Trimble challenges Adams over attacks

Northern First Minister David Trimble has challenged Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to act after accusing the IRA of direct

involvement in the murders of two suspected drug dealers in Northern Ireland.

Mr Trimble cast doubt on republican promises to help eradicate paramilitary attacks in the wake of the most recent assassinations in the province.

Paul Daly was gunned down in Belfast city centre two weeks ago, while Christopher "Cricky" O'Kane was murdered in Derry last month.

Highlighting suspicions of Provisional IRA involvement in the shootings, Mr Trimble issued a direct challenge to the Sinn Fein leadership.

He asked: "What are you doing now about the murders occurring on your own doorstep, apparently done by your colleagues?"

In a scathing rebuke of continued violence by paramilitary organisations, the Ulster Unionist Party said the urgent need for decommissioning of illegal arms was only part of the wider need for the killings to stop.

"I have to say to republicans that you are not delivering the peace that was promised and it's going to be difficult to sustain confidence in a process where you are continuing to welsh on your obligations," said Trimble, who also attacked the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for focusing on violations allegedly involving the state while ignoring those perpetrated by terror gangs.

He added: "A fixation by human rights bodies with alleged state abuses of human rights has left the many victims of paramilitary abuses feeling, in a

sense, like second-class victims.

The new Northern Ireland we envisaged is one without a second class, whether that be victims or otherwise."