UUP threatening 'demolition' of the Agreement say's Durkan

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference that the peace process is "in crisis" and, in a vociferous rebuke of unionist politicians, accused them of "a threatened demolition derby of the entire Good Friday Agreement".

Mr Durkan and party colleagues were in Blackpool last night to address delegates to the Labour conference. The message from the SDLP, still regarded by the Labour Party as its sister party in Northern Ireland, was stark in its assessment of the future of the assembly.

He went on to describe those who drafted the Ulster Unionist Council's motion on IRA disbandment as "shameful and inherently sectarian" in their approach.

Mr Durkan added that the UUP's unilateral deadline to withdraw from the executive should the IRA fail to move toward disbandment before January 18 was "more about ensuring that before the elections the UUP dumps government than that of the IRA dumping arms".

The SDLP leader, who is David Trimble's deputy at the Office of First and Deputy First Minister, said that the UUP had been hijacked by anti-agreement elements following the council's motion on September 21.

"It is clear that anti-agreement unionists now have the whip-hand in the UUP. They have risen on the back of a false premise," he said.

"And having promoted a false premise, anti-agreement unionists are now peddling a false promise – that they will renegotiate the Agreement. But they do not say with whom they are going to negotiate. It will not be the SDLP. We will not negotiate the Agreement."

However, a leading Ulster Unionist has today slammed the SDLP leader's speech, and accused Mr Durkan of having a “part-time attitude” to the Agreement.

Speaking from Stormont today Lord Kilclooney said that Mark Durkan “had failed in his commitment to the Agreement by wilfully ignoring the lack of republican movement on decommissioning and disbandment.

The Strangford MLA added: “The UUP fully adhere to the central fundamental tenet of the Good Friday Agreement, namely that power sharing at a local level must be implemented without the threat of violence. Put simply, that threat has not been removed by one of the biggest players, the Provisional IRA."

“It is disingenuous of him to claim that we have not criticised loyalist violence. We have forcefully condemned it. But unlike the SDLP, we are not ambivalent about commitments from republicans which were meant to be fulfilled a long time ago.”

(GMcG)