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Gunmen kill policeman in Northern Ireland
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-10 21:55 BELFAST -- Suspected dissident republican gunmen killed a policeman in Northern Ireland late on Monday, the third killing in recent days, raising fears of a return of sectarian violence in the British province.
Senior politicians blamed the dissident militant republicans, who are opposed to the peace process, but there was no claim of responsibility. Police warned this month the threat of violence from republican splinter groups, which want to break from London, was high. The officer was shot dead when he was out on patrol in Craigavon, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the province's capital Belfast, and was investigating suspicious behaviour on a housing estate, police said. "Sadly one of those officers paid the ultimate price when cowards and criminals gunned him down," said Northern Ireland's police chief Hugh Orde.
On Saturday, two British soldiers were shot dead in an attack claimed by a Republican splinter group, the real IRA whose name is styled on the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Many people in Northern Ireland, having lived through three decades of fighting, known as the "Troubles", before a peace deal between Protestant and Catholic factions was signed in 1998, feared on Tuesday a new round of killings may follow. Irish President Mary McAleese urged people with information to come forward. "Dissident republicanism has been left far behind," she said. "Tell the police, join the peacemakers and put an end to this hell on earth." Orde said police had responded to a call for assistance and it was too early to speculate if it was "a deliberate set up". John O'Dowd, an assembly member for the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, said police were entering the Lismore Manor estate, a largely Catholic area, when they were fired on from derelict ground. "This is an attack on the peace process," he said. "This is a time for strong political leadership and cool heads." David Simpson, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party who represents Craigavon, said: "I think for those, and I have to use the word scum, that carried out the attack tonight they have absolutely nothing to offer Northern Ireland." PEACE Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen appealed to all to reject violence. On Monday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, visiting the army base where the soldiers were shot dead, said: "The political process will not and can never be shaken." The soldiers were killed at the entrance to their barracks in Antrim by gunmen from the Real IRA republican splinter group, hours before they were due to fly to Afghanistan. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), which fought British rule for decades and drew support from the Roman Catholic community, and pro-British Protestant guerrilla groups agreed to ceasefires under the Good Friday peace deal in 1998. The agreement helped reduce sectarian violence, which killed more than 3,600 people in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. The Real IRA wants an end to British rule and a united Ireland, but is shunned by the province's politicians who have put aside years of enmity to work together in a devolved national assembly. The Real IRA carried out the deadliest single bombing of the sectarian violence, in the market town of Omagh in August 1998. Twenty-nine people were killed. While security experts question how capable the Real IRA is of launching a campaign of violence, there are fears the killings could spark a backlash from pro-British guerrillas. |
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