THE British government yesterday issued a clear warning that the continued participation of the political representatives of loyalist paramilitaries in the multi-party talks is under question following recent attacks by loyalist extremists.
While spokesmen for the loyalist fringe parties, the UDP and the PUP, continued to assert that the 27-month-old loyalist paramilitary ceasefire remains in place, the British government indicated that Monday's plenary session of the Stormont talks could bring a crucial challenge to this assertion.
The public warning came shortly before a 50-minute Commons meeting yesterday between the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, and the Ulster Unionists to discuss the political process.
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said the recent car-bomb attacks and the attempted murder of two senior republicans by loyalist paramilitaries "inevitably raised questions" over the future of their political parties involvement in the talks. The situation was being monitored.
Noting that the first two of these attacks had been attributed by the RUC Chief Constable to loyalist extremists, the British government said it had raised these incidents with the PUP and the UDP at meetings last week, and had continued to evaluate the situation.
The statement continued: "Those incidents, and possibly that at Larne yesterday, inevitably raise questions over the position in the Northern Ireland talks of the two parties associated with the loyalist paramilitaries."
After the discussions, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, who had requested the meeting and was accompanied by his deputy, Mr John Taylor, and his party's chief whip, the Rev Martin Smyth, refused to speak to reporters. A Downing Street spokesman described the talks as "friendly and constructive".
It is understood Mr Major, who was accompanied by the Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, and Mr Michael Ancram, said he hoped all the parties would continue in the process but that the British government was "deeply" concerned and was "carefully" monitoring the situation.
No group admitted responsibility for the three attacks, which are believed to have been carried out by extreme loyalist elements. However, security-forces and loyalist sources have linked at least two of those attacks to the UDA, which uses UFF as a cover name.
The UDP leader, Mr Gary McMichael, said yesterday that it was "only speculation" to say loyalists were responsible for Monday's booby-trap bomb attack in Larne, Co Antrim, in which a Catholic couple and their five-month-old daughter narrowly escaped injury.
Mr McMichael would not condemn the attack. He said, however: "The UDP has always been and remains actively opposed to the use of violence to achieve political ends."
Mr Billy Hutchinson, of the PUP, said of the recent attacks: "We need to shut these down and ensure that there are no more breaches - if that is what these are. But we have to find out, first of all, if they are. And we can only do that when we enter these talks on Monday and the government make our position quite clear."
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said that the British government, as one of the talks participants, had the opportunity to put a formal complaint about the position of the loyalists.
He challenged the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, to produce "the security force accusations" against the loyalists. It was up to the government to inform the parties of the position on the basis of the information available to it.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said he hoped the loyalist paramilitaries would continue with their ceasefire.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, however, asserted that double standards were being applied as between loyalists and republicans. He said: "The very reason why people want to see the loyalists being kept in talks is the very reason why Sinn Fein was prevented from being in talks."
If a formal challenge to the loyalist parties' participation is mounted next Monday, the independent chairman of the talks, former Senator George Mitchell, will invite opinions and submissions from all participants. If the challenge is maintained, he will then submit the issue to the British and Irish governments to make an adjudication, a process that could take a month or more.