The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, has attacked the early release provision of the Belfast Agreement, saying no benefit had been gained from freeing paramilitary prisoners.
The failure to link the release programme securely to disarmament and disbandment of terrorist groups had led to a crisis in the peace process, creating an "appalling vista" of a future Ulster society dominated by armed gangs, he said. The First Minister of the Northern Assembly was speaking at a debate during the British Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth.
He was highly critical of the former Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, saying she had "mismanaged" prisoner releases. Responding to a question about early release, Mr Trimble said: "Obviously one considers it to be wrong, and the tragedy of it is that not only was the normal course of justice interfered with for political reasons, but no benefit was gained by doing so.
"The person I regard as most responsible for the mismanagement of this is Mo Mowlam, and without breaking any confidences, I do know that there are other people in government who do think it was mismanaged. If you are having a prisoner release scheme, it should have been clearly linked to the behaviour of paramilitaries and ways of driving through the disarmament and disbandment of paramilitaries."
Mr Trimble said there was no longer confidence in the Northern Ireland peace process, but added "It is not in our interest for the process to collapse. It is in our interest for the process to be reformed and reformulated as originally intended so we do see an end to paramilitarism."
Asked how long he would be able to continue as First Minister if decommissioning was not forthcoming, Mr Trimble said that he did not have a crystal ball and could not predict how things would develop. But he added: "I am not a quitter."
Meanwhile in Belfast, anti-Agreement Ulster Unionist sources last night said a letter had been sent to the party chairman, Lord Rogan, asking for an Ulster Unionist Council meeting to discuss party policy.
The letter carries the 60 signatures needed. The UUC is the party's governing body. Demands for the meeting increased after the UUP's defeat in the South Antrim by-election.
Anti-agreement members are expected to table a motion demanding that the party leadership withdraws from government with Sinn Fein until there is an actual Provisional IRA arms handover. The meeting will most likely take place later this month.
Meanwhile, the anti-agreement Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Willie Ross, has expressed concern that his party leadership has not realised that its South Antrim by-election defeat means it must change political course.
Addressing Queen's University Unionist Association yesterday, Mr Ross accused party leaders of "passing the buck" following the disastrous result. An immediate policy change was necessary, he said.
"But I fear the omens are not good. When some of us have pointed out that the barest minimum is that we should stick firmly to our party policy of no guns, no government and that the disgraceful retreat from that policy was a large factor in the South Antrim defeat, we are assailed with siren voices crying, `Do you want to return to war?'
Mr Ross said it was untrue that there was no alternative to the agreement. "The UUP had an alternative which was cast aside . . . "There is an alternative in Scotland and in Wales and neither of these devolved bodies depends on the goodwill of an organised murder machine to survive."