IT WAS now up to the Irish Government to stand up for the residents of the Garvaghy Road and the Ormeau Road, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said yesterday.
At a press conference, he said the peace process was in "absolute ruins" and the responsibility for restoring it lay with the British Prime Minister.
He said the unionist leaders, Mr David Trimble and the Rev Ian Paisley, could conduct an organised campaign of mass intimidation, withdraw from the talks and "be welcomed back into the talks next week".
"John Major has to accept he has to move the situation out of this dire situation," he said. "Think of next week. Are the unionists going to be welcomed in [to the talks] on the basis of a nod and a wink to the Mitchell principles?"
Mr Adams renewed his call for people to continue to show the "absolute discipline and calm" they had shown so far.
Asked about the shots that had been fired in north Belfast yesterday morning, he said he did not know who had fired them.
He reproached journalists for emphasising the injuries received by RUC officers in the shootings, and added. "There are 12 people injured by plastic bullets in Altnagelvin hospital. There's one young man from Armagh on life support, and a 50 year old man was knocked down by an RUC jeep."
He added. "There is no justice, no equality of treatment. Nationalists will not be treated like second class citizens."
Asked if he supported proposals for an independent review body to examine the question of marches, he said. "This is not about parades, it's about rights. If the Orange Order had the political will it could resolve it.