Chairman of SF says suspension is `illegal'

The suspension of the Northern executive was an "illegal, antidemocratic act" and the IRA's disengagement from the decommissioning body came as a direct consequence of it, Sinn Fein's national chairman has said. At Trinity College Dublin last night, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, had put the British government "in default" of the Belfast Agreement.

"In fact, the British government are the only parties now in default. Not even the unionists are in default. At the time the executive was suspended, all the parties were honouring their obligations. Peter Mandelson had no legal basis and no political basis for doing what he did."

Addressing the TCD Law Society's annual Northern Ireland debate, Mr McLaughlin said Mr David Trimble was "very important" to the Belfast Agreement. So were "John Hume, Gerry Adams, the Women's Coalition and many other people," he added, "but nobody is more important than the agreement itself".

An Ulster Unionist Party assembly member, Mr James Leslie, said that his colleagues believed "we fulfilled our side of what we thought was a bargain" by entering the executive alongside Sinn Fein.

An SDLP assembly member and a former minister in the executive, Mr Sean Farren, urged the political parties to "step back" from decommissioning and allow Gen. John de Chastelain to test the commitment indicated by the IRA before yesterday's statement.