British were warned of IRA strategy - Attwood

The British government was warned two months before the Northern Bank robbery last year that the Provisional movement was testing the UK authorities to see how much they could get away with in relation to organised crime, the SDLP conference was told.

The party's spokesman on policing Alex Attwood told the conference that senior figures in the SDLP had warned the Northern Ireland Office in the aftermath of a cigarette heist by the IRA in Belfast last year that this was what the Provisional movement was seeking to achieve.

Mr Attwood said that after this meeting an e-mail was circulated among senior officials in the Northern Ireland Office maintaining that the view in Belfast was that the Provisionals were testing the British government to see what they could get away with.

He said the e-mail containing this warning had been sent "right to the heart of Downing Street" at the time of the negotiations on the comprehensive agreement last year and some two months before the Northern Bank robbery.

Mr Attwood said the British government had chosen to ignore the advice. Should this attitude continue to prevail then political opportunities would be squandered.

He said the British government's call on policing in Northern Ireland was "dangerously wrong".

Seán Farren told the conference that as new political talks approached it was imperative that the party stood by the Belfast Agreement.

He accused Sinn Féin of engaging in a perverse conspiracy with the DUP and anti-agreement unionists to undermine the deal.

The Provisional movement had calculatedly allowed instability to persist. He said that delays in relation to decommissioning had given succour to anti-agreement unionists.

Josephine Deehan from Omagh said the SDLP should present a united front to break down the malignancy of sectarianism.

"We are living in an artificial society of them and us. The major task that faces us is to restore good community relations.

She said that Sinn Féin politicians on district councils pursued motions that supported their party's agenda. "We should be trying to build bridges," she said.

Alban Maginness said that sectarianism was the number one political problem in Northern Ireland.

Declan McAteer said that the challenge to nationalists after the Belfast Agreement was to sell a united Ireland to unionists. He suggested that North-South co-operation could be a gentler approach to a united Ireland, which would allow people to see the benefits of closer links.

Former leader of the Labour Party Ruairí Quinn told the conference that he would like to see the Garda Síochána being remodelled along the lines of the structures set out in the Patten report on policing in the North.

It was disappointing to see Sinn Féin, the DUP and, regrettably, the British government playing politics with policing, he said.

"The clear concessions that have been given to the DUP in the reallocation of seats on the policing board, the deals done or being prepared with the Provisional movement on on-the-runs and community restorative justice projects, are undermining rather than strengthening the PSNI," he said.

Mr Quinn said it was simply unacceptable in any democratic society to have a political party with a totally ambiguous attitude to the police.