Killing a 'useless war against peace'

NI REACTION:DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS were waging a "useless war against peace", the Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has asserted following Saturday's murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh, Co Tyrone.

Mr McGuinness, standing alongside First Minister Peter Robinson, Minister for Justice David Ford and the PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott, yesterday urged anyone with information about the murder to come forward to the police.

Mr McGuinness, speaking at Stormont Castle, said he wanted to send out a message of “defiance” to the dissidents that their actions would not destabilise the peace or the political process.

He said he was absolutely united with Mr Robinson and with all the other northern parties and with the PSNI. “Let those people who perpetrated this be totally and absolutely aware, that we are not going away.

“We represent the people. I represent the people of Co Tyrone. I represent the people of Ireland,” he said. “We are the people who will prevail.”

He described Nuala Kerr, mother of the murdered officer, as an “inspirational woman” just as Kate Carroll, widow of Stephen Carroll, murdered by the Continuity IRA in March 2009, was an “inspirational woman”.

Mr McGuinness said the dissidents were deluded if they thought they had any real support.

They were “marginalised and isolated” and would not succeed in their attempts to destroy the powersharing institutions. They were waging a useless war against peace. “They are enemies of the peace, they are enemies of the people of Ireland.”

He said anyone with information that could help apprehend the killers should bring it forward. “I am standing up to be counted. Give information to the police. Give it to the Garda in the South if you have it, give it to the PSNI in the North.”

Mr Robinson said that he could not understand the strategy of the dissidents: “If such it can be called ... because all they have done is strengthen the institutions that we have, unite our community, bring politicians closer together, and make sure there is a united response in support of the PSNI”.