North in Crisis: UUP says it had ‘to walk’
UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said trust in Sinn Féin had been shattered by the revelations that the Provisional IRA still exists.
“Without trust there is nothing,” Mr Nesbitt said.
However, Sinn Féin accused the UUP of cynical politicking and claimed the party was trying to contrive a crisis to gain an electoral edge over the DUP ahead of next year’s Assembly poll.
The UUP decision comes after the PSNI said structures of the PIRA are still operating, and some of its members were involved in the murder of Belfast father-of-nine Kevin McGuigan two weeks ago.
It is almost 20 years since the Provisional IRA’s last ceasefire and a decade on from the supposed decommissioning of its weapons.
The UUP’s one minister in an administration made up of 13 ministers and two junior ministers will resign next week if Mr Nesbitt’s recommendation is supported by the party’s ruling executive on Saturday — an endorsement that is widely expected.
An Ulster Unionist exit from the executive would be highly symbolic given that the party was one of the architects of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that paved the way for nationalists and unionists to share power. The accord did not envisage an assembly with an official opposition.
Mr Nesbitt claimed Sinn Féin’s continual denials about the IRA had punctured a hole in the fabric of the agreement. “We are in a bad place, but this can be fixed,” he said.
“But the IRA need to go away and stop terrorising their own communities. So do the UDA, and UVF and Red Hand Commando and the rest. And I wouldn’t argue if they took down their paramilitary flags on the way out.
“Our vision remains that of a Northern Ireland that is totally peaceful and where everyone prospers — republicans, nationalists and unionists equally,” he said.
Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness accused the UUP of playing party politics.
He said on Twitter: “This decision by the UUP is more about inter-Unionist rivalry than their & others feigned concern about our unequivocal commitment to Peace.” The DUP accused the UUP of hypocrisy, noting that the party sat in an executive with Sinn Féin before the IRA had decommissioned.
“The UUP record of government is one of crisis and collapse,” said DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds.
“The UUP previously sat in government with Sinn Féin before decommissioning and whenever the PIRA was armed and active. For the UUP to try and rewrite history is downright hypocritical and misleading.”
Mr Dodds said if anyone should be excluded from the executive it should be Sinn Féin, not unionists, claiming “profound questions” had been raised about the republican party’s fitness for government.
The DUP is set to meet Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers to discuss the situation today and is seeking an “urgent meeting” with British prime minister David Cameron.
“Our message is clear: the duty of every responsible politician is to ensure that those who are in breach of their commitments to exclusively democratic and peaceful methods are the ones who are punished,” added Mr Dodds.
“It is republicans who are responsible for the current situation and it is on republicans that the pressure should be maintained,” he said.
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