There has been widespread condemnation of the latest two killings in Northern Ireland within a period of 24 hours. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said: "News of the murders of Brendan Campbell and Robert Dougan has been received with dismay throughout the island of Ireland."
Mr Robert Dougan was shot dead as he sat in a car in Dunmurry, on the south-west outskirts of Belfast, at lunchtime yesterday. Sources said he was a member of the UDA. Republicans are believed to have been responsible.
Mr Brendan Campbell, a known drugs dealer, was killed as he left a restaurant in south Belfast on Monday night. Again, no group has claimed responsibility, but Direct Action Against Drugs, a flag of convenience for the IRA, is understood to have been involved.
Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the UDA's political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party, said Mr Dougan's killing had been deliberately designed to provoke. "Quite clearly some republican group has carried this out."
????ein continued to take part in all-party talks "despite the indisputable fact that the IRA are militarily active".
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said the killing of Mr Dougan had been sanctioned by the IRA and was designed to provoke the UDA in order to make impossible the UDP's readmission to the talks process.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, described the killers of both men as enemies of the people of Northern Ireland.
The SDLP Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alban Maginness, called for an immediate end to all paramilitary violence in the city. The anti-paramilitary group, Families Against Intimidation and Terror, described Mr Dougan's killing as "a disgusting and vile murder". The DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said the IRA had killed Mr Campbell and demanded that the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, immediately "clarify the situation". ?????ein's expulsion from the talks. "If the Secretary of State does not act, she will be guilty of turning a blind eye to IRA violence," he said.
The UK Unionist Party's deputy leader, Mr Cedric Wilson, urged the UUP to withdraw from all-party negotiations, saying the party could not stay at the talks table "with those fronting terrorist groups which are both armed and active."
The Alliance deputy leader, Mr Seamus Close, said there was no justification for either of the killings, regardless of the circumstances.
The Workers' Party described the killings as "a sickening act of savagery which cannot be justified under any circumstances".