TALKS between prisoners' representatives and the Northern Ireland Office will resume this afternoon as the protest by loyalists over new security arrangements in the Maze Prison enters its third day.
NIO officials met both the UDP and PUP at Stormont yesterday afternoon but the meetings failed to end the dispute. Supporters had gathered outside the Maze earlier in the day to cheer UDA prisoners who continued to protest on the roofs of H-Blocks 1 and 2.
The protesters left the roofs during the afternoon as talks began, but reemerged after learning there had been no breakthrough. Prison staff have not returned to either block and domestic visits to the protesting prisoners remain cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, criticised a UFF statement which spoke of "a price" to be paid if force was used against the protesters. Such threats to prison staff were "anything but loyal," Sir Patrick said.
The UFF statement warned: "Should the prison authority give the go ahead to the riot squads on standby to saturate the loyalist wings and submit the men to unjust punishment then we will be forced into a position whereby we will be obliged to ensure both the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the NIO pay a price for the brutal treatment of our prisoners.
The statement concluded that the protest would continue until there was a satisfactory resolution. "The ball is with the prison authorities. They know how to bring this matter to an end."
But representatives of the UDP - the party which speaks for the UDA/UFF prisoners - emerged from an hour long meeting with officials saying there had been no progress and the demonstrations would go on.
The meeting and a later one with the PUP - was attended by the chief executive of the prison service. Mr Alan Shannon, and the director of policing and security in Northern Ireland, Mr John Steele. It was Mr Steele who supervised the inquiry into the discovery of an IRA escape tunnel in the Maze last month, the incident which precipitated the new security regime at the prison.
Speaking after the meeting, the UDP's prisons spokesman, Mr John White, said the prisoners were objecting to being locked up for head counts, not to the head counts themselves. He added there had been "little commonality" between the respective positions outlined at the meeting, but hoped for progress today.
The Alliance Party leader, Lord Alderdice, criticised the "simpering approach to the prisoners' demands, which he said was asking for trouble. The situation would have to be grasped firmly by a new Northern secretary, he added.
Meanwhile, the Irish Republican Socialist Party said that while INLA prisoners had "difficulties" with the new regulations, they had been advised against protest while talks were pursued.
The party criticised the continued presence of the Portadown loyalist. Billy Wright, in a wing of the INLA block at the Maze and complained of attacks on republican prison visitors by loyalists. INLA prisoners will not accept being trawled into an internal loyalist dispute or having their visitors attacked by thugs," the statement said.
It warned that prison authorities must act immediately to resolve the issue of Billy Wright and that loyalists should guarantee an end to attacks on visitors. "INLA representatives have made it known that they will not tolerate the continuance of either for much longer."
