Violence erupts in Ulster

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JAN. 12. Violence erupted in Northern Ireland on Thursday, barely two days after Johnny ``Mad Dog'' Adair, one of the most dreaded loyalist terrorists, had his application for release from jail turned down by a review commission at the intervention of the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr. Peter Mandelson. A bomb exploded at the offices of the nationalist party SDLP in north Belfast, and though nobody was injured, the attack was widely seen as a ``retaliation'' by Adair's paramilitary group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), against the commission's verdict and more attacks are not ruled out.

The SDLP was quick to blame Adair's men but maintained that it would continue to oppose his release. Mr. Alban Maginness, a leading SDLP member of Northern Ireland Assembly, suggested that he might have been the target of attack for his outspoken opposition to Adair's tactics. Declaring that he would not be ``intimidated'', he said: ``It is the price that democracy pays when we have a paramilitary leader who exercises such an evil influence over a section of our community.''

A UFF leader said he was not aware who could have been behind the attack and recalled that both he and Adair had already told their supporters to remain calm.

The explosion, which damaged parts of the building and trapped four members of a scout group who happened to be there, was condemned by all political parties in the province, including the Sinn Fein. On Tuesday, soon after the review commission's verdict, security forces had warned that the paramilitary elements loyal to Adair and disillusioned with the Good Friday agreement were likely to provoke violence in a bid to derail the peace process.

Thursday's bomb attack confirmed fears of fresh violence though officially there was an attempt to play down the incident. An official spokesperson said from Belfast on the phone that it would be premature to read a pattern in this. ``There is no red light yet'', she said while acknowledging that clearly this sort of incidents did not help the peace process.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr. David Trimble, held talks with his party leaders today on how to break the deadlock over arms decommissioning by the IRA. Mr. Trimble is under pressure from party hardliners to get the Sinn Fein to start the process of decommissioning or pull out of the ruling coalition in which the Sinn Fein is a partner.

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Section  : International
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