SF claims Orde assertion based on one source

Sinn Féin again criticised the assessment by the PSNI chief constable, Mr Hugh Orde, concerning the £26

Sinn Féin again criticised the assessment by the PSNI chief constable, Mr Hugh Orde, concerning the £26.5 million robbery at the Northern Bank last month.

Speaking at Stormont, North Belfast Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly questioned Mr Orde's assertion that the IRA was behind the raid, claiming he was basing it on a single intelligence source. Mr Kelly alleged that the intelligence service was "for 30 years working against the peace process".

"That's the type of people we are dealing with. We are dealing with people who were involved in the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane," he said.

Mr Kelly also criticised the SDLP over comments made by deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell and by South Down MP Mr Eddie McGrady, who said that if a party does not work to acceptable standards then "they exclude themselves" from the political process.

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Mr Kelly said such comments were evidence of confusion at leadership level within the SDLP. "People expect that nationalists and republicans defend the Good Friday agreement and the power-sharing core of it," he said.

"There is obviously some sort of crisis or confusion at leadership level . . . What we are asking for is the [ SDLP] Assembly party to make its position clear." Mr Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, later rejected Sinn Féin claims. Speaking with the majority of his Assembly group, including Dr McDonnell, Mr Durkan said his party was considering all current options.

"Some people make the mistake that in the current circumstances the SDLP can line up behind Sinn Féin or the DUP. We don't line up behind either." He said when those two parties were making "a bad deal" in December his party remained where it always had been - "behind the agreement".

He said that neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP could argue for inclusivity given their demands for the exclusion of each other.

Mr Durkan again called for a recall of the Assembly and the appointment of civil administrators pending the formation of a new executive. "That still offers the best way forward," he said.

Also speaking at Stormont, the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said the British and Irish governments should not continue negotiations with republicans. "This is the time for the British government to give IRA/Sinn Féin an ultimatum," he said.

"That ultimatum must be clear as crystal, with no room for yet another campaign of lying and treachery. IRA/Sinn Féin must decommission all its terrorist weaponry in a manner that is totally transparent, and with immediate photographic evidence to back it up. This means that IRA/Sinn Féin as a terrorist army ceases to exist."