BBC NEWS, Saturday, 19 January, 2002

SF calls for loyalist clampdown

The government's "tolerance" of loyalist attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland is threatening the peace process, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said.

The party's president made the criticism as the Sinn Fein national executive and key party members met in Navan, County Meath, on Saturday.

It followed a day of union-organised rallies held around Northern Ireland on Friday to protest against the murder of Catholic postal worker Daniel McColgan by loyalist paramilitaries.

"The discussions so far today reflect very accurately the anger about the way

the British Government is handling the loyalist killing campaign"

The Sinn Fein meeting was also held to discuss party grassroots concerns about the response to the IRA's decision to decommission some arms last October as a move to progress the political process.

Mr Adams was critical of the government's lack of movement to clamp down on the loyalists who murdered 20-year-old Mr McColgan as he arrived for work in the loyalist Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey last weekend.

Mr Adams said: "There is a different attitude from the state and a different attitude by the British establishment to loyalist violence than there would be if the violence was coming from republicans.'

"The discussions so far today reflect very accurately the anger about the way the British Government is handling the loyalist killing campaign.

"Why does the British Government have a tolerance of those groups and of their existence and their continuing actions?"

Mr Adams also called on the prime minister to "rein in" security agents, who he claimed were contributing to the violence.

"In my view the reason for this is that the British Government has agents in these groups," he said.

"For almost 30 years they have used these groups as part of their war against republicanism."

The Ulster Defence Association admitted carrying out Mr McColgan's murder.

It also made a series of threats against all Catholic postal workers and against Catholic school staff and teachers working in north Belfast, under the cover name Red Hand Defenders.

In October last year, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid redesignated the UDA as a proscribed organisation when he declared its ceasefire was over following a sustained campaign of attacks on Catholic homes in north Belfast.

The police had also informed him that the UDA had orchestrated much of the rioting in the north of the city since the summer period.

In a BBC interview from the conference, Sinn Fein's north Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly said the government and unionists had failed to acknowledge the significance of the IRA's start to decommissioning.

Mr Kelly said: "It rattled people because it was such a historical step forward, which I don't think was appreciated by the unionist politicians and community.

"This was a gargantuan move forward and I think people are very nervous and worried about it, especially when they see the continuing violence against Catholics and nationalists."

He added that many party members were particularly concerned about what he called the British government's refusal to respond to the IRA move by scaling down its security installations.