TRIMBLE SAYS BRITAIN MUST FOLLOW IRISH CRACKDOWN
Trimble says Britian must follow Irish crackdown
by Liam O'Neill and Greg Harkin
DAVID TRIMBLE last night demanded that the British government introduce anti-terrorist laws equal to those planned by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's Government.
After a 90-minute meeting in Dublin with Mr Ahern, Northern Ireland's First Minister welcomed the decision to recall the Dail to pass tough new security measures to deal with the fresh threat posed to peace by the Omagh bombing.
This followed one of the bleakest days in the North's tragic history, when 16 funerals took place to bury the victims of the Omagh massacre.
After the meeting with the Taoiseach Mr Trimble welcomed the new measures, some of which he said were indeed "draconian," as a very positive step. And he issued a strong call to the British government to take immediate steps to bring in "parallel" measures to strengthen the North's anti-terrorist laws. Whatever action was taken must be effective, he stressed.
"They must be prepared to grasp the nettle and bring forward measures to protect the Good Friday Agreement and sustain confidence among the community," he said.
He deplored in particular the fact that the British government had decided earlier this year to remove from the statute books the reserve power to introduce internment in Northern Ireland and called on the Prime Minister and Secretary of State Mo Mowlam to reverse the decision in case it became necessary to have internment in both parts of this country. Mr Trimble, who was accompanied by a number of senior party colleagues, warned that what was at risk was the unique opportunity for political progress created earlier this year and which those who planted the bomb in Omagh wanted to destroy. The Taoiseach described the meeting last night as "friendly and frank."
Eight more victims of the Omagh bomb will be buried in Co Tyrone today as the terrible heartache left by the massacre continues.
Yesterday there were 16 funerals in Ulster - 13 in Tyrone and three in Donegal.
Sixteen coffins carried the remains of a toddler, three boys, five teenagers, four women and three men.
Buncrana in Co. Donegal, Omagh and its satellite villages in the Clogher Valley have been numbed by the sheer scale of what has happened.
Buncrana mourned the loss of three young local boys murdered on a visit to Co Tyrone's main market town.
All of them had died at the hands of cruel bombers who gave a deliberately vague warning to trap them in the full force of the explosion.
Catholics and Protestants from all walks of life, of all ages, slaughtered on a busy shopping afternoon in Omagh - slaughtered by unspeakable evil, an unspeakable evil spoken of at yesterday's funerals by numbed priests, ministers and bishops.
Mr Trimble travelled to Dublin shortly after attending the funerals of the three murdered Buncrana boys.
He made the point that in the 30 years there had been atrocities of a similar character, if not on the same scale as Omagh, and the security response to them had been of a "stop-go" nature. This time the situation was different.
The Good Friday Agreement between all the parties in the North and the two Governments, endorsed by the overwhelming majority of the people North and South, gave them a stronger base to cope with the situation than ever before, he said.
"What we now have to do is to see how the democratic choice exercised as a result of the Agreement through the referendums in both parts of Ireland can be vindicated", he said.
Courtesy of Irish Examiner
by Liam O'Neill and Greg Harkin
DAVID TRIMBLE last night demanded that the British government introduce anti-terrorist laws equal to those planned by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's Government.
After a 90-minute meeting in Dublin with Mr Ahern, Northern Ireland's First Minister welcomed the decision to recall the Dail to pass tough new security measures to deal with the fresh threat posed to peace by the Omagh bombing.
This followed one of the bleakest days in the North's tragic history, when 16 funerals took place to bury the victims of the Omagh massacre.
After the meeting with the Taoiseach Mr Trimble welcomed the new measures, some of which he said were indeed "draconian," as a very positive step. And he issued a strong call to the British government to take immediate steps to bring in "parallel" measures to strengthen the North's anti-terrorist laws. Whatever action was taken must be effective, he stressed.
"They must be prepared to grasp the nettle and bring forward measures to protect the Good Friday Agreement and sustain confidence among the community," he said.
He deplored in particular the fact that the British government had decided earlier this year to remove from the statute books the reserve power to introduce internment in Northern Ireland and called on the Prime Minister and Secretary of State Mo Mowlam to reverse the decision in case it became necessary to have internment in both parts of this country. Mr Trimble, who was accompanied by a number of senior party colleagues, warned that what was at risk was the unique opportunity for political progress created earlier this year and which those who planted the bomb in Omagh wanted to destroy. The Taoiseach described the meeting last night as "friendly and frank."
Eight more victims of the Omagh bomb will be buried in Co Tyrone today as the terrible heartache left by the massacre continues.
Yesterday there were 16 funerals in Ulster - 13 in Tyrone and three in Donegal.
Sixteen coffins carried the remains of a toddler, three boys, five teenagers, four women and three men.
Buncrana in Co. Donegal, Omagh and its satellite villages in the Clogher Valley have been numbed by the sheer scale of what has happened.
Buncrana mourned the loss of three young local boys murdered on a visit to Co Tyrone's main market town.
All of them had died at the hands of cruel bombers who gave a deliberately vague warning to trap them in the full force of the explosion.
Catholics and Protestants from all walks of life, of all ages, slaughtered on a busy shopping afternoon in Omagh - slaughtered by unspeakable evil, an unspeakable evil spoken of at yesterday's funerals by numbed priests, ministers and bishops.
Mr Trimble travelled to Dublin shortly after attending the funerals of the three murdered Buncrana boys.
He made the point that in the 30 years there had been atrocities of a similar character, if not on the same scale as Omagh, and the security response to them had been of a "stop-go" nature. This time the situation was different.
The Good Friday Agreement between all the parties in the North and the two Governments, endorsed by the overwhelming majority of the people North and South, gave them a stronger base to cope with the situation than ever before, he said.
"What we now have to do is to see how the democratic choice exercised as a result of the Agreement through the referendums in both parts of Ireland can be vindicated", he said.
Courtesy of Irish Examiner
Further Information
Publisher: THE EXAMINER
Ref: TEX/095
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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