Sinn Féin and the IRA may orchestrate violence in nationalist and republican areas in Northern Ireland during the coming marching season, the SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, has warned.
Speaking before he left Washington yesterday, Mr Durkan said Sinn Féin could subsequently try to claim advantage by calming tensions in such areas.
"People are conscious that Sinn Féin might well try and use 'ground control' during the marching season as a way of reminding people that there are some things that the IRA are needed for," he told The Irish Times.
Sinn Féin, he said, had received "a very clear and clean message" from US political leaders during the St Patrick's Day celebrations.
"This is a town that works on bottom lines. There are no ifs and buts. People are getting fed up with the euphemisms and evasions of the peace process.
"People here don't want something that is halfway between a hint and a stunt. And they don't want some separation between Sinn Féin and the IRA.
"They will not see any substitute for what needs to be done with the IRA. It needs to go away, and Sinn Féin have got that message very clearly," Mr Durkan declared.
The SDLP leader was not invited to the White House or the annual Speaker's lunch on Capitol Hill, following the decision of both to impose a blanket ban on Northern political leaders, although the ban was principally designed to penalise Sinn Féin.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach, who attended the annual St Patrick's party hosted by the Irish Ambassador, Mr Noel Fahy, on Thursday night, left Washington for Ireland early yesterday morning.
Ms Catherine McCartney, one of the sisters of Mr Robert McCartney, murdered in Belfast in late January by IRA members, said they would now take their campaign to the European Parliament.
Saying that they had received a warm welcome from President George Bush and senior US political figures, Ms McCartney said they understood that media and political interest would inevitably begin to decline in the killing of their brother.
However, the family would continue to push for justice.
Sharply rebutting the charges levelled against them this week by Sinn Féin, she said the party insisted on believing the family's campaign was being orchestrated by outside forces.
The SDLP leader said the British government was prepared to look at his party's proposals for a re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
"Bill Clinton has told us that it is the only good idea that he has heard in two years. People here were told last December that if there wasn't a deal there wouldn't be one until 2006. They are asking now if they have to wait that long," he commented.
The SDLP has proposed that the Assembly be re-established, though the ministerial posts on the Executive would be filled by appointed commissioners, rather than by politicians.
The British, he said, had circulated "loose paper" ideas that would see the Assembly "scrutinising" the work of direct-rule ministers, or having legislative powers alongside those same ministers.
However, he said, "we want the highest common denominator, not the lowest. The parties say they are in favour of the agreement, or in favour of the fundamentals of the agreement. This would flush them out."
