Trimble criticised over UUP talks walkout

David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party has been fiercely criticised for walking out of yesterday's multi-party talks at Stormont.

Mr Trimble led his team out of discussions after a leaked Irish Government document revealed alleged IRA activity despite being on ceasefire.

Following his party's walkout, Mr Trimble said: “The republican movement is in continuous breach of its ceasefire. We are told in an Irish government document that it continues to recruit, target and acquire weapons. This document was quoting an assessment from the British government.

“That being the case, I raised the issue at the outset of the talks. If we look back at what the British government said last year about events that would be considered breaches of a ceasefire, leading to exclusion, they specifically referred to gathering intelligence and acquiring weapons. If those were the grounds then, there are even stronger grounds now."

Mr Trimble said he was now awaiting a formal response to the information from the British and Irish governments.

While Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen said the papers where left behind by an official after Wednesday's meeting of the British Irish Inter-governmental Conference, he said the contents were not Irish government policy.

Secretary of State Paul Murphy said Mr Trimble's decision to walk from yesterday's talks was "regrettable" and said they once again underlined "the lack of trust between parties and the gravity of the situation we face".

SDLP leader Mark Durkan was also highly critical of Mr Trimble's move, saying: "You deal with serious issues by sitting around the table and confronting them. You do not do that by walking out of talks. Perhaps, after Christmas, we will see three wiser men than we saw today."

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams described yesterday's move as another instalment of "serial walk-out" and said that it was his view that the IRA presented no threat to the peace process despite what was supposedly in the leaked documents.

"It is clear the threat to the process comes from violent unionism," he added.

The UUP was later followed out of the talks by UK Unionist Party leader Robert McCartney and the Progressive Unionist Party as a result of the information within the leaked documents.

However, despite the walkout talks involving all the other pro-Agreement parties reconvened shortly afterwards.

(MB)