Unionist and Conservative politicians have characterised republican "expulsion orders" against young men in Dungannon and Belfast as a direct snub to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mow lam, following her decision not to penalise the IRA for breaches of its ceasefire.
The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday the IRA death threats against the men were a direct consequence of Dr Mowlam's ruling that the IRA cessation had not broken down.
Four men from Dungannon were ordered by the IRA on Wednesday to leave Northern Ireland or face being killed. Brothers Gerard (18) and Martin Groogan (16) and cousins Paul (20) and Barry (17) McDonald all fled to England over the weekend.
According to Mr Vincent McKenna of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau, who assisted the four, a 15-year-old Catholic youth from the nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast was yesterday warned by the IRA on penalty of death that he had 48 hours to leave the North.
"The boy is presently in the home of another family member and is safe until a safe passage is arranged," Mr McKenna said. Sinn Fein in east Belfast said there was no evidence to support the claim of the 15-year-old boy being threatened. A Sinn Fein spokesman described the claim as "an exercise in disinformation".
Mr Trimble said he was in no doubt that the threats were linked to Dr Mowlam's refusal to penalise Sinn Fein or the IRA for the murder of Belfast taxi-worker Charles Bennett and the foiled US gun-running operation.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party have been holding secret meetings in recent weeks in an effort to create the conditions for political movement.
Teams of mid-ranking Sinn Fein and UUP Assembly members have met four times in the past month, Sinn Fein and the UUP have confirmed. The meetings follow from a speech made by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, at the end of July where he suggested that private meetings might help bring fresh momentum to the process.
Gerard and Martin Groogan are two of the four youths judged by the IRA to be undesirables in Dungannon, Co Tyrone. They were told to "leave the area or get a bullet in the head". After receiving the death threat via a local priest on Friday, they found refuge at Mr McKenna's home.
In its statement to Father Joe Quinn, the IRA gave no reasons for the expulsion of the Groogan brothers or their friends, the McDonald cousins. "They just said the community was sick of us and that we would be shot in the head if we did not get out by midnight tonight," said Gerard, speaking over the weekend at the McKenna home.
The brothers seem to have difficulties remembering how their problems with the paramilitaries began. "There are a few that are our age but most of them are grown men. They are the ones who started it by telling us where we can and can't go on the estate.
"There is a disused railway line at the bottom of it that has been turned into a park now. If you hang around there at night you always bump into them and then you have to fight them otherwise they beat the hell out of you," is the only explanation Gerard can come up with.
For Mr McKenna, the reasoning behind the teenagers' expulsion is clear.
"In a ceasefire situation, the paramilitaries feel particularly vulnerable because people can actually stand up to them and tell them where to go. These young fellows' only crime was that they were challenging the authority of the bully-boys," he adds.
"We have never been up in court or near drugs or anything like that," Gerard insists, but he admits: "I could think of a good few people in our estate who are probably quite happy that we got thrown out. Some really hate us."
The brothers are particularly worried about their father who suffers from lung cancer and is facing an operation this week. He did not tell his father about the death threat so as to not upset him, but "I think he knows anyway".
The Groogans say they never considered defying the IRA order. "I am angry, but I don't want to die. I don't even want to lose a leg in a knee-capping. I don't want to walk around for the rest of my life looking over my shoulder," says Gerard.
He blames the Northern Secretary and her decision to declare the paramilitaries' ceasefires intact last week for his and his brother's predicament. "Mo [Dr Mowlam] might as well come and shoot us herself. She has really given them a licence to shoot whoever they like now under the pretext of `internal housekeeping'."
Mr McKenna has organised bus tickets for the brothers to travel to London. He has also managed to arrange temporary accommodation for them with a Christian organisation in London.