The RUC have confirmed that the petrol bombing of the home of an elderly couple was a sectarian attack. The Catholic couple who have lived on the City's mainly Protestant Waterside for over twenty years have vowed not to give in to intimidation. The attack came at a time of increasing violence and fear and a little over a week after the UVF threatened to retaliate against " the general nationalist population" if the IRA killed any member of the security forces.
An inquest into the suicide last July of Sandra Carlisle was told that the Belfast woman took her own life two years after she was intimidated out of her home in Carryduff, on the southern outskirts of the city. Ms Carlisle had attemped suicide twice before, the first time only days after she was forced out by having petrol bombs thrown at her house. Ms Carlisle, a Protestant, was believed to have displeased the local UDA for having had a platonic friendship with a Catholic neighbour.
The IRA launched a rocket attack on a two vehicle RUC patrol in the Templemore area of Derry on Tuesday night. No-one was injured in this, the first attack on the security forces by the IRA in Derry since the ceasefire broke last February.
The attack has provoked a RUC clampdown which many believe is more punitive than motivated by security concerns. The RUC waited almost twenty four hours before sealing off the Templemore Road and the Slievemore Roundabout. In so doing they denied motorists access to the mostly nationalist Meadows and College Glen estates. People were, however, allowed to use the road to leave the area. The number of British Army foot patrols in the city has increased since the attack.
Following its renewed offensive the IRA has "reaffirmed its commitment to republican objectives". In a statement published in this week's An Phoblacht / Republican News the IRA said " Our primary objective remains the unification of our country. We reiterate also our commitment to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Ireland." The statement went on to say that it was with reluctance that the organisation had announced an end to the ceasefire last February. Placing the blame for the breakdown of the Peace Process firmly at the feet of John Major for setting unrealistic preconditions on Sinn Fein's entry to talks, the IRA said that it had no faith in the Tory government. " The British Government has demonstrated that it is firmly opposed to the development of the required process necessary to secure a lasting settlement and is committed to underpinning the unionist agenda." Some commentators have expressed fears that the statement could be followed by an escalation of violence. In an interview in yesterday's Dublin based Sunday Tribune, a republican supporter was reported as implying that it is now the IRA's turn to look for preconditions. " We know now a ceasefire on its own isn't enough" he was reported saying.
The failure of the SDLP and Sinn Fein to reach agreement on an electoral pact was deliberately orchestrated by the SDLP, according to a report in yesterday's Sunday Tribune. The article by the paper's Northern editor, Ed Moloney, reports SDLP sources as saying that the party deliberately set out "up to a month ago" to scupper any chances of the two parties sharing out seats at the next Westminster election. "An ad hoc meeting of senior figures, including the party's four M.P.s , John Hume, Seamus Mallon, Joe Hendron and Eddie McGrady, was convened before Christmas and decided to make Sinn Fein an offer it couldn't accept." the article said. The offer of an electoral pact had as preconditions a renewed IRA ceasefire (not surprisingly) and very surprisingly that Sinn Fein drop its policy of abstentionism from Westminster. " there was no way Adams could deliver on that and we knew it" the paper reported one source as saying. For Adams to deliver this would require the IRA to hold an Army Convention and for Sinn Fein to change its constitution, a very unlikely scenario in the present climate. The article said that the reason for the SDLP's hardline position was Hume's fear that the " security situation would deteriorate so badly his party would be seriously compromised". Ironically this move could have serious implications for the Peace Process as it will only serve to solidify the disenfranchisement of republican supporters.
Over two hundred people today picketed the offices of German airline Lufthansa on Fifth Avenue New York. The picket was in protest at the German governments planned extradition of six months pregnant Irish political prisoner Roisin McaAliskey. Roisin McAliskey is being held in prison in Belmarsh in England in conditions which have drawn criticism from many quarters. She suffers from asthma and has been losing weight. Medical facilities available to her have been described as inadequate. She has repeatedly been denied bail and is being kept locked in a cell on her own where it would take guards twenty minutes to get to her if she pressed the panick button because of an asthma attack.
Robert Saulters, the new Grand Master of the Orange Lodge has attended Mass in Harryville in defiance of the sectarian loyalist picket of Our Lady's Catholic church. Mr Saulters however reiterated the Orange Order's "right" to March through the nationalist village of Dunloy 12 miles away. The Loyalist picketers are citing the banning of Orange marches through Dunloy as the reason for their picket.
The British Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew has said today that he would not bar the fringe loyalist UDP and PUP from all party talks as he did not consider that the recent car bomb attacks on Republicans in Belfast and Derry constituted a breach of the ceasefire declared 27 months ago by the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC). The CLMC is the umbrella organisation of the UDA and UVF loyalist paramilitary groups who are represented by theUDP and PUP respectively.