BY ROSE KNIGHT
LONDON - Talks between the British government and various parties in northern Ireland resumed January 13 in Belfast. London continues to exclude Sinn Fein, the leading party opposing British rule in the north of Ireland, demanding that the Irish Republican Army call a cease-fire and give up its weapons before Sinn Fein representatives can be seated in the negotiations.

At the same time, the head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was forced to acknowledge that pro- British paramilitary groups have resumed violent attacks, despite their pretense of a cease-fire. Referring to December bomb attacks on republicans Eddie Copeland and Liam Duffy, RUC chief Ronnie Flanagan said that "extreme loyalist groups" were involved. Despite the murder of a Catholic taxi driver and a series of provocative actions last summer, the British government had refused to say that the loyalist cease-fire was over.

Early in January, the rightist Ulster Defense Association (UDA) threatened that its military organization, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, would resume a campaign against "the general nationalist population."

On January 20, there was a booby trap bomb attack on a Catholic family in Larne, County Antrim. The family said they had no connection with the republican movement. Sinn Fein chairperson Geraroid ÓhEara has called on Irish nationalists to be vigilant because of the increasing number of loyalist attacks.

Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness told An Phoblacht/Republican News, the newspaper of Sinn Fein, that even though he believed the loyalist cease-fire was over, the pro-British Ulster Democratic Party and Progressive Unionist Party should not be expelled from the talks. But he denounced the "double standards" that allowed loyalists to attend the talks while Sinn Fein is refused admission.

In another provocative move, loyalists have continued to picket outside a Catholic church at Harryville, County Ballymena. On January 18, 200 shouted and jeered as Catholics left mass. They wore Orange Order sashes and carried a banner stating, "Did the paedophile priests ask for consent?" - a reference to recent charges against priests in northern Ireland. The RUC removed the banner. A local Orange Order official said the pickets, who have been harassing churchgoers for 19 weeks, "are not genuine Orangemen."

In early December, London announced that all three of the British Army's Parachute Regiments are due to serve in Ireland in 1997. The announcement comes just before the 25 anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," when British paratroopers massacred 13 unarmed protesters in Derry, northern Ireland. Sinn Fein called for this decision to be reversed and said that at a time when nationalist Ireland was doing all in its power to rebuild the peace process, the British government seemed intent on provocation.

A new book on the 1972 massacre, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday by Don Mullan, has provoked a discussion that has brought out differences in the British Labour Party, which like the Tory party does not want Ireland to be an election issue. The book has uncovered new facts ignored by the tribunal set up in the aftermath of the events. It claims that soldiers fired on demonstrators not just on the streets, but from the Derry city walls. Relatives of the dead are calling for a new inquiry. Eric Illsley MP, a senior member of Labour's Northern Ireland team, said they would consider whether a public inquiry was needed. A statement on behalf of the shadow Home Secretary appeared to disagree, stating, "Our main aim is not to relive the past, but rather to build for the future."

Meanwhile, London has been unable to stop the campaign to release Roisín McAliskey, who is being held in Holloway Women's Prison in London on charges of alleged involvement with an attack on the British Army base at Osnabruck, Germany. She is six months pregnant and has been strip- searched many times since her arrest last November.

The High Court in London denied McAlisky bail for a fifth time January 22. After the second refusal of bail in mid-December, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said, "The continued imprisonment of Roisín McAliskey, who is five months pregnant and is quite ill, in the most atrocious conditions, has to be seen as a political decision. The British Home Office, which has a proven vindictive and racist record of abuse towards Irish prisoners, is responsible for this disgraceful decision." He called for McAliskey to be moved to a proper obstetric ward and for the end to "the degrading practice of strip searching." Protests have been held in London, Dublin, Belfast, and New York.  
 
 
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