SDLP LEADER URGES NO CALLS FOR RESIGNATION
SDLP leader urges no calls for resignations
SDLP leader Mark Durkan last night called for restraint as the Northern Ireland Policing Board edged towards agreement on the Omagh bomb atrocity.
Mark Durkan in Washington, appealed to everyone on the Police Board to focus on the future investigation of the Omagh bombing and not on demanding the resignations of either the chief constable or the ombudsman.
Mr Durkan, who is in the US capital along with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble as leaders of the Northern Ireland Executive, told the National Press Club "If we reduce this to a personnel question in terms of either the chief constable's tenure or the police ombudsman's tenure, I think we miss the point.
"We need to make sure that we are trying to answer the questions and reassure the doubts and anxieties of the Omagh relatives in particular and the public more widely, given the failure to bring people to justice for that terrible atrocity.
"In particular, the focus has to be on the quality of the investigation in the future I think that is where the Omagh relatives are looking for confidence.
"If we try to lash out in other ways at either the ombudsman or the chief constable, I don't think we will be doing full service to the Omagh relatives."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan last night called for restraint as the Northern Ireland Policing Board edged towards agreement on the Omagh bomb atrocity.
Mark Durkan in Washington, appealed to everyone on the Police Board to focus on the future investigation of the Omagh bombing and not on demanding the resignations of either the chief constable or the ombudsman.
Mr Durkan, who is in the US capital along with Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble as leaders of the Northern Ireland Executive, told the National Press Club "If we reduce this to a personnel question in terms of either the chief constable's tenure or the police ombudsman's tenure, I think we miss the point.
"We need to make sure that we are trying to answer the questions and reassure the doubts and anxieties of the Omagh relatives in particular and the public more widely, given the failure to bring people to justice for that terrible atrocity.
"In particular, the focus has to be on the quality of the investigation in the future I think that is where the Omagh relatives are looking for confidence.
"If we try to lash out in other ways at either the ombudsman or the chief constable, I don't think we will be doing full service to the Omagh relatives."
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0952
Published Date: 07-Feb-02
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