Letter: In Brief

Sir: The decision by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to recognise the Loyalist Volunteer Force's so-called ceasefire (report, 13 November), so as to put pressure on the IRA to begin decommissioning, has rightly been described by Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, as "facile". The freeing of those responsible for recent vicious sectarian murders in a matter of months will surely do nothing to reassure the nationalist community that their concerns are being taken seriously.

J P MURPHY