Peace process could face another blow

THE Northern peace process will be plunged even deeper into crisis if ex-paramilitary prisoners are allowed to sit on police scrutiny bodies before the IRA disbands, the British Government was warned last night.

New policing legislation designed to win Sinn Fein backing for the service and restore the power-sharing administration at Stormont is set to be put to the political parties in Belfast today.

It is also expected to meet the nationalist SDLP’s demands to give N I’s police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan more powers and allow chief constable Hugh Orde’s policing board to launch inquiries into the force.

But the biggest gamble would be a lifting of the ban on terrorists sitting on the 29 District Policing Partnerships (DPPs) which monitor local commanders’ performance. Northern Ireland, Secretary of State Paul Murphy has thought long and hard about taking the hugely controversial step.

London and Dublin hope this would trigger a major response from the Provisional movement on arms and restore confidence in devolved government shattered over allegations of alleged IRA spying at Stormont.

A special Sinn Fein party conference could be called early next year to allow the party’s rank and file to debate any decision to join the policing board.