The SDLP leader has said that loyalist paramilitaries who refuse to embrace politics must be tackled by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.Mr Mark Durkan said it was not good enough for loyalists to complain about how republicans were in breach of the Belfast Agreement.
They must face up to their own responsibilities and end all illegal activity.
"Paramilitaries claim to be defenders of their communities. But with fraud, racketeering and drug-dealing on the increase - especially in loyalist areas - people on the ground feel more oppressed than defended," he added in a statement yesterday.
"Neither the UDA nor the UVF has engaged in a single act of decommissioning. Meanwhile, representatives of the PUP are rarely asked what they are doing to bring about an end to paramilitarism.
"Outrageously, many treat the PUP as if they were political commentators, and not the political wing of the UVF," he said.
"Just because they have no political representatives on the Executive does not mean that they have no responsibilities to society.
"And let's be clear: loyalists who are not willing to embrace a political approach must face a policing response."
Mr Durkan said the IRA was the "greatest recruiting agent" that anti-agreement unionists had. The IRA's existence was playing right into their hands and was perpetually exploited by unionists to hold the agreement back.
"Meanwhile the IRA's failure clearly to end all paramilitary activity gave David Trimble just the excuse that he needed to encourage Blair to make his awful decision to postpone elections," said Mr Durkan.