Loyalists 'killing spree' unacceptable, warns Adams

SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams yesterday denounced as unacceptable the British Government's focus on the IRA ceasefire when loyalists have embarked on a "killing spree".

Mr Adams, commenting ahead of the Prime Minister’s statement on the state of the IRA ceasefire, accused Tony Blair of pandering to unionists.

“The reality is that Catholics are being killed in Belfast. There is a planned, organised campaign by loyalists against Catholics.

“The unionists’ response to this is to seek the exclusion of Sinn Féin from our rightful place on the executive and today the British Prime Minister is making remarks aimed at republicans at the behest of the Ulster Unionist Party and the securocrats within their own system.

“It is disgraceful, it is totally unacceptable.

“For the life of me I don’t accept for one moment that the police service and British intelligence agencies didn’t have advanced notice that the Ulster Defence Association was about to go on a killing spree.”

Earlier Mr Adams held talks with Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid to discuss the deteriorating political and security situation in the province after the killing of 19-year-old Catholic father-of-one Gerard Lawlor by loyalists in North Belfast.

Mr Adams rounded on First Minister David Trimble accusing him of failing to defend the Good Friday agreement.

“What is required is confidence building measures by pro-Agreement parties, by the Executive, led by the First Minister, which makes it clear that sectarianism is wrong and which upholds the primacy of the political institutions as the place to sort out these problems,” he said.

He warned that republican confidence in the agreement was waning because of the focus on the IRA and the loyalist campaign of violence.

“Today’s events at Westminster, while totally unacceptable, are a surreal side-show because those living in the interface areas will find it crazy that the Prime Minister is zeroing in on republicans when they are victims of a loyalist campaign.”

Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan warned the Government not to create benchmarks which other parties could use for different purposes in the future, when it makes its statement in the House of Commons .

The leader of the nationalist SDLP said it was important to inject some reality into the current political situation in the province.

“The reality is nobody is expecting any moves to exclusion in the statements in the House of Commons tomorrow,” he said.

“I do not believe that the UUP are expecting, or directly seeking, any moves to exclusion. I do not believe that Sinn Féin actually believe there is going to be any such move despite the fact that some of their statements are raising fears in that particular direction. And nor should there be any moves to exclusion today.

“I would hope that the emphasis from the British government will be on underpinning the good work of the institutions and the fact that there is nothing inherently unstable or unworkable in the institutions themselves.”