CONFLICTING opinions on the state of the loyalist ceasefire were expressed yesterday. Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein claimed the ceasefire had collapsed while Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader, Mr David Trimble, said judgment on whether it remained intact must be reserved.
Mr McGuinness said yesterday that the loyalist ceasefire had ended, and that the peace process must now be rebuilt. And while loyalists were targeting republicans, he still believed that the loyalist fringe parties which are associated with the UDA and UVF should not be excluded from multi party talks at Stormont.
Mr McGuinness also said he saw no prospect at present of the IRA reinstating its ceasefire. He warned that the year ahead could be one of violence or one of inclusive negotiations involving Sinn Fein.
"I think that 1997 will be a defining year in the history of the politics of this island. And I think there are only two roads to go. There is the road to the negotiating table; there is the road to further conflict. Sinn Fein wants to be part of a process that moves us all towards a negotiating table," he said on BBC Radio Ulster.
"We have to use all of our energies to try and get back to a situation where we can have a credible process of peace negotiations against the background of a peaceful environment," he added.
"What we need to do is try and put a peaceful environment in place, and we can only do that if we can get a ceasefire back again from the loyalists, from the IRA, and most important of all if we can get the British government to call a ceasefire in this conflict with nationalists and republicans," said Mr McGuinness.
The slide back to conflict must be arrested. "The road Sinn Fein wants to travel is the road to the negotiating table." Mr McGuinness said that the loyalist ceasefire was at all times highly conditional. "In reality the loyalist ceasefire has been broken for some considerable time," he added.
Mr McGuinness again denied the Sunday Times report that he had been appointed to the IRA army council. "I deny it absolutely," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Trimble said it could not be assumed that the loyalist ceasefire was over. He said that the loyalist paramilitaries had earned great respect in observing their ceasefire and they must now ensure that it is maintained.
His message to the loyalist paramilitaries was: "Don't throw that away, and whatever elements or whatever pressure there may have been, stand up to them and sustain your ceasefire."
He was reserving judgment on the state of the ceasefire. "What we would like to see is the loyalist ceasefire sustained on a coherent and complete basis," said Mr Trimble.
He repeated his view that the talks process probably would not be viable in the period prior to the Westminster election. The imminence of the election was already having a "significant influence" on the conduct of politics in Northern Ireland, he added.
"I think we need to ask ourselves whether within this context we can maintain a viable talks process, or whether we might not be better to put this thing on hold and to come back after the general election," Mr Trimble said.
Mr Billy Hutchinson, spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF, and Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, associated with the UDA, said as far as they were aware the loyalist ceasefire still held.
So far there has been no statement on the issue from the loyalist umbrella group, the Combined Loyalist Military Command which ultimately determines whether the ceasefire holds.
