STOP NATO: O PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [As the British press is having a field day detailing - alleged - human rights abuses in Yugoslavia two and a half years ago.] Wednesday July 4 8:56 AM ET Catholic Shot Dead As N.Irish Peace Deal Falters BELFAST (Reuters) - A 19-year-old Roman Catholic man was shot dead in Northern Ireland on Wednesday in a guerrilla-style attack that fueled tension as the province's peace process tottered. Police described it as a brutal, cold-blooded shooting but said it was too early to specify a motive or say which of the British-ruled province's militias was involved. But Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group, branded it a sectarian murder and blamed pro-British Protestant ``loyalist创 hard-liners. The Irish government condemned the shooting, with Foreign Minister Brian Cowen issuing a statement expressing ``utter revulsion创 at the ``vicious and cowardly murder,创 which he said 创bears all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack.创 ``The perpetrators have no mandate and no support from any decent member of society, north or south,创 Cowen said. ``They seek a return to the despair and misery of the failed politics of the past. We are determined they will not succeed.创 The killing happened as Britain and the Irish Republic struggled to keep the 1998 Good Friday peace accord alive just four days before one of its toughest tests -- a Protestant parade near a Catholic area at Drumcree in County Armagh, a traditional flashpoint. WORSENING POLITICAL CRISIS The British and Irish prime ministers were due later on Wednesday to hold talks in London to try to pull the landmark pact out of a worsening political crisis. Protestant leader David Trimble resigned as Northern Ireland's first minister on Sunday over the IRA's failure to give up its guerrilla weapons. The victim of Wednesday's attack was waiting for a ride to work when he was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle, police said. ``We obviously cannot rule out a sectarian motive but we will be pursuing every possible line of inquiry,创 Alan McQuillan, a senior Northern Irish police officer, said. ``Clearly from the nature of it, some sort of paramilitary group was involved in the sense that it was a very coldly carried out attack and very well-organized...but which one we are not yet sure,创 he told BBC radio. Sinn Fein politician Martin McManus accused loyalist militiamen. ``It is a sectarian shooting, there磗 no doubt about it,创 said McManus, who knew the victim. The annual Drumcree parade is the most volatile in a traditionally turbulent series of annual parades by Protestant fraternities celebrating historic battlefield victories over Catholics. Authorities have banned it from entering a Catholic zone. The organizers, the Orange Order, have condemned the ban but appealed for peace during next Sunday's march. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
