Tories highlight continuing paramilitary intimidation

Ending paramilitary intimidation, punishment beatings and "exile orders" must be made a condition of further political progress…

Ending paramilitary intimidation, punishment beatings and "exile orders" must be made a condition of further political progress in Northern Ireland, the Conservatives insisted yesterday.

In a Northern Ireland Affairs Committee debate on paramilitary intimidation, a former Conservative minister, Mr Michael Mates, warned the government it would be the "ultimate irony" if paramilitaries on the run were offered an amnesty while people forced from their homes because of paramilitary intimidation could not return to Northern Ireland.

Accusing the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, of breaking his promise of "parallel progress" and of making "all sorts of concessions" since the signing of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Mates said the government must not make any more concessions before addressing the problem of exiles.

Calling for the establishment of a commission to help victims of intimidation and exiles, the UUP MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, described the plight of exiles as "a gross betrayal" of people in Northern Ireland.

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The Northern Ireland Security Minister, Ms Jane Kennedy, said there was a "fearful" acceptance of paramilitary threats but when the people of Northern Ireland rejected those threats "the control of those organisations will be broken."

Until that time, Ms Kennedy said, the government would continue to make appropriate provisions for exiles but the government could best serve them by working to create the circumstances in which they could return.

Earlier, at a press conference in Westminster, Mr Joseph McCloskey (30), a former bar worker from Derry, described the paramilitary intimidation that forced him to leave Northern Ireland last year with his wife and six children. After death threats from men his family believe were local IRA members, Mr McCloskey was forced into exile in Britain. "I left Ireland the next day. All in all it's been a traumatic experience for me," Mr McCloskey said.