Review could have been kick-started, not kicked around: Ford

12.00.00am GMT Tue 23rd Mar 2004

Speaking after an Alliance delegation met with the British and Irish prime ministers this afternoon, Party Leader David Ford said that if the governments had come to fast-track the process, they had failed.

Mr Ford stated: "The two prime ministers were supposed to kick-start this review today, but instead it is being kicked around. There is a real need for the governments to make it clear that the political process will carry on, whether or not paramilitary groups live up to democratic standards.

"The people of Northern Ireland need to hear from the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach that there is a political process, that it will continue and that they are firmly committed to working with those parties which will work under the normal principles of democracy.

"The publication of the Independent Monitoring Commission's report in two weeks will provide the governments with the opportunity to show whether they will work with democrats or allow paramilitaries to hold the process to perpetual ransom."