UK ultimatum to NI paramilitaries July 24, 2002 Posted: 11:53 AM EDT (1553 GMT) Trimble has threatened to resign unless action is taken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LONDON, England -- Northern Ireland's rival paramilitaries have been warned to reject violence and adhere to cease-fire agreements laid down in the Good Friday peace deal. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in the House of Commons, warned there would also be closer scrutiny of alleged breaches to the cease-fires. His statement comes against a backdrop of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland which has led Catholics and Protestants to allege each side is breaking the cease-fire agreements. In turn that could threaten the future of the peace deal and the devolved political assembly. Should a paramilitary group with links to a party in the Northern Ireland assembly be judged to have broken its cease-fire then the political party can be banned from the assembly. In his speech Blair ruled out banning Sinn Fein because of alleged IRA breaches. Blair said: "It is not enough for people to be on cease-fire and think there is some tolerated level of violence. EXTRA INFORMATION In depth: Conflict and hope in Northern Ireland --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full text: IRA apology [good] "Now more than four years after the Agreement was signed it is increasingly urgent that it be clear that paramilitary organisations are not engaged in any preparation of terrorism and they should be stood down altogether as soon as possible. "But if there are, in future, such fundamental breaches of the commitment to exclusively peaceful means, they will be taken into account in assessing the cease-fires. "It is right that with the passage of time, these judgments should become increasingly rigorous." Blair said all of Northern Ireland's major paramilitary groups -- the IRA, the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force -- were guilty of committing violent acts in recent months. But the prime minister rejected demands from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) for the expulsion from the Assembly of Sinn Fein politicians. UUP leader David Trimble's party pointed to allegations of IRA involvement with Marxist rebels in Colombia, the burglary in March at the top security Castlereagh police station and street clashes during the summer. UK Northern Ireland Secretary Dr. John Reid told the Commons: "In reviewing the cease-fires, I will give particular weight to any substantiated information that a paramilitary organisation is engaged in training, targeting, acquisition or development of arms or weapons, or any similar preparations for a terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland or elsewhere." But Sinn Fein remained angry saying it was loyalist paramilitaries carrying out the majority of violent attacks in Northern Ireland and that there had been hundreds of pipe bomb attacks on the homes of republicans. Party vice-president Pat Doherty told CNN: "This totally ignores the real crisis that has been sustained and orchestrated by loyalists -- violence on a daily basis." Back to the top © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.