PRESSURE for an end to the loyalist ceasefire was mounting with every IRA attack, the Ulster Democratic Party leader, Mr Gary McMichael, has warned. Speaking after a meeting in Dublin with the US ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, Mr McMichael said that the loyalist ceasefire would be "very difficult" to retain if the IRA began attacks in Northern Ireland.
He said that loyalists had shown "remarkable restraint" so far. "We will continue to do everything to ensure there is not a full scale resumption of violence, but much depends on whether the IRA widens its campaign. The pressure mounts with every attack. We wish to avoid the situation where the pressure [for loyalist violence to resume] becomes insurmountable."
His party would not cut off contact with Government and opposition politicians in the Republic, as the Progressive Unionist Party has said it will do. "If we believe it is necessary to talk to anyone then we will do so. We're not in the business of ending contacts with anyone."
It was important for the US administration to tell republicans that there was no way forward through, or support for, an armed strategy, said Mr McMichael. He said he wanted measures to convince republicans that there was no way forward for them with "a dual strategy of an Armalite in one hand and a ballot paper in the other".
He said be had suggested to the ambassador that the privileges offered to Sinn Fein since the ceasefire be reversed "because the situation has reversed". These included its right to raise money in the US and the granting of visas to Sinn Fein figures, including its leader, Mr Gerry Adams.
"We want measures to be taken against Sinn Fein and its representatives as a penalty for breaking the ceasefire.
Mrs Kennedy Smith said, however, that the US administration, felt that it had to try to restore the ceasefire. "We are keeping all doors open at the moment," she said, indicating that there were, no plans to penalise Sinn Fein at this stage.
Mr McMichael said the priority now was to ensure movement to bring everybody to the negotiating table. "Sinn Fein have excluded themselves and we want to see that reversed. We have no desire to see republicans excluded from this process but they can't participate while the armed conflict continues."