THE IRA wounding of an RUC woman officer, Ms Alice Collins in Derry has heightened fears the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire is in danger of collapse.
Mr David Ervine, spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which is lniked to the outlawed UVF, said he was pessimistic about the loyalist ceasefire.
He said loyalist politicians appeared to be losing the battle to persuade the militarists to stay their hand. Appealing to the Combined Loyalist Military Command not to break its ceasefire, he said the IRA was trying to provoke a loyalist reaction.
In recent weeks, loyalist paramilitaries have been accused of "no claim, no blame" violent attacks on nationalists, one of which allegedly led to the murder of a Catholic father of 10, Mr John Slane, in west Belfast.
The shooting in Derry has fuelled what is already a very tense situation, said loyalists. "Loyalists are very jittery. The message of restraint is not one they want to hear in the current climate," said one leading loyalist.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party was dismissive of Mr Ervine's warning. It said an escalation of loyalist violence could lead to an INLA backlash.
"Let us be clear on this, the loyalist ceasefire does not exist. It has not done so for a considerable time. David Ervine should have the honest and common decency to say so," the party's spokesman, Mr Ciaran McLaughlin, said.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, declined media opportunities yesterday to condemn the Derry shooting. However, he said his party "very much regretted" the attack. Had Sinn Fein been invited to all party talks after the IRA ceasefire, the incident would not have occurred.
"Had there been real, inclusive and all party talks, where people sat down on the basis of equality and recognised each other's mandate and tried to work a way forward, that incident, and the other incidents we have seen in Belfast, would certainly not have happened," he said in an interview.
"I and the Sinn Fein leadership have exerted as much influence as we can at this time to bring about an end to all armed actions," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
In a further statement, Mr Adams described the attack as "the latest in a series of killings, or attempted killings, by loyalists, British army or RUC or by the IRA".
"It underlines in a very tragic, way the need for a redoubled effort to rebuild a real peace process. No one in political leadership can ignore or refuse that challenge and then wash their hands of the consequences."
The Catholic Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, described the attack as an "act of lunacy". It was an abhorrent action which was not only an attack on the RUC mother of three but on the entire Derry community.
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffy, after visiting the woman's family, also condemned the attack. "To see that family devastated - a mother of three, a working mother gunned down in the middle of our city - is quite devastating and I think the community in Derry is not prepared to lie down under that.
