Blair Calls For Anti-Terror Law

Prime Minister Tony Blair, standing near the spot where a bomb killed 28 people, said Tuesday that he was recalling Parliament to enact new legislation intended to lock up terrorists.

Blair said both houses of Parliament would be recalled next Wednesday and Thursday, just before President Clinton's visit to Northern Ireland.

Under the proposed laws, suspected bombers and gunmen could be jailed for belonging to an illegal organization, based on the testimony of a police officer.

The legislation would apply only to organizations named in the legislation. Blair did not list them in his announcement.

"The days of the men of violence must be consigned to the past, where they belong," Blair said, standing at the crossroads bombed on Aug. 15 by the so-called Real IRA, a splinter group which has refused to join in the Irish Republican Army's cease-fire.

Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, said Blair's proposed legislation was a "massive overreaction" that could jeopardize the peace process.

"The great danger in introducing these measures is that we could have a situation developing which could have great and serious implications for the peace agreement and Sinn Fein's role within it," Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein spokesman, said in a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern also has pledged new anti-terrorist laws, and the Irish Parliament is expected to meet in emergency session in Dublin starting Sept. 2.

The Irish and British legislation is aimed at dissident groups who failed to endorse the Northern Ireland peace agreement accepted by the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein. Those groups include the Real IRA, which admitted it planted the Omagh bomb.

Until now, convicting people of membership of outlawed groups has been extremely difficult. The groups keep no written records of membership, senior members do not involve themselves directly in perpetrating attacks, and potential civilian witnesses risk being killed as informers.

McGuinness called Northern Ireland's predominantly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary the most discredited police force in Western Europe and said innocent people therefore could be jailed.

Written by Shawn Pogatchnik