Orde to meet with DUP
PSNI chief Hugh Orde will meet the Democratic Unionists, today, amid concerns over IRA activity.
Just one week after the attempted abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill, Ian Paisley’s DUP were expected to press the Chief Constable on his claim that the IRA were behind the incident.
The Provisionals denied on Wednesday that their leadership had authorised any such incident.
However, the allegation that the IRA attempted to kidnap Mr Tohill had sparked unionist demands for Sinn Féin’s expulsion from talks at Stormont to revive the Assembly.
David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have threatened to walk out of the review of the Good Friday Agreement next Monday because they are unhappy that the British and Irish governments have failed to immediately take sanctions against Sinn Féin.
The Democratic Union, however, have insisted they will not walk out of the talks, but will instead continue to ignore Sinn Féin requests for a meeting.
The DUP had also indicated it will urge other parties in Northern Ireland to work with it to deliver a form of devolution which prevents Sinn Féin from exercising power.
The party has outlined three models for devolution in proposals it submitted to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
It proposed the setting up of a voluntary coalition involving two or more Assembly parties, which would exclude Sinn Féin.
The party also suggested a Corporate Assembly which would see all 108 MLAs running government departments, taking decisions on the floor of the house and through Stormont committees.
The DUP held out the prospect of Sinn Féin participating in a mandatory coalition, similar to the power-sharing executive which functioned until October 2002, but only in the context of the IRA undergoing acts of completion including total disarmament.
Sinn Féin’s leadership has resisted calls for their expulsion from the talks and has insisted that, despite the current crisis, the DUP and Ulster Unionists will have to engage with them and reach an accommodation.
The party was gathering in Dublin today for the start of its three-day annual Ard Fheis, where its leader Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness were expected to give their assessment of the peace process.
