The Omagh Victims' Group has rounded on Sinn Féin after it again shunned an opportunity to urge republicans to help identify those responsible for the bombing, which happened four years ago to the day.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer in charge of the Omagh investigation, Det Supt Norman Baxter, also accused Sinn Féin of raising a "red herring" when it cited republican opposition to the Special Branch in its refusal to support the PSNI's inquiry.
Four years after the attack, which claimed the lives of 29 men, women and children, including a woman heavily pregnant with twin girls, Det Supt Baxter said Sinn Féin should "examine its conscience" and help in apprehending those responsible for the attack.
He dismissed Sinn Féin's views on the Special Branch and said its influence and support in the south Armagh/Dundalk area, from where the bombers chiefly emanated, could lead to their prosecution. "What we have is a coded message that certain republican elements do not believe that the people of Omagh were murdered, that the people who carried out the atrocity are murderers. Rather the message is that they are a result of a war situation," he said.
"The real question is: does the community believe that the perpetrators of Omagh are criminals within the criminal justice system? Do they believe the people who carried out the bombing in Omagh are killers or are they simply volunteers who went astray that day and carried out a mission that went wrong?" Det Supt Baxter added.
Mr Joe Byrne, SDLP Assembly member for Omagh, called on the "entire community to give full co-operation" to the police. "The suffering and misery experienced by the families merits that each and every person with information comes forward to the PSNI or Garda in bringing the Omagh perpetrators to justice," he said.
Sinn Féin's chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin accused Det Supt Baxter of engaging in "silly games" with regard to Omagh, and added that Sinn Féin initially condemned the attack as an atrocity and still held to that position.
He said the "families were entitled to justice" and added that Sinn Féin "does not run any campaign dissuading people from giving information". However, he baulked at the call to support the PSNI investigation, stating Sinn Féin could not back the Special Branch.
"Our position - and I think Det Supt Baxter is well aware of this - is we will not endorse, by implication even, the Special Branch, and it is one of the main issues that we are dealing with the British government. We do not have an acceptable policing service," said Mr McLaughlin.
His comments infuriated Mr Michael Gallagher, spokesman for Omagh Victims' Group, who lost his son Adrian in the bombing. "It is disappointing that people who say they are part of the democratic process are denying the families of Omagh the basic right to justice - and they themselves are the first off to demand justice."
He said both the PSNI and the Garda Síochána were involved in the investigation and asked whether Sinn Féin was refusing to support the Garda in its investigations. "We support both teams in their endeavours to bring the people before the courts, so why can't people like Mitchel McLaughlin and Sinn Féin support the Garda? Is that their bottom line, that they will not support the Garda?"
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that a second Omagh family is to take legal action against the British government and the PSNI over claims that the bombing could have been prevented. The family, which has not been named, is joining a legal case taken by Mr Laurence Rushe, whose wife, Elizabeth, was killed in the explosion.
