Durkan: US losing patience with SF and DUP

Americans are losing patience with Sinn Féin and unionist politicians over the deadlock on devolution, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan said tonight.

He made the claim as he prepared for a meeting in Washington with United States President George W Bush’s adviser on Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss.

Mr Durkan said people in the United States were “fed up and let down” by the failure of unionists to work the Good Friday Agreement and the failure of all paramilitaries to end their activity.

On the eve of St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the White House, the Foyle Assembly member said: “It is not surprising then, that the focus of this St Patrick’s Day has been on the bit of the Agreement that is working – the policing arrangements.

“Despite the DUP trying to wreck policing and Sinn Féin trying to duck it, the SDLP is getting in there and delivering the Patten Reforms.”

The SDLP is the only nationalist party in Northern Ireland to have asked its supporters to join the police and to participate in policing structures.

Members of the party who have served on local policing boards have been threatened over the past year by republicans.

The bulk of the threats have been blamed on hard line groups such as the Real IRA, but the Provisional IRA has also been accused.

Sinn Féin has refused to endorse the new policing arrangements, insisting they fall considerably short of the reforms advocated by a commission chaired by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten.

The party today has placed an advertisement in the New York Times explaining why it felt policing reforms did not go far enough.

Mr Durkan tonight said it was also apparent during meetings in the US that Americans wanted the Government to publish the report by retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory on four controversial killings in Northern Ireland and to hold inquiries into each case.

The Government confirmed on Monday that the Cory report into the murders of solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, Portadown Catholic Robert Hammill and Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright would be released at the end of the month.

The families had taken the British government to court in an attempt to force them to publish.

They also criticised them for failing to match the swift response of the Irish Government to the report it received from Judge Cory on two other controversial killings affecting its jurisdiction.

The Irish Government ordered an inquiry into one of the cases referred by them to Judge Cory on allegations that members of the police in the Republic colluded in the double murder by the IRA of senior policemen Bob Buchanan and Harry Breen.

Mr Durkan tonight said the publication and implementation of Judge Cory’s recommendations were “essential to establish the truth about collusion (between members of the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries)”.

The SDLP leader said it was also important that all victims and survivors during Northern Ireland’s troubles were given the truth and he revealed that his party was pressing for the establishment of a Victims’ Forum to help them design a truth and remembrance process.

He added: “There are also countless murders throughout the north of Ireland which have never been properly investigated.

“The Police Ombudsman’s report into Sean Brown’s murder is but one of many. As a first step, the families concerned should be allowed to see the police files. That allows them to decide if they want to take matters further.

“If they do, their cases should be independently investigated, for example by retired police offices from outside the north of Ireland. That will give the families increased confidence that the truth will be uncovered.

“It will also allow the PSNI to get on with its priorities – protecting us all against crime today and in the future.”