A SENIOR Sinn Fein spokesman asserted yesterday his party was powerless to stop the recent spate of punishment beatings and drug related killings. He said the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, was talking "stupid nonsense" in suggesting otherwise.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein national chairman, accused Mr Major of putting diversions in the way of politicians getting around the table and talking, the problems through to resolution.
However, when asked directly whether he would like to see the IRA stopping killing people or beating people up, he replied: "If the IRA are doing it, the answer is yes.
Interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster following Mr Major's challenge to Sinn Fein in a television interview earlier yesterday, Mr McLaughlin said there was "a politician and a policing vacuum" in the North, and the only way to solve it was "when we each respect each other's electoral mandate and talk to each other
Pressed by the presenter, Mr Barry Cowan, to confirm or deny whether or not it was his assertion that Sinn Fein was so remote from the IRA that they could not exercise any influence, Mr McLaughlin replied: I confirm it, absolutely. In the absence of policing and political agreement, Sinn Fein are powerless to stop the very issues that you're concerned about."
Asked whether this indicated that there was a split between those sections of the republican movement which would seek to become part of the democratic process and another section which wanted to go back to violence, Mr McLaughlin rejected the suggestion.
He said: "There is no split, and there is no value in talking about splits. Sinn Fein has an electoral responsibility; we stand ready to discharge it. We stand ready to negotiate these issues with all of the other elected representatives. And that is the way to peace, and to a lasting peace, in this country.
In a further interview later yesterday, Mr McLaughlin said Sinn Fein was in fact attempting to use its influence to ensure that the violent incidents did not happen, "but we do not have the control to exercise over the situation that has been alleged - we never had that amount of control".
Meanwhile, yesterday the Phoenix West Belfast Development Trust said it had received documentary evidence from business sources in the US that the resumption of killings was causing potential investors to once again take a negative view of Northern Ireland as a safe location for investment.
The director of Phoenix Trust, Mr Eamon Hanna, said the violence was not only wrong and a denial of due process, but was, in an economic sense, "cutting the throats of the people whom the men of violence purport to defend."
On Saturday, the west Belfast SDLP MP, Dr Joe Hendron, said that the task of the international body which is to report on the arms decommissioning issue had been made more problematic by the recent killings.
He said: "Senator Mitchell's arms are being tied behind his back by the Provos with this ongoing murder on our streets. If these killings had not been taking place, I would have expected Senator Mitchell to come up with a report that would help the British government to get off the hook."