Summer riots 'could wreck peace bid'

Rioting at Belfast’s sectarian flashpoints this summer could help destroy efforts to restore the North’s power sharing government by October, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble warned today.

As he prepared to meet loyalist paramilitary representatives in an attempt to maintain calm across the city’s volatile peace lines, Mr Trimble said the next few months were crucial to breaking the deadlock in the peace process.

The Upper Bann MP called on republicans to start planning how the IRA will finally go out of business for good to allow postponed elections to the Stormont Assembly to be held in the autumn.

But he cautioned that “trouble during the summer will impact negatively on that”.

The political process in Belfast has been in crisis ever since the Irish and British governments failed to achieve a breakthrough last month that would allow devolution to be restored.

Even though Dublin and London published their joint declaration setting out plans for a major reduction in troop levels in Northern Ireland and other reforms allowing on-the-run paramilitary prisoners a virtual amnesty, British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted the IRA had not gone far enough on its side of the deal to prove it was ending military operations for good.

Mr Trimble insisted it would be dangerous to let the situation drag on into the loyalist marching season without fresh efforts to break the impasse.

If a breakthrough is to be achieved, then crucial moves have to take place without any further delay, he claimed.

In a direct challenge to the republican movement, the UUP leader said: “They should be spending June organising the moves, the act of completion that they can undertake and put in place in September in order to have a prospect for a resumption of the Assembly in October.”

If the power-sharing regime is to be up and running again by then, it would be exactly 12 months after the institutions collapsed amid allegations of an IRA spy ring at the heart of government.

Mr Trimble pointed out that Northern Secretary Paul Murphy must name the date for new elections by November 15.

He added: “He will want to do something before then. There’s a very clear target.”

Attempts to breathe new life into the process could be jeopardised by any clashes between republican and loyalist mobs.

Mr Trimble was due to meet representatives of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force, and the Ulster Political Research Group which speaks for the Ulster Defence Association.

He praised efforts from within the loyalist community to try to maintain calm and urged republicans to reciprocate.

Mr Trimble warned: “If we find interfaces heated up, people will draw conclusions and republicans could do themselves enormous damage if they don’t do their bit.

“But we need to see the other bit done by loyalists and that’s something I will be reflecting on with loyalists today.”