SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says he welcomes the moved by dissident republican group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) to call a ceasefire.
He has called on all dissident republican groups to “bow to the will of the Irish people” and end the violence.
The Foyle MLA said:
“I welcome the cessation of violence announced by Óglaigh na hÉireann today.
“It is long overdue.
“Their statement today must lead to the permanent position of pursuing politics through solely peaceful means.
“However, whilst welcoming this move I also have to challenge the statement released by ONH which states that it is suspending ‘all armed actions against the British state’.
“The violence of ONH targeted the Irish people.
“Peadar Heffron was an Irish police officer serving all the people across the North, yet ONH were behind his attempted murder in 2010.
“While we can welcome the move to cease using violence, we cannot allow for the past to be glossed over.
“Let the failure of the violent campaigns of ONH and other violent actors instead serve as a hard won lesson on this island – bombs and bullets have never achieved progress.
“Again and again this island has known violence and again and again we have known its futility.
“Violence has only ever led to the hardening of hearts and the filling graveyards.
“Today’s announcement is also an opportunity for all the other fractures of dissident republican organisations to end their so called ‘campaigns’. Let all of them instead bow to the will of the Irish people.
“This demand does not just come from me as the leader of the SDLP – this is the wish and the will of the Irish people.
“The remaining dissident groups must be forced to face the reality that their battle is not with the British Government or the British state – it is with us the Irish people. They have never wielded violence in our name and they never will.
“All true republicans have a duty to listen to and act on the sovereignty and authority of the Irish people – they must finally end the violence,” added the SDLP leader.