The spokesman for the anti-intimidation group Families Against Intimidation and Terror, Mr Vincent McKenna, publicly named two men whom he claims were responsible for the Omagh bombing last August. Mr McKenna made the allegations at the UK Unionist Party conference, at which he was a guest speaker.
Speaking afterwards, Mr McKenna said the reason he decided to name the men was because he was "sick, sore and tired of people pointing the finger at dissident republicans".
He said the men responsible for the bombing, which killed 29 people, were not "nameless, faceless individuals" but people "who sat on the IRA Army Council with the republican leadership".
Mr McKenna told delegates paramilitary attacks were not compatible with the commitment to non-violence contained in the Belfast Agreement. Last year, he said, 72 people were shot, 165 mutilated and beaten, while 440 men, women and children were exiled from Northern Ireland by paramilitaries. The Belfast Agreement and the peace process had raised expectations the incidents would cease. He accused the British government of effectively tolerating certain kinds of terrorist activity for political expediency. Mr McKenna warned delegates that unless terrorism was addressed and the British government stopped "pandering to terrorism" Northern Ireland was facing "difficult times ahead". On the motion of whether to participate in the Assembly, associated committees and North-South bodies with Sinn Fein members while no decommissioning had taken place, the party unanimously decided that in the event of this happening it would call a special meeting and debate "appropriate policy response". But Mr Harry Gordon, who stressed that he was in no way "soft" on the agreement, told delegates that perhaps the party should not withdraw from the Assembly but remain and "win over wavering members of the Ulster Unionist Party".
He added that it would prove advantageous to the UKUP if it remained "working the system to the advantage of the pro-Union people".
"I would like to point out that participation in the Assembly, even Assembly committees, does not mean co-operation. It can mean using our position to frustrate anti-unionist measures and advance the unionist cause," said Mr Gordon. But his comments were not well received by the delegates with some "tuts" and "hisses" heard from the floor. Mr McCartney was seen shaking his head, and began to look increasingly uncomfortable before Mr Gordon was "politely" told that his "time was up".
Mr McCartney said the party would decide its response at the special meeting on whether it would withdraw from the Assembly in the event of Sinn Fein being included in the executive. Later, Mr Gordon said that while he was "shocked and surprised" by the conference's reaction he fully supported party policy. He said the party leader was right when he asked was it really worth "the sacrifice of having to renege on our principle of refusing to sit with Sinn Fein for the sake of 10 minutes' debate in the Assembly debates, which is all he is allowed". The conference passed a motion to support the right to peaceful, non-provocative marches, "provided it is lawful". Delegates voted to put forward one candidate for the European elections in June, with one objection.