'Ethnic cleansing' forces families from north Belfast homes

Ten Protestant families have left their homes in north Belfast claiming citing republican intimidation as the reason for the mass exodus.

The families from the Torrens estate close to the Oldpark Road and Cliftonville Road left their homes for the final time on Thursday under the watchful eye of local MP Nigel Dodds.

Mr Dodds said the incident was the latest in a long line of "ethnic cleansing" in the area.

"Today I salute the families of the Torrens area who have endured so much over so many years," Mr Dodds said. "They have been forced out in a clear example of ethnic cleansing. This is a tragedy which could have been averted had these people been allowed to live in peace as they had for so many years prior to this campaign against them being commenced.

"Attention needs to be focused on the real cause of this tragedy today and that is a campaign of republican intimidation."

Sinn Fein councillor Eoin O'Broin said he disagreed with Mr Dodds' version of events and said that there was "no campaign, organised or otherwise, against the Protestant community that lives in Torrens.

"It is an interface community and it has suffered from a high level of interface violence over the last number of years like many of the interfaces in north Belfast," Mr O'Broin said.

"While these families have taken the decision to move out of the estate, it is not because of either a campaign of republican intimidation or ongoing sectarian violence."

(MB)