RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan was today challenged to issue a public verdict on the state of paramilitary ceasefires.
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Following the killing of journalist Mr Martin O'Hagan, Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble said terror groupings on both sides were now "thumbing their noses" at government.
"I would like to hear from the chief constable, not privately, I would like him to tell the people of Northern Ireland what his assessment is of the state of the ceasefire of various organisations," Mr Trimble said.
"I suspect if he were to be frank with us he would tell us that effectively the ceasefires of the UDA, the LVF, the IRA and all the rest only exists when it suits them".
Mr O'Hagan, an investigative journalist with the Sunday Worldnewspaper, was buried yesterday after being gunned down close to his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, on Friday night.
The splinter Loyalist Volunteer Force is widely suspected of carrying out the shooting.
The murder came just hours after Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid granted an 11th-hour reprieve to another loyalist grouping, the Ulster Defence Association, after he threatened to declare its ceasefire broken in the wake of rioting in north Belfast.
Such a move could have led to UDA members who were released early from jail following the Belfast Agreement being sent back to prison.
PA