Trimble Defeated, N.Irish Government Leaderless

BELFAST (Reuters) - Protestant moderate David Trimble failed to be re-elected First Minister of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government on Friday, shaking the province's peace process just as it had appeared to get back on track.

Protestant hard-liners dealt a narrow defeat to the Nobel peace laureate's bid to return to the top of the British province's Protestant/Roman Catholic coalition, leaving it rudderless a week after it was boosted by IRA disarmament.

``I must ask people today not to lose heart, not to despair of the process,'' Trimble told reporters after the vote. ``I am confident that we will succeed and we will carry this forward positively.''

Martin McGuinness, a leading member of the Catholic-backed Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein, said the result was ``disappointing'' and called on Britain to hold fresh elections to the power-sharing assembly to shore up the landmark Good Friday peace accord.

``The opponents of the peace process have had their day, they must not be allowed to have their way,'' he told reporters.

Trimble, leader of the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party won votes from pro-Irish Catholic parties, but many Protestant politicians hostile to the 1998 Good Friday agreement he champions failed to support him.

He won a clear majority of total votes cast, but the failure of two dissidents from his own party to back him meant he narrowly failed to secure 50 percent of the votes in the Protestant ``unionist'' bloc.

Major decisions of the parliament, set up under the landmark peace agreement, need majority support from representatives of both communities.

The result showed again that deep divisions remain among Protestant parties about the agreement. The hard-liners were skeptical of the accord and wary of the IRA's intentions.

Trimble heaped scorn on the rebels in his own party, Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage, accusing them of behaving ''dishonorably.''

Weir said his aim all along had been to see a stable and peaceful Northern Ireland.

But echoing the skepticism of other hard-liners, he said he had concerns about whether the IRA's destruction late last month of part of its underground arsenal was ``merely a cynical one-off gesture or part of a process leading to complete disarmament.''

Frantic attempts were under way in the background later to keep the coalition on track.

British Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid was due to hold round-table talks with the pro-Good Friday agreement parties later on Friday. Political sources said British Prime Minister Tony Blair was keeping in touch.

Commentators said Britain might rush through legislation to amend the parliament's complicated voting procedures to try to ensure a smooth passage for Trimble in a re-run.

There was also much speculation that attempts might be made to hold another vote within the next 24 hours and that another of the center parties might temporarily join the unionist bloc to tip the balance in Trimble's favor.

One center party, the Women's Coalition, had taken that course, but its votes were not enough.

Bin Laden not biggest UK threat

LONDON (Reuters) -
Britain is at greater risk of coming under attack from dissident Irish republican guerrillas than from supporters of Osama bin Laden, police sources say.

Last week's dramatic peace breakthrough in Northern Ireland has heightened security concerns that hardliners opposed to an end to decades of conflict might try to scupper efforts at a lasting deal.

Yet the population at large sees bin Laden, blamed by Washington and London for September's hijack plane attacks in the United States, as enemy number one given the close support Britain has pledged to the U.S. war on terrorism.

"Since September 11, clearly the focus has been on events linked to those attacks, but our position is the Irish dissidents do pose the greater threat," a police source told Reuters.

Britain has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States since the attacks on New York and Washington that killed some 4,800 people, making it a possible target for militant groups such as bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Earlier this week U.S. officials said there could be further attacks against the United States or its interests and Britain has acknowledged that it could be in the front line.

But the police source told Reuters there was "still no intelligence to suggest a specific threat" to Britain from such groups.

Instead police remain "very concerned" about major attacks on the British mainland from renegade Irish republican groups, with the run-up to Christmas of particular concern.

Last week's decision by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to start disarming was hailed as an historic step towards a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

But renegade republicans, who oppose the 1998 agreement that established power-sharing between Roman Catholics and pro-British Unionists, are determined to undermine the fragile peace and have stated they will not lay down their weapons.

REAL IRA

The most serious threat is said to be posed by the Real IRA, which carried out the 1998 car bombing in Omagh -- the province's worst atrocity in 30 years of conflict between Catholics and Protestants that left 29 people dead.

Scotland Yard says the group is responsible for seven "terrorist" attacks on the capital since June 2000.

The most recent was a car bomb attack in a busy area of west London in August that injured seven people.

The group is also blamed for a bomb explosion outside the BBC's main London office in March and a rocket attack on the MI6 spy headquarters in September last year.

"We remain concerned that the present series of terrorist crimes by Irish dissident republicans will continue," a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. "It is essential that people are alert."

Officers in London have been on high alert since last June and high visibility policing policy has been stepped up since the September 11 attacks to reassure the public.

London's police chief John Stevens has said the capital is on the highest peacetime security alert in its history

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does this deserve it's own thread? or can we discuss this here... very interesting nonetheless.

stay safe.

yet still more news...

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Adams says IRA disarming a "painful" decision

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The IRA's decision to disarm was "very painful" for its leadership but the move was necessary to take the peace process forward in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said.

"The decision by the IRA leadership to put weapons beyond use has been a very painful one for many republicans," Adams, who is on a week-long visit to the United States and Canada, told a news conference in New York.

The IRA's decision to disarm has been criticised by some republican activists as betraying their principles in a long conflict for a united Ireland.

"Many people feel emotionally ... that there is no good cause for the IRA doing what it did," said Adams. "The job we have to do is make politics work, to make sure this issue doesn't become a precondition or obstacle to the political process moving forward.

"The job we have now is to ease people forward," he said.

Adams was attending a fundraiser in New York on Thursday night organized by Friends of Sinn Fein. The proceeds are being donated to a fund for construction workers affected by the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Centre. Construction workers have traditionally been the "backbone" of the annual fund-raising dinner in New York, Adams said.

The Sinn Fein leader denied that the attacks that killed more than 4,000 people spurred the IRA's decision to disarm in line with the U.S.-brokered 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

"Quite a lot of people say the IRA was pressurized. I think this misses the point," he said.

"This is the time to take the IRA at its word," the Sinn Fein leader said, adding that the decision was part of moving forward with the peace process.

Among the group's critics was former IRA guerrilla Tommy Gorman. "The situation now is not worth a drop of anyone's blood having been spilt, whether IRA, Protestant or British soldiers. It is a complete betrayal of republican values," Gorman told Reuters in Belfast after the IRA move.

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