Two arrested in North murder probe

POLICE investigating the murder of workman David Caldwell at a Territorial Army camp in Derry made two more arrests in the area yesterday.

The arrests come as police continue to question two men and a woman detained yesterday after a booby-trapped lunchbox exploded, killing Mr Caldwell in a temporary building at Caw Camp.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid described the murder of the civilian worker as a “brutal and cowardly act”.

Dr Reid said violence in Northern Ireland is escalating because extreme elements of republicanism and loyalism wish to destroy the peace process.

“There is a myth going around that this violence is only the result of the peace process, as if it never happened before,” he said.

“The reality is that there is a lot less violence than there was 10 years ago but it is escalating at present because those extremes on both sides desperately want to kill the peace process and put themselves back centre-stage in dominating the politics by the gun.”

“All I can say is if you look, for instance, at the dissident republicans, there are significant numbers of their leaders in jail, there are others facing more charges and there are continuing arrests. We are doing what we can,” he said.

“And I can’t promise the people of Northern Ireland that these people, in their brutal and cowardly fanaticism, will not attempt to or ever get through again. That would be dishonest of me. I can promise them I will do everything possible and so will the police service and the security services.

“But the people who really have to show the resolution and the endurance, and to recognise by giving up the peace process they meet the aims and objectives of the gunmen, are the ordinary people of Northern Ireland themselves who will be taking to the streets today in the rally that is being held,” he added.

As father-of-four Mr Caldwell’s partner pleaded for no retaliation, police chiefs hit out at the bombers for plunging new depths in targeting civilians.

Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid said: “This isn’t an army base, this is a TA centre.

“In the last number of months the only people who have been working here have been contractors.”

Detectives probing the murder made the arrests after carrying out searches in the Derry and Strabane areas. Forensics experts combed the base, which is used mainly by ambulance and medical units, for clues to when the device was left.

DissidentRogue republican paramilitaries plotting to wreck the peace process have mounted a series of bomb attacks on army bases in and around Derry.

Earlier this year another civilian worker was seriously injured when a similar device detonated at the nearby Magilligan base. Mr Kinkaid said it was too soon to say when the bomb was planted and whether the attack involved the Real IRA or the Continuity IRA.

But the explosion is thought to be the first dissident attack to have caused a death since the 1998 Omagh atrocity when the Real IRA murdered 29 people. Mr Caldwell had served in the Ulster Defence Regiment but left in the mid 1980s.

His partner said his family were devastated and appealed for no retaliation for his death.

Mavis McFaul said: “I want no revenge for Davy’s death because he wouldn’t want it. I have a daughter and if they could see the heartbroken families they leave behind they wouldn’t do this.”