UUP `reneging on agreement'

Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Gerry Kelly, has said nationalists are becoming "tired, frustrated and angry" at the Ulster Unionists…

Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Gerry Kelly, has said nationalists are becoming "tired, frustrated and angry" at the Ulster Unionists' refusal to set up the new power-sharing executive until there is decommissioning by the Provisional IRA.

He accused the UUP of "reneging" on the Belfast Agreement and said they would disenfranchise all the political parties if they brought it down. Mr Kelly was speaking at a rally in west Belfast to commemorate the 10 H-Block hunger-strikers.

The family of Bobby Sands did not take part in the march and also refused to attend other functions to commemorate him over the weekend.

The family is opposed to the political direction of the Sinn Fein leadership.

READ MORE

Mr Kelly said the Belfast Agreement was not a republican document but a compromise between opposing political groups. "It took blood, sweat and tears to sign up to it. It did not resolve all the issues. It was not meant to. It was a structure or route map to a possible settlement."

The political vacuum was being filled with dissident loyalist violence such as the killing of the solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson and sectarian attacks on Catholic homes, he said. He warned that the political process was in "deep crisis" and that unionists must pull back from this "cut off your nose to spite your face" tactic.