Threats to assembly only fuel blood-lust - Durkan

Unionist threats to topple Northern Ireland’s power-sharing regime will only fuel the blood-lust of sectarian killers, it was claimed tonight.

In a thinly-veiled warning to David Trimble, the nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan insisted collapsing the devolved institutions at Stormont was not the answer.

‘‘Threatening a political vacuum is not the answer to the political violence that threatens us all,’’ he

said.

‘‘Aborting democratically agreed arrangements will only satisfy the sectarian power kicks of paramilitaries.’’

As trade unionists urged politicians to do more to isolate those intent on plunging Northern Ireland into a new round of sectarian shootings, Mr Durkan claimed the Good Friday Agreement’s future was on the line.

Senior members of Mr Trimble’s Ulster Unionist team in the cabinet at Parliament Buildings have voiced deep concerns about remaining in a coalition with Sinn Fein amid suspicions of ongoing IRA activity.

But Mr Durkan, Deputy First Minister in the Stormont government, insisted any strategy for combating the hatred relied on strong political leadership and public confidence in the peace process.

He stressed: ‘‘It does not help when there are those individuals who appear to be unable to pass the brink without teetering on it.’’

Addressing the John Hewitt International Summer School in Carnlough, Co Antrim, he called sectarianism a ‘‘cancer’’ which must be faced down.

Earlier trade unionists held talks with Mr Durkan in a bid to find ways of dealing with the frightening upsurge in paramilitary violence.

With Belfast still reeling from the murder of Catholic teenager Gerard Lawlor by the Ulster Freedom Fighters last week, the city centre has endured two nights of rioting at the hands of loyalist mobs.

A mass anti-sectarianism rally is scheduled for Belfast on Friday after its councillors backed Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Alex Maskey’s earlier suggestion.

After the meeting the Irish Congress of Trades Unions representatives called on all political sides to take a tough stance.

Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, said: ‘‘We certainly feel frustrated in many ways with some politicians.

‘‘Everybody seems to be convinced that they are non-sectarian. If politicians are non-sectarian let them show that leadership out in society.’’

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams also called on Ulster Unionist leaders to use their influence to halt loyalist attacks on Catholics.

Mr Adams, responding to comments from senior Ulster Unionist, Reg Empey, concerning the ‘‘terrible dilemma’’ of sharing power with Sinn Fein, said the real dilemma facing the community was the loyalist killing campaign.

‘‘The Catholic community and other people of goodwill want to know when the killing of Catholics is going to stop,’’ he said.

‘‘They want to know when the UUP is going to join with the other pro-agreement parties to confront sectarianism.’’