Durkan warns UUP not to walk out on executive

In a speech marking the 80th anniversary of the death Michael Collins, SDLP leader Mark Durkan has warned unionists not to carry out their threat to pull the institutions down in the autumn, arguing that it would provide paramilitary groups with a de facto veto over democracy.

In a wide-ranging speech delivered in Cork yesterday, Mr Durkan appealed directly to the UUP, saying: "We cannot afford the threat to the institutions and wider Agreement that comes from the pro-Agreement parties themselves. To offer this threat as a response to actual or possible paramilitary activity only confers on the paramilitaries a veto over democratic politics.

"A political vacuum is not the answer to political violence and sectarianism. Convulsing the democratic political process punishes only the public, not the paramilitaries."

He also pointed to the "frustrations and suspicions" of recent times, saying that it would be easy to forget the possible gains that the agreement can yet yield.

Last month, David Trimble warned that if the rising tide of paramilitarism was not met by a firm government response, then Northern Ireland could be "pushed into a political abyss".

On July 16, in a statement sanctioned by UUP headquarters, North Belfast assembly member Fred Cobain warned that direct rule from Westminster could be implemented again "unless republicans fulfil their commitments under the Belfast Agreement".

According to Mr Cobain, there would be "no assembly to elect politicians to in the spring of 2003, should the IRA still be wedded to violence".

He added: "Unless there is a clear commitment from Sinn Fein to the Agreement there will not be an Assembly next year; it will not be around for the elections because David Trimble and the party have made a commitment – if we do not see moves by republicans on decommissioning and disbandment of the paramilitaries, action will be taken."

In his speech yesterday, Mr Durkan conceded that the "stalls, stand-offs and stunts that have marred the implementation of the agreement" had led to a loss of confidence in the institutions.

However, he said that any dissolution of optimism in the Agreement should be measured against the potential it can still provide. He called on the electorate of the island – which voted for the agreement in a dual referendum north and south of the border in 1998 – to remember the "value they invested in it when they voted for it".

The Deputy First Minister then urged Sinn Fein, which has refused to endorse the new policing service, to "grasp the nettle" and take their seats on the Policing Board. He also called for the establishment of a human rights charter which also impacts on policing and judicial matters.

(GMcG)