A CONTROVERSIAL parade glorifying two UDA members linked to scores of sectarian murders has been stopped from gathering on a main road in a mixed area.
However, the march in south Belfast has not been banned from a Housing Executive-funded memorial which has become a focus for paramilitary displays.
The parade will commemorate UDA members Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder, two days before the 22nd anniversary of their deaths.
The organisers had applied to meet at Ballynafeigh Orange Hall on Ormeau Road.
The Parades Commission decided that the march must instead assemble at the corner of Ava Avenue and Ormeau Road and proceed down its notified route along Derlett Street.
Around 22 bands, with 500 marchers, are expected to take part in the march, now in its third year. Around 300 supporters are also due to attend.
Bratty and Elder were linked to the 1992 gun attack on Sean Graham bookmakers on Ormeau Road, in which five Catholic men were killed.
The UDA members were shot dead by the IRA on the same road on July 31 1994.
In its determination, the Parades Commission raised concerns that during the 2014 and the 2015 marches, a temporary plaque bearing their names was put on a £11,000 World War I memorial at Candahar Street, off Ormeau Road.
It said the organisers had given "no assurances" that plaque would not be put on the memorial at the end of Friday's parade.
UDA and UFF flags were flown at the 2014 march and bands carried wreaths, one of which spelt out 'UDA'.
UDA and YCV paraphernalia were also worn by bands at last year's parade.
SDLP MLA Claire Hanna welcomed the commission's ruling but said she was deeply concerned by the overall nature of the parade.
"I appreciate that the Parades Commission has a very difficult balance to strike and welcome that they have taken the decision to ban the parade from the Ormeau Road," she said.
"But I am anxious that no assurances have been given by the parade organisers that they won't glorify or venerate a proscribed organisation marked exclusively by extortion and sectarian murder.
"Paramilitary trappings are not only in breach of the Parades Commission ruling but also in my opinion are tantamount to inciting sectarian hatred and should be investigated by the police."
She said the parade showed the north still has not dealt with the legacy of the Troubles.
"This is a wider societal problem that we have fundamentally failed, 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement, to deal with the issue of paramilitaries and how we address the past," she said.
Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie has previously also condemned plans for the march.
The UUP's representative on Stormont's new commission on flags told The Irish News earlier this week that the commemoration, "particularly with the involvement of paramilitary trappings, means those responsible are in danger of entrenching division and hatred".
