Friday, December 4, 1998 Published at 00:24 GMT
Violence flares at Drumcree
Tensions reached a peak last July
A new outbreak of violence at Drumcree has left 10 RUC officers injured.
Police, none of whom were seriously injured, retaliated with one plastic bullet.
Four protesters were treated for minor injuries. There were no arrests.
He said: "It was a totally unprovoked attack by the police who over-reacted to a peaceful protest."
Reverend Ian Paisley, leader of the hardline Democratic Unionist Party, later gave a rallying speech to the protesters.
Orangemen have been staging a token round-the-clock protest at Drumcree since they were banned from marching down the mainly-Catholic Garvaghy Road in nearby Portadown, in July.
A stand-off between protesters and security forces in July culminated with the deaths of three children in an arson attack by loyalists in Ballymoney in County Antrim.
BBC Ireland Correspondent Mark Devenport said that there had neen no direct negotiations between the Orange Order and the residents of the Garvaghy Road over the march because the local councillor for the area had an IRA background.
He said: "Without those negotiations it is hard to see a resolution."
The latest Drumcree disturbances came as efforts by UK and Irish leaders to breathe new life into the Northern Ireland peace process hit new obstacles.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern expressed their frustration as the talks in Belfast ran into further trouble on Thursday.
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern were hoping a deal could be struck ahead of next week's Nobel peace prize presentation to Ulster Unionist Party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble and John Hume, leader of the nationalist SDLP.
Mr Blair had flown to Ulster on Wednesday to make a personal attempt to push the talks forward.
Mr Ahern indicated that the February deadline for having cross-Irish border bodies in place could now be at risk.