Trimble told to act against Sinn Fein

Unionists must move together this week to remove Sinn Fein from the government of Northern Ireland if Prime Minister Tony Blair is unwilling to do so, it was claimed tonight.

With Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid due to give the British government’s assessment of the IRA ceasefire tomorrow, Stormont minister Nigel Dodds urged Ulster Unionists not to wait until the autumn to take action against Sinn Fein.

‘‘We should not wait until September so David Trimble can have his summer holidays,’’ the Democratic Unionist MP for North Belfast argued.

‘‘If there is a compelling case to have Sinn Fein/IRA put out of office - and there is - then it should be done as soon as possible and be done on Thursday if the Ulster Unionists will join us.

‘‘David Trimble was the man who put Sinn Fein/IRA in government. He is the one who sustains them along with the (nationalist) SDLP.

‘‘If Tony Blair is not going to stick to his pledges, then clearly the onus is on David Trimble and the UUP to act with us and not try to shift the blame or spotlight on the prime minister.’’

Mr Dodds was commenting as Dr Reid and his officials continued to draft tomorrow’s House of Commons statement which the prime minister promised earlier this month in response to unionist concerns about the IRA.

Prime minister Tony Blair was also expected to be asked during Question Time tomorrow about his view of Provisional IRA activities.

Ulster Unionists pressed for an assessment of the ceasefire in the wake of concerns about the terror group’s activities in Colombia, the break-in in March at the top security Castlereagh police station and street clashes during the summer in Belfast.

Sources in Belfast, London and Dublin tonight expected the Government to warn the IRA about the consequences of breaking ceasefire in the future.

‘‘A line will be drawn on what has happened in the past,’’ a Government source said.

‘‘However, they will be told in no uncertain terms about what will happen in the future if they continue to engage in paramilitary activity.’’

Unionists were not optimistic about the statement.

Ulster Unionist president the Rev Martin Smyth warned that only ‘‘real action’’ against Sinn Fein would satisfy him and his colleagues.

‘‘Mere words will be insufficient as the Government’s words have been seen to be empty on too many previous occasions,’’ the South Belfast MP said.

After a meeting with Dr Reid, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said it was wrong for the Government to focus on the IRA ceasefire when loyalist paramiliatries had embarked on a ‘‘killing spree’’.

In a reference to the gunning down on Sunday of 19-year-old father-of-one Gerard Lawlor by the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters, Mr Adams argued: ‘‘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 Fein from our rightful place on the executive and tomorrow 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’’.

Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan also warned the Government not to create benchmarks which other parties could use for different purposes in the future.

‘‘Some people in this process have a tactic which seems to revolve around starring in their own stand-off and then other people manage to star in that stand off as well, and that is some of what we are seeing in the rhetoric and the hype of the last few days.

‘‘Will the Ulster Unionists use this tactic in the future? They might well do and that is one of the reasons why I think the governments have to be careful about the sort of terms they use tomorrow in case they use terms that are then turned into benchmarks by somebody else for other purposes in the future.’’