The Loyalist Volunteer Force, admitting murdering a fourth Catholic since the killing of its leader Billy Wright, has threatened further murders. The body of Fergal McCusker was found yesterday morning behind a youth club in Maghera, Co Derry.
Sinn Fein said the killing was designed to force nationalists into accepting an anodyne political settlement. The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which is close to the UVF, said the killing was an attempt to provoke IRA retaliation.
Mr McCusker (28), who had recently returned from the United States, was shot in the head. His killers struck around 1.15 a.m. yesterday as he returned home from a pub. Local people heard two shots around 1.20 a.m. Mr McCusker's body was dumped behind the Fairhill Youth Club.
A Sinn Fein councillor, Mr John Kelly, said: "The first shot was heard at 1.20 am, and a second shortly after, and then a car was heard speeding away."
The LVF, in a coded message to a Belfast newsroom, said it would murder again. "This is not the end," it said in a statement.
Local people dismissed LVF claims that Mr McCusker was a republican. "He was killed because he was a Catholic," said one man.
The local Sinn Fein MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, after visiting Mr McCusker's family, also rejected the LVF statement. "It is clearly a sectarian assassination, there is no doubt about it," he added. "It is obvious to everyone that terror is being used against the nationalist community and the Catholic community in an effort to force the nationalist community to accept less than what they are entitled to at the negotiating table," said Mr McGuinness.
The PUP spokesman, Mr David Ervine, said he was in no doubt that the LVF was trying to provoke the IRA into violence, and to destabilise the talks process. "I have absolutely no doubt that that is what the LVF murders are about," he added.
Since the Billy Wright murder last December, his organisation murdered four Catholics: crosscommunity youth worker Terry Enright from west Belfast; club doorman Seamus Dillon in Dungannon, Co Tyrone; and Eddie Trainor, a Housing Executive worker gunned down at a bar in north Belfast.
The North's security minister Mr Adam Ingram, described the murder as a "senseless act that served no purpose other than to bring grief and tragedy to yet another family."
The Ulster Unionist Party security spokesman Mr Ken Maginnis said the killing was morally wrong and purposeless. Mr Denis Haughey of the SDLP said the killing was "another unforgivable attempt by sinister elements in this community to destabilise our society and derail our efforts to find peace".
The murder was also condemned by Alliance and the Workers' Party and Families Against Intimidation.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said he was appalled and deeply saddened by the sectarian killing in Maghera. He condemned "the violent people who perpetrated this outrage and cruelly cut short another young life. These vicious enemies of peace seem determined to block the way towards a political settlement. "They must not be allowed to get what they want and destroy the hope of a peaceful future." The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, condemned the murder as "an act of calculated provocation by the LVF."
Mr Bruton strongly condemned the "disgraceful murder" and said those responsible should be brought to justice and those who had information had a grave obligation to give it to the police.
"This killing is a calculated provocation and the political links of the Loyalist Volunteer Force who have claimed responsibility for the murder need to be rigorously investigated," Mr Bruton said.
Earlier, the Fine Gael leader said the Mitchell Principles must be uniformly and rigorously enforced within the talks process. The governments had to show "absolute firmness" in relation to the principles, he said, and no party should be allowed to participate in the talks process if it was engaged in violence or threatened violence.
SF presses governments to amend settlement plan; Inquiry sought on claims on US leak: page 6
