Unionists get tough over alleged IRA activity in Colombia

A host of key players within the Ulster Unionist Party have launched a scathing attack on the British Prime Minister Tony Blair to act over recent allegations of IRA activity in Colombia.

In a document shown to the BBC, a security assessment revealed senior IRA leaders were aware that members of the organisation were using Colombia as a testing ground for new weapons.

Early this morning party leader David Trimble said he was not surprised by the new.

"There is no doubt that there are people in the Republican movement who have been guilty of breaches of the ceasefire,” he said.

“The Prime Minister has got to create confidence in the community in Northern Ireland that the law will be observed and will be enforced, and when republicans are found to be behaving in a way that is contrary to their undertakings, that he will act.”

The pressure grew further this afternoon when hard-line Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside said he was calling on his party executive, which meets on Saturday, to set a 1 July deadline for a withdrawal from the executive if action is not taken against Sinn Féin.

“This cannot go on any longer,” Mr Burnside said, “the IRA are in breach of their ceasefire.”

Meanwhile veteran Ulster Unionist Sam Foster has called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to take action to prevent a "catastrophic loss of confidence" in the peace process.

“All this has left the peace process in turmoil. Republican paramilitaries are not honouring the words spoken by leaders and it is high time the Government displayed strong leadership by imposing sanctions against Sinn Fein.

“Evidence against the IRA and Sinn Fein has been steadily mounting over the past weeks and months. The time has come for them to tell the waiting world that the war is over. Only by doing this will we have any hope of making progress.”

Speaking before the British Irish Council meeting in Jersey today, Mr Blair said there could be no acceptable level of paramilitary violence and that Northern Ireland was in a process of transition.

``We are trying to move Northern Ireland away from paramilitary activity of any kind and it is not acceptable to have targeting, the procurement of weapons and other paramilitary activity.``

“They have to leave behind paramilitary activity and embrace democracy fully. I think all of us knew this was a process and not an event. It wouldn’t happen when we signed the Good Friday Agreement – it had to happen over time.”

(AMcE)