N. Ireland Group Threatens to End Its Cease-Fire
In a new threat to Northern Ireland’s tenuous peace, the province’s largest pro-British paramilitary group threatened Tuesday to break its cease-fire, accusing Roman Catholic groups of attacking Protestant homes.
The threat by the Ulster Freedom Fighters, or UFF, came just hours after an explosive device was found near the residence of Britain’s senior government minister in the province and a pipe bomb was found outside a bar west of Belfast, the provincial capital.
“The UFF reserves the right to shoot any persons seen to be attacking Protestant homes,” the Protestant guerrillas said in a statement.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson warned all paramilitary groups against breaking their cease-fires, adding that they would jeopardize the planned early release of jailed guerrillas under the province’s 1998 Good Friday accord.
Mandelson played down the discovery of the explosive device on the grounds of Hillsborough Castle, his residence outside Belfast, saying he felt “very safe and very secure.”
British army bomb disposal experts rendered the device harmless and also destroyed the pipe bomb at a pub in Benburb, west of Belfast.
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