As the Loyalist Volunteer Force widened the scale of its death threats, a Sinn Fein councillor has expressed no objection to nationalists assisting the RUC in trying to track down loyalist paramilitaries responsible for recent sectarian murders.
The LVF has now threatened to kill suspected or known paedophiles living in the mid-Ulster area. The Lurgan Mail last night carried a statement from the LVF warning that child sex offenders must leave the area or face "immediate execution".
The warning came as a Sinn Fein councillor in Maghera, Mr John Kelly, and Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) gave markedly different responses to an appeal from the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, for greater community assistance in tracking down the killers.
Mr Flanagan said the RUC knew who committed some of the recent murders but needed greater public assistance to bring them to justice. He said the net was closing fast on the killers.
Mr Kelly, in whose area Mr Fergal McCusker was recently murdered by the LVF, told BBC Northern Ireland yesterday that while the RUC was distrusted and unacceptable to many nationalists, giving information to the force was a matter for each individual.
His comments caused some surprise, given Sinn Fein's total opposition to the RUC. "I have had people coming to me as a public representative asking whether they should go to the RUC. I say to them: `You are a mature person. That is a matter for yourself'," said Mr Kelly.
"There are other people who have come to me, and said to me: `I have been to the RUC, and I have given them information relevant to the murder of Fergal McCusker'. And I say to them: `That's fine, and I hope you are not coming to me out of fear, but out of respect for me as your public representative'," he added.
Mr Hutchinson, however, expressed concern that loyalists giving information against loyalists in their own communities could expose themselves to danger. "We need to be careful about this, and the police need to be careful about what they are asking people to do," he said.
"People will be killed for informing, and I don't believe people should inform, but I do believe they should be telling these people they don't act on their behalf," added Mr Hutchinson. Mr Hutchinson's comments were deplored as "totally irresponsible" by Families Against Intimidation and Terror. "It seems that Councillor Hutchinson is more content to encourage people to take the law into their own hands, rather than co-operate with the police, to bring these people to justice," said a spokesman, Mr Glyn Roberts.
A spokesman for Parents Against Paedophiles in mid-Ulster said it was up to the police and the social and probation services to deal with paedophiles, not paramilitary groupings.
