Trimble call over terrorism

The US attacks have changed the diplomatic climate

The British Government must end the "spurious" distinction between domestic and international terrorism, the Ulster Unionist leader has said.

David Trimble, who resigned as first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly because the IRA have refused to decommission, told Tony Blair that there could be no differences made between terrorist groups.

Mr Trimble was speaking during a special debate in parliament on Thursday after Mr Blair made a statement about the continuing crisis in the war against terrorism.

Mr Trimble said: "Terrorism is terrorism and requires no further qualification, so could I ask you (the prime minister) to reject the spurious distinction that some people seek to draw between international and domestic terrorism."

He said recent events "all show that the Irish republican movement is part of an international terrorist network and that there is still no sign that it is making the changes required by the Belfast Agreement".

David Trimble: Made comments during special sitting of parliament

Mr Trimble said he was thinking of "the arrest of the head of the IRA's engineering department in Colombia while developing similar mortars for the guerrillas, the expedition of Sinn Fein's assembly chief whip to Turkey in support of a variety of Turkish and Islamic terrorist groups, and the appearance on Saturday at the Sinn Fein conference of a notorious Puerto Rican terrorist."

Paramilitary disarmament along with British Army demilitarisation and the future of the institutions have caused a deadlock in the peace process.

Mr Trimble is to lead a motion at the Stormont Assembly on Monday calling for the exclusion of Sinn Fein from government over the absence of disarmament.

If the motion fails to gain cross-community support, Mr Trimble has said he and his ministers will leave office.

This could effectively collapse the political institutions.

'One-sided process'

On Friday, Secretary of State John Reid warned the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association he would declare its ceasefire over if it engaged in further violence.

Mr Trimble told MPs: "We must recognise that the present process has now become a completely one-sided process.

"All the terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland ... have all broken their ceasefires in recent weeks and months.

"And sooner or later the government is going to have to approach dealing with the machinery and resources of IRA and loyalist terrorism with the same determination that it is displaying elsewhere."

Mr Blair replied that although the peace process was "fragile", a way forward had to be found to make the Belfast Agreement work.

He said: "The reason why we have the current impasse in the peace process in Northern Ireland is precisely because it is necessary, if people want to play a part in the government of Northern Ireland, that they demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to peaceful and democratic means.

"I hope you understand that before the peace process began we also had a very serious situation in Northern Ireland where terrorist groups operated and killed people year upon year upon year."