Protestant hard-liners vow to destroy N. Ireland peace pact

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Protestant die-hards launched their campaign Tuesday for parliamentary elections with a vow to block a new power-sharing deal with Catholics, the cornerstone of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace agreement.

"Unless we destroy the agreement, we will be destroyed forever," Democratic Unionist leader the Rev. Ian Paisley, 77, said at a party rally. He received a standing ovation.

Polls show that hard-line groups on each side -- Paisley's party and the Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein -- are gaining popularity, and they are unlikely to cooperate in reviving a power-sharing administration.

Moderate Protestants, including Ulster Unionist Party chief David Trimble, have argued that negotiations are the only way to eliminate the IRA threat to Northern Ireland, but Paisley insists IRA members be jailed or killed.

Britain and the neighboring Republic of Ireland have not even decided whether to let the May 29 vote for the moribund 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly go ahead. They want the IRA to commit more fully to disarmament and ending criminal activities.

The governments have spent several weeks negotiating with Sinn Fein, but so far have rejected proposed IRA pledges on those issues as too vague.

A 12-member, four-party Cabinet led by Trimble gained power in December 1999, but suffered a series of breakdowns and has been on ice since October, when police uncovered evidence of an IRA spy ring inside government circles.

Paisley denounced Trimble, his chief Protestant rival, for pursuing the 1998 Good Friday Accord's plans for a broad Catholic-Protestant administration involving Sinn Fein.

The original 1998 vote made the moderate Social Democratic and Labor Party the stronger Catholic party, but Trimble managed only a razor-thin hold on the Protestant side of the house, with 30 seats to Paisley's 28.

Elections in 2001 and 2002 for local councils and British parliamentary seats showed a surge in support for Paisley's Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein.

Negotiators from Britain and Ireland believe Trimble could work with Sinn Fein only if the IRA demonstrated, in word and deed, it never will resume its campaign to reunite Northern Ireland with the republic.

But IRA supporters, who say the group's 1997 cease-fire ought to be sufficient, have resisted further commitments before an election. They cite the prospect of Paisley beating Trimble as one reason why.

In his election address, Paisley denounced "the IRA-Sinn Fein liars, the cowards, the murderers, the killers of hundreds of mothers, fathers, children and unborn babies, as well as men and women serving in the Crown forces."

Paisley founded a virulently anti-Catholic sect, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, in 1951 and still preaches every weekend.

He rose to political prominence in the late 1960s, leading demonstrations against Catholic civil rights protesters, and served a six-week jail term. He has been a member of British Parliament since 1970 and the European Parliament since 1979, recording the highest share of votes across Northern Ireland at each election.