THE SDLP and the Alliance Party have sharply criticised the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, over his actions at Drumcree and his meeting with a former UVF prisoner, Mr billy Wright.
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Seamus Mallon, has accused Mr Trimble of breaking the law in his actions over the confrontation at Drumcree and of breach"ing the Mitchell principles.
He said that it was for Senator George Mitchell to examine in detail the events in Drumcree and to "make a judgment" as to what action should be taken.
In the continuing row over Mr Trimble's meeting with Mr Wright, Mr Mallon said at Stormont that it was "intolerable" for the entire community and for the Ulster Unionist Party that Mr Trimble should enter into negotiations "with that person".
However, the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said that it was "absolutely downright hypocrisy for Mr Mallon to attack Mr Trimble when he himself was trying to get gunmen who had not declared a ceasefire into these talks".
Dr Paisley reiterated his own opposition to violence and to meeting paramilitaries, but he refused to be drawn into criticising "a fellow member of the unionist family".
The parties were at Stormont for bilateral meetings yesterday with Senator Mitchell and with the Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew, who also met the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, for the first time since the events at Drumcree and the violence across the North.
Mr Trimble denied any involvement in violence and said that he was not identified in any way with paramilitaries. He told reporters. "I am quite satisfied that any action I took was in trying to contain violence, to contain the situation."
The UUP leader said that he had "taken practical action on the streets at some considerable inconvenience to ourselves to try and maintain the peace".
Mr Trimble, pressed later on why he would not speak to Mr Brendan McKenna of the Garvaghy Residents Association, while the IRA ceasefire was in place, said. "I didn't believe then and I don't believe now and I think I've been justified by events that Mr McKenna and the community he represents are interested in seeking agreement."
Mr Trimble said earlier on BBC radio that he had been in a situation last week which was volatile. "I was prepared in that situation to deal with, or to say, as I did, to Mr Wright, who I knew had influence with paramilitaries. No, we don't want violence in this situation. We do want to get a resolution.
Dr John Alderdice, leader of the Alliance Party, said that Mr Trimble had driven a coach and horses" through the Mitchell principles. If anyone had looked at the television pictures last week they could only have seen force and the threat of the use of force and the Ulster Unionist Party leading the charge."
However, Dr Alderdice believed that they could not engage in talks without the Ulster, Unionists.
Mr Mallon said. "There is a substantial belief that article 4 of the Mitchell principles was broken at Drumcree and that it was broken on almost every street and road in the North of Ireland. I am asking Senator Mitchell to look at the principles, to look at the problem, and I will await his judgment."
If Senator Mitchell drew the conclusion that those principles had been broken, "then under the legislation certain steps have to be taken".
The principles, which all the parties have signed, include a commitment to opposing any effort to use force or threaten to use force to influence the negotiations.
Mr Mallon was not "impressed" with Mr Trimble's efforts to keep the peace. "It was not just a question of breaking the law. The authority of the state and the policing of the state was challenged." Mr Trimble, he said, had led that "challenge to the authorities and to legitimate policing, and unfortunately it was allowed to succeed".
The BBC's Panorama programme had revealed that Mr Trimble had a one hour meeting with Mr Wright in the hall beside Drumcree church last Wednesday evening on the fourth and final night of the stand off between the Orange Order and the security forces.
The Ulster Unionist Party's deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, said that people in Northern Ireland would be "disgusted" that Dr Alderdice was trying to make party political points "by equating us with Sinn Fein/IRA" when they were continuing to bomb people.
The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Bob McCartney, described the meeting between the two men as "questionable", but said that Mr Trimble had made a distinction between meeting loyalists and not meeting Mr Brendan McKenna, of the Garvaghy residents, because the IRA ceasefire was not in place.
It was amazing, he added, that "Mr Trimble should be willing to talk to people of that ilk and should be very unwilling to talk to me or even to have me included in any delegation with the prime minister".
Mr McCartney said that there was a case for having a plenary session in which everyone could have their say and "get the animosity and anger out of their systems" and then get down to business.