Call for high-level inquiry into missing SF document

The Government was under pressure tonight to raise with British ministers at the highest possible level the disappearance of …

The Government was under pressure tonight to raise with British ministers at the highest possible level the disappearance of a sensitive document from a northern security complex.

Sinn Féin MLA Mr Gerry Kelly said he was meeting the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Brian Cowen to discuss the removal of twenty eight soldiers from their posts at Belfast's Castlereagh complex.

Mr Kelly said this was a very serious situation with the withdrawal of the Royal Irish Regiment members after the document was stolen.

The MLA, speaking before the meeting, said he would urge the Government to get involved after it was alleged the Ulster Defence Association could now have the document containing names of possible terrorist suspects.

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He said: "We want to know the truth of the matter and the people in the documentation should be told immediately so they can take precautions.

"There are people in danger, I believe, and that is what should be at the bottom of anything that happens."

Mr Kelly said the North's security minister Ian Pearson told him that the police investigators did not believe the information was in the hands of loyalists.

The Sinn Féin MLA said Mr Pearson admitted the information was sensitive and he did not know where it was.

Mr Kelly said he believed the British are trying to suppress the story but the revelations about the Castlereagh document have continued to leak out.

"What we are dealing with here is a pro-unionist element," Mr Kelly said.