Blair vows 'rigorous' tests for Northern Ireland outlaws

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed Wednesday to toughen Britain's enforcement of paramilitary cease-fires in Northern Ireland and to punish violators -- a commitment that failed to soothe either side in the province's fraying Catholic-Protestant government.

It also did not seem to deter those committed to tearing down the province's 1998 peace accord. A bomb claimed by Irish Republican Army dissidents damaged the home of Lord Brookeborough, grandson of a former Protestant prime minister of Northern Ireland, and suspected IRA dissidents tried but failed to hijack the main Dublin-to-Belfast train.

Addressing lawmakers in the final summer session of Parliament, Blair said Wednesday the IRA and outlawed anti-Catholic groups must demonstrate they are "not engaged in any preparations for terrorism."

"It is not enough for people to be on cease-fire and think there is some tolerated level of violence," Blair said.

Blair's statements brought protests from both sides.

Catholic politicians argued Britain was placing too much emphasis on IRA cease-fire violations at a time when most of the violence was coming from outlawed Protestant organizations, whose representatives are excluded from the power-sharing government.

Mainstream Protestant politicians complained Britain had made no commitment to expel Sinn Fein from the coalition if IRA violations continue. They warned that power-sharing -- the central achievement of the peace accord -- faced suspension or collapse within months.

Blair's minister for Northern Ireland, John Reid, said the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party faced the toughest test because it was the only paramilitary-linked party in Northern Ireland's four-party Cabinet.

Reid, who has the power to recommend to Northern Ireland's legislature that it expel Sinn Fein from the administration, said Sinn Fein's involvement in the government "calls for a measure of responsibility and trust. And trust depends on confidence that the transition from violence to democracy continues apace, has not stalled, and will be completed without delay."

Sinn Fein dissatisfaction

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams protested that Britain ought to be focusing solely on attacks on Catholics by Protestant outlaws, chiefly the Ulster Defense Association, whose 1994 cease-fire has already been ruled invalid by Britain.

"The real crisis is the rising sectarianism in our society, and the failure of all leaders to address it. The reality is that people in Belfast are living in fear of attacks from the UDA, not the IRA," Adams said.

The latest Catholic victim of Ulster Defense Association, 19-year-old Gerard Lawlor, was gunned down Monday near his north Belfast home. His parents, Sharon and John Lawlor, said Wednesday they bore no ill will to his killers.

"God forgive them for what they done. There's no point in hating these people," said Sharon Lawlor. "They'll find out one day what it's like for us. We're not their judge at the end of the day, God is."

First Minister David Trimble, the Protestant government leader who has struggled for years to sustain Protestant support for sharing power with Sinn Fein, said the Blair-Reid pledges were too vague.

"It was a 'nearly' statement that got close to saying what needed to be said," said Trimble, whose Ulster Unionist Party -- the province's largest -- is badly divided over his support for the peace accord.

Trimble said he agreed with Sinn Fein that Britain must take harsh action now against the UDA, a 3,000-strong organization that last year announced it no longer supports the 1998 peace deal. One of the accord's provisions allowed more than 200 UDA convicts out of prison; police say some of those parolees are leading attacks on Catholic properties.

Trimble called the UDA's latest murder "a deliberate challenge to the British government."

President Bush issued a statement of support for Blair's message.

"The United States joins with his government and the government of Ireland in holding paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland accountable when there is clear, convincing evidence of their use of violence or preparations for it," Bush said.

"I condemn the recent violence that has marred the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, and I commend those political and civic leaders who have worked to stop it," he said.