Hopes for drawing all political parties into the Northern Ireland peace talks suffered another setback Tuesday when a bomb hidden inside a van exploded outside a police station about 35 miles southwest of Belfast.
The Irish Republican Army, which declared a cease-fire July 20, denied responsibility for the attack. The Ulster Unionist Party, the largest of the Protestant political groups, still blamed the IRA and demanded that the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, be expelled from the talks.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams accused the Ulster Unionists of using the bombing as an excuse for staying away from the talks.
The talks resumed Monday after a summer recess, with Sinn Fein representatives sitting at the table for the first time. Despite an appeal from the British and Irish governments, the Ulster Unionists stayed away Monday, but hinted they might join the talks later.
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Leaders of the Ulster Unionists had planned to visit the talks site Tuesday for discussions with Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam and the talks chairman, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.
After the bomb exploded in the predominantly Catholic town of Markethill, the Unionists changed their minds and went to Markethill to assess the damage and talk to residents.
Markethill is near the border with the Irish Republic, an area in which IRA guerrillas have been active.
One of the bombers gave an uncoded warning to a Belfast news organization just before the device went off, but did not identify the group he represented.
Two Catholic guerrilla groups in Northern Ireland have refused to abide by the IRA’s cease-fire. They are the extreme left-wing Irish National Liberation Army and the Continuity Army Council, a less well-known group that carried out a major attack on an Enniskillen hotel in July 1996.
Police may not have been able to determine who planted the bomb, but Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was quick to blame the IRA or, as he habitually says, Sinn Fein/IRA.
He said the “absence of a recognized code word for another paramilitary organization, together with the geographical location, are clear prima facie evidence of Sinn Fein/IRA involvement.”
In a letter to Mitchell, Trimble said, “We now represent to you that Sinn Fein are no longer entitled to participate.”
Before the bombing, Ulster Unionists were upset over the fact that after Sinn Fein signed on last week to principles of non-violence in reaching a settlement to the Northern Ireland conflict the IRA said it had “problems” with those principles.
The Unionists are particularly determined that the IRA should surrender some of its weapons during the talks, but the IRA has said it will not yield any until a peace agreement has been signed.
There was no immediate response to Trimble’s letter from Mitchell, but he said of the bombing: “It is clearly an effort to blow up not just a police station but also the talks process. It cannot be permitted to succeed.”
Mowlam issued a statement denouncing “senseless terrorism” and added: “This attack may well have been a deliberate attempt to sabotage the talks process. We must not let it succeed. Thank goodness no one was seriously injured.”
Seamus Mallon, a member of the British Parliament from the moderate Social Democratic and Labor Party, said he had no doubt that the target of the bombers was the talks process.
“I sincerely hope none of the parties dance to their tune,” he said.
Adams issued a statement saying: “This should be an incentive for all political leaders and the two governments to make sure this process works. It should not be used as an excuse for non-participation” by the Ulster Unionists.