THE tension surrounding Sunday's proposed Orange parade through the Catholic Garvaghy Road area of Portadown has increased with a threat by an extreme loyalist group to carry out assassinations if the parade is stopped.
The threat came as the latest attempts to negotiate a settlement of the parade issue failed. Talks between the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition and the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, at Stormont broke up after 11/2 hours yesterday without agreement. Dr Mowlam had similarly unsuccessful talks with the Orange Order on Tuesday night.
The group which issued the statement, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), is the same one which is thought to have killed a Catholic taxi- driver, Mr Michael McGoldrick, during last year's stand-off at Garvaghy Road.
It said: "This statement is a message to the Irish Government that if the Orange Order in Portadown do not walk the Garvaghy Road on Sunday the Irish Government will pay a heavy price.
"This will mean innocent civilians being killed in an ongoing war to stop the Irish Government interfering in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland. This attack will be imminent if the parade is not allowed to go down."
The threat was immediately condemned by Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, which is the political wing of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association.
Mr McMichael called on the LVF to lift the threat, saying: "We have a very delicate situation in trying to resolve the Drumcree parade issue. The Orange Order have made reasonable and sensible plans on how to deal with this matter. It is counter-productive for the LVF to behave in such a way.
After yesterday's talks at Stormont, the Garvaghy Road residents' group revealed that the RUC had refused permission for the holding of a community festival on the road at the time the Orange parade is due to pass down the road. The association said this decision was "ominous" and that it did not intend to change its plans.
The local RUC commander informed the group that the police did not accept the centre of the Garvaghy Road was the "best location" in the area for this festival. "In the absence of a road closure order the police would have to view any such activity on the Garvaghy Road as an obstruction.
Dr Mowlam said she accepted that the police had made the order in the interests of preventing an obstruction.
Last night the residents' group began the first of several nightly vigils on the Garvaghy Road to ensure that no parade passes down the road before the proposed Sunday parade. A group of women has also set up a camp on the roadside, saying it intends to stay in place until the parade is stopped.
In a statement yesterday, the Orange Order said the Garvaghy Coalition was showing its "penchant for intimidation and threats" and said that the group was being manipulated by Sinn Fein/IRA. It added: "The hand of Sinn Fein/IRA is to be clearly seen in the orchestration of the campaign against peaceful, legitimate expressions or our faith and culture."
Sinn Fein yesterday indicated that it would view any decision by the British government to allow the Orange parade along the Garvaghy Road as a capitulation.
It said: "If the British government back down in the face of such threats, as they did in 1996, in 1974 and as far back as 1912-14, then the point is underscored once more: violence and threats of violence pay and are rewarded as far as the English establishment is concerned. In that case, the outlook for the future is a grim one indeed."
The SDLP called on the Orange Order and all community and political leaders to condemn the LVF threat and "send a clear message to those behind that they are speaking for nobody when they threaten to take innocent lives".
The quote attributed to Sinn Fein in yesterday's report headed "Murder threat by loyalist group increases tension as parade talks fail" should have been attributed to Republican Sinn Fein.