Ulster Unionists tonight urged the Northern Secretary, Dr. Mo Mowlam not to take any sanctions against Sinn Féin, if she decided that the IRA had broken its ceasefire. Speaking after a Unionist meeting with Dr. Mowlam at Stormont, the party's security spokesman Ken Maginnis called on the British Government to put Sinn Féin's record under the spotlight at next month's review of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr. Maginnis said that the IRA wanted to abandon the Agreement, but the one thing society did not want was for terrorists and terrorist-linked parties to be allowed to walk away from the peace process.
Today's meeting was part of Dr. Mowlam’s consultation process with the Northern political parties before next month’s review. These discussions are taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty over the state of the IRA ceasefire and follow suspected Republican involvement in the murder of Belfast man Charles Bennett and in a plot to smuggle guns from the United States. Dr. Mowlam has already said that it could be the beginning of next week before she will be ready to give her assessment of the state of the ceasefire.
Yesterday, the Ulster Unionist assembly member, Danny Kennedy met the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. Mr. Kennedy said that the Chief Constable had confirmed that there was strong Republican involvement in the murder of Charles Bennett and that it would call the IRA ceasefire into question However, Sinn Féin's Chief Negotiator, Martin McGuinness, insisted, after yesterday's talks with Dr. Mowlam that, in his view, the IRA ceasefire was intact and Sinn Féin should not be sanctioned in any way if she decided the paramilitary group had broken it.
