Ms Rosemary Nelson's killers "are not loyal to anything other than their own bigotry and prejudice, and that is not a loyalty shared by any sensible member of the United Kingdom", the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said yesterday.
Mr Blair told MPs during Question Time in the Commons that her murderers were seeking to wreck the hopes for peace of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland. Their "clear intent" was to stir up community tensions and attack the political process.
He assured MPs that the investigation into Ms Nelson's murder, which is being headed by the Chief Constable of Kent, Mr David Phillips, would be "independent". He said Mr Phillips would be given every assistance by the RUC. The remit of the investigation would be "very wide".
The Labour MP Mr David Winnick had earlier described Ms Nelson's murder as "foul" and called on Mr Blair to accept that her murderers were "traitors to everything this country stands for".
Mr Blair replied: "There will be no stone left unturned in the hunt for these killers . . . "
In response to a question by Labour MP Mr Harry Barnes, who condemned so-called exile sentences imposed by paramilitaries on members of the community in Northern Ireland, Mr Blair called for an end to enforced exiles. He said attempts by extremists to wreck the peace process represented the "single greatest danger" to peace in Northern Ireland.
"Whether it is the murder of Ms Nelson or these exile sentences or these so-called punishment beatings, they are all an attempt to pull apart that vast consensus for peace in Northern Ireland. The best response to it is to say: `Whatever incidents of violence are carried out in Northern Ireland, we, the decent majority, will carry on constructing a peaceful future for the people there.' "
Following the murder of Mr Frankie Curry in Belfast yesterday, Downing Street said last night that the British government would continue to work to ensure a peaceful future for the people of Northern Ireland.
The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Andrew Mackay, said Mr Curry's murder illustrated the urgent need to decommission all illegal arms and explosives in Northern Ireland. "Without this how can there be lasting peace in the province?" He urged politicians in Washington not to be deflected from their task by the killing.