SDLP to seek truth and reconciliation commission for the North

The SDLP has announced its intention to propose the establishment of a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission for the North.

Speaking at the Parnell Summer School in Co Wicklow, party chairman Alex Atwood said the British state and both loyalist and republican paramilitaries should come clean about their past activities.

He said many questions still remain about atrocities carried out by both sides in the Troubles and possible official collusion in these atrocities.

Mr Atwood also criticised Sinn Féin's continued refusal to endorse the PSNI and said the British government's cancellation of the North's elections had damaged democracy and made young people suspicious about politics.

Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin also told the summer school today that the British government was at a crossroads in its dealings with the North.

He said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had a simple choice between preventing a political vacuum by setting a date for elections or denying people their democratic right to vote.

He said everybody had made mistakes and republicans may need to be patient until a unionist leadership emerged that would embrace change.