Blair fights to keep peace in Ulster alive

A sense of political crisis prevailed in Northern Ireland yesterday as Tony Blair prepared for a week of talks aimed at preventing the Good Friday Agreement from collapsing.

A loyalist feud killing in Belfast did nothing to relieve the tensions generated by the high drama of Friday's police raids on Sinn Fein offices at Stormont.

A pull-out of Ulster Unionist members from the Northern Ireland executive is viewed as a real possibility following the raids and four arrests in the north and west of the city.

Security sources said charges are likely to be brought against at least two of those arrested within the next few days. Those being held for interrogation in police custody include Denis Donaldson, a senior Sinn Fein aide, and a former government messenger.

A large amount of documentation and other material is said to have been recovered in the raids, which involved more than 200 officers.

Ulster Unionist minister Michael McGimpsey warned that his party was not prepared to carry on in government with Sinn Fein while doubts remained about republicans. He added: "Either Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness have lost control of their movement or they are insincere about the peace.

"Either way, any of these accusations that are there, if they stack up, Sinn Fein must leave the executive."

The Revd Martin Smyth, another Ulster Unionist who opposes the agreement, declared: "The Government needs to decide whether they will finally do something to demonstrate that only true democrats are eligible for government. If they do not, the Ulster Unionist Council will act and the Government may find that an altogether worse position."

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is to meet Tony Blair on Tuesday in Downing Street. Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will travel to Downing Street on Tuesday.

Sinn Fein, meanwhile, continued to characterise the arrests as a politically motivated stunt. Party supporters yesterday picketed half a dozen police stations carrying placards denouncing "Trimble's storm troopers" and complaining that police were "attacking democracy".

Sinn Fein minister Bairbre de Brun appealed to Unionist ministers not to pull out and bring down the powersharing executive.

She said: "We are part of the peace process – we have played our part in that fully and totally. We have had constant attempts by people to justify a pulling out and a wrecking of this forward movement, the movement for change, and I don't think anybody realistically wants to see that happen."

The latest Belfast killing took place just before midnight on Friday in an incident which is believed to stem from feuding within the loyalist Ulster Defence Association.

Jeffrey Thomas Gray, 41, from the Beersbridge Road in east Belfast, was shot dead in the Protestant Ravenhill district of south Belfast by a gunman who was dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap. The victim was hit in the chest by a blast from a shotgun. Local politicians appealed for an end to the feuding which has already cost two lives.

Six months of 'peace'

By Jonathan Thompson

8 April 2002: IRA announces it has put more of its weapons "beyond use".

13 April: More than 2,500 republicans meet in Dublin to honour 400 IRA and Sinn Fein members killed during the past 30 years. Gerry Adams tells them that they must "reach out to make peace with those we have hurt and those who have hurt us".

19 April: Unionists threaten to topple the power-sharing executive at Stormont after the discovery of an alleged IRA targets list. It is believed to include John Major and other senior Tories.

14 June: Security sources claim the IRA has been testing weapons in Colombia. Ulster Unionists call for the exclusion of Sinn Fein from power-sharing bodies.

4 July: David Trimble demands action from the Secretary of State. Tony Blair pledges action before Parliament rises.

16 July: The IRA apologises to families of "non-combatants" whom it killed.

25 July: Blair warns the IRA that if it does not abandon all paramilitary activity, Sinn Fein risks being expelled from the power-sharing executive.

22 September: Trimble gives the IRA an ultimatum: he will collapse the power-sharing executive if they do not disband by 18 January.

4 October: Sinn Fein's offices at Stormont raided as part of a police investigation into the IRA in Belfast.