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UK: Bomb aimed at peace process

Bomb scene
The bomb spread debris over a wide area  

LONDON, England -- A bomb attack on the BBC television centre in London was designed to ruin the Irish peace process, UK Home Secretary Jack Straw has said.

He said it was intended to damage the three-year-old peace agreement which seeks to bring an end to three decades of violence between republicans and unionists who want Northern Ireland to stay part of the UK.

"Its purpose -- so far as there is a purpose apart from mayhem -- of this kind of bombing is to seek to disrupt the peace process," Straw said.

"What is crucially important is that we don't allow this kind of mindless attack, which could have led to a very considerable loss of life, to disrupt that process."

  MESSAGE BOARD
 

Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the attack, which is being blamed on dissident republicans the Real IRA, illustrated why the government should ignore demands by Sinn Fein, the republican political party, for the scaling down of army bases and military operations.

Donaldson said: "I hope the prime minister realises it is absolutely essential, not just for the people of Northern Ireland but people throughout the United Kingdom, that adequate security measures remain in place.

"The only way to deal with the Real IRA and dissident groups is through adequate security and surveillance." Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Andrew Mackay said the attack showed that there must be no trade off to reduce security measures in Northern Ireland in return for IRA decommissioning.

"It is very, very dangerous for all innocent people, whether in Northern Ireland or here in the United Kingdom, to reduce the Army's strength, reduce security, lessen the role of the RUC in Northern Ireland. We would do it at our peril," he said.

The British and Irish governments and pro-Good Friday Agreement parties are expected to meet on Thursday in a bid to break the deadlock over policing, IRA decommissioning, British demilitarisation and sanctions against Sin Fein.

The Real IRA, which split from the mainstream Irish Republican Army in 1997, was blamed for Northern Ireland's single worst atrocity -- a car bomb in the town of Omagh the following year which killed 29 people.

The BBC last year broadcast a documentary which named several men it said were responsible for the Omagh bombing.

Police said it was possible the BBC bomb was retribution for the documentary. "That undoubtedly... rattled the terrorists," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch.

The group has since been identified by the security forces as carrying out a series of relatively minor bombings in London, including an attack on Hammersmith Bridge last year.

The BBC bomb was preceded by a coded warning to a London hospital and a charity, giving the BBC time to evacuate employees. The same code word had been used before the Hammersmith bomb.

Essex police on Monday charged a Northern Ireland man with terrorism offences but said there was nothing to link him to the BBC attack.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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RELATED SITES:
Northern Ireland Office
Metropolitan Police: Anti-Terrorist Branch

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