The Northern Ireland Assembly has condemned republican and loyalist violence and urged all political parties to actively co-operate with the police in securing evidence against paramilitary groups which are in breach of ceasefires.
Sinn Féin had tabled an original motion calling on the Assembly to reject sectarianism in all forms and to agree on practical action to tackle it. However, the Ulster Unionist Party succeeded, by 47 votes to 33, with its amendment.
During the debate, Sinn Féin was accused of raising sectarian tensions in Belfast. One Northern Ireland Unionist Party member, Mr Paddy Roche, was ordered to leave the chamber. He had accused Sinn Féin Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly of being a convicted murderer. Mr Kelly was convicted of conspiracy to cause an explosion in London in 1973 but not murder.
He pointed this out, but Mr Roche refused to withdraw his comment. The Assembly's Deputy Speaker, Mr Jim Wilson, then ordered him to leave the chamber.
Both the main unionist parties and the SDLP tabled amendments to Sinn Féin's motion. The Assembly supported a UUP motion which rejected "republican and loyalist sectarianism" and called on all parties to co-operate with the police in securing evidence against those paramilitary groups breaching their ceasefires.
Sinn Féin's motion fell prey "to a fallacy", UUP Assembly member Mr Esmond Birnie said. "That fallacy is in a sense everyone is to blame, so no one in particular is to blame. It does not face the uncomfortable truth that the major drivers of sectarian tension very often have been the activities of paramilitaries."
Mr Kelly said his party's motion should have been easy to pass. "In the last two years there have been six people killed by loyalist attacks - four Catholics and two Protestants who were mistaken for Catholics. There have been hundreds of gun and bomb attacks and innumerable other sectarian attacks on people and property."
The Rev Ian Paisley said sectarianism was a term dating from the Protestant reformation used by Catholics to condemn those who criticised their faith. Nationalists and republicans decided that everything Protestant - the Orange Order, Protestant churches, the police and the old Stormont parliament - was sectarian.
SDLP Assembly member Mr Alex Attwood said sectarianism had to be tackled along political, security and community lines".