubles Came to Northern Ireland''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. p.160〕 The ICJ secretary general said that laws and conditions in Northern Ireland had been cited by the South African government "to justify their own policies of discrimination" (see South Africa under apartheid).〔 ''The Times'' also reported that the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), Northern Ireland's reserve police force, was "regarded as the militant arm of the Protestant Orange Order".〔 The ''Belfast Telegraph'' reported that the ICJ had added Northern Ireland to the list of states/jurisdictions "where the protection of human rights is inadequately assured".〔Rose, p.161〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1969 Northern Ireland riots」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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