Trimble and hardliners deadlocked

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and his party critics remained bitterly divided tonight as efforts to find common ground over power sharing with Sinn Fein failed.

As Mr Trimble prepared for a potentially explosive meeting of the UUP’s 860-member ruling council tomorrow, there were signals that hardliners would try to force him to agree to imposing sanctions on Sinn Fein amid concern about ongoing IRA activity.

Hardliners led by Ulster Unionist MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside were expected to propose the UUP introduce a series of “graduated sanctions” against Sinn Fein.

As a meeting between Mr Trimble and his critics broke up in Hillsborough, Co Down without agreement on a compromise motion, South Antrim MP David Burnside told PA News the party could not afford a “do nothing” policy.

“What is required is a series of phased sanctions against the republican movement because you cannot have Sinn Fein/IRA ministers in government while their colleagues continue to be involved in domestic and international terrorism.

“What we have to come up with is something that doesn’t smash Stormont but which puts pressure on Sinn Fein/IRA and, I have to say, puts pressure on (Mark Durkan’s moderate nationalist) SDLP to look at alternatives.

“A do nothing policy is not an option and unfortunately it appears that a do nothing policy is the alternative we are being offered.”

Ulster Unionist confidence in the peace process has been dented by a succession of allegations following the arrest of three Irish republicans in Colombia last August on suspicion of training left wing rebels.

The IRA has been accused of and has denied breaking into the top-security Castlereagh Police Station in March and of fuelling much of the street violence this summer in sectarian flashpoint areas of Belfast.

Mr Trimble, who was preparing to set out his case along with Jeffrey Donaldson on separate television interviews tonight, has been cautioning his critics not to come up with proposals which could isolate the party from public opinion in Britain and abroad.

UUP sources believe his critics may propose a withdrawal of UUP ministers from participation in meetings with their Irish Government counterparts in the North South Ministerial Council and cross-border implementation bodies through the Good Friday Agreement.

This could be followed by the withdrawal of ministers from the Executive.

A Stormont source observed: “David is between a rock and a hard place.

“He could go for a ‘back me or sack me’ approach to the meeting but if he comes out winning by a slight margin, he will be mortally wounded.

“If he bends on sanctions, he will be a prisoner to the Donaldson-Burnside wing of the party.

“I think he has underestimated the crisis in this party. With the Assembly elections approaching and the crisis of confidence in the Agreement among the unionist electorate, he has to get to grips with it pretty quick.”

Mr Trimble has been stressing the importance of the appointment of an independent ceasefire monitor as a safeguard against any abuses of the peace process.

“You have got to have a situation where people are able to say: ‘Ah. These paramilitaries are at fault’. That is the crucial thing about the ceasefire monitor,” the First Minister argued.

“I actually think that the threat of having that there, having a situation where paramilitaries know things aren’t going to be brushed under the carpet, that there is not going to be a cover up, will itself be a powerful discipline.”