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Your support makes all the difference.A leading loyalist paramilitary found dead today in his prison cell in Northern Ireland had feared for his life, it was claimed.
Mark Fulton from Portadown, Co Armagh, was on remand awaiting trial charged with conspiring to murder a man during a feud with rival paramilitaries.
He was found dead by staff at Maghaberry Prison, near Lisburn, Co Antrim.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said the circumstances of his death were being investigated.
Fulton was a close associate of Billy Wright, leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), who was shot dead by republicans inside the Maze Prison in December 1997.
John White, of the Ulster Political Research Group, who knew Fulton, said: "He was afraid somebody would try to kill him. That is why he refused to mix with mainstream prisoners at the jail."
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair today to discuss the latest outbreak of violence which has engulfed east Belfast for more than a week and spread to other areas of the city.
The meeting comes after the city was hit by further violence last night in which a police officer was taken to hospital with facial burns after his vehicle was hit by a petrol bomb.
Shots were fired at police when they moved in to disperse a mob which was torching cars in the Loyalist Donegall Pass area near the centre of the city.
Troops were brought in and two men arrested for riotous and disorderly behaviour. Police fired a baton round at a petrol bomber.
Mr Adams will be accompanied at the Downing Street meeting by party colleague Martin McGuinness, Education Minister in the power-sharing Stormont government.
Mr Blair is expected to tell the republican leaders that the government has clear evidence of IRA involvement in recent shootings, which have left at least seven people injured, and that they must stop immediately.
Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid said yesterday there had been a very worrying involvement and orchestration of recent violence by paramilitaries on all sides.
He expressed concern at the "general lack of confidence" in the peace process in the province.
Dr Reid said: "Enormous efforts have been spent on moving the peace process forward, there have been enormous benefits.
"But there is obviously still activity, orchestration of violence by paramilitaries on all sides, and that is very worrying."
Work got under way yesterday to raise the height of the "peace wall" separating nationalist and loyalist areas in troubled east Belfast's Short Strand.
It is expected to be several weeks before the task is completed by army engineers.
The wall is up to four metres high and is being increased by up to three-and-A-half metres more in a bid to prevent missiles such as blast bombs and petrol bombs being thrown over.
East Belfast remained relatively calm at the beginning of the weekend but there was violence in South Belfast early on Sunday and again last night.
Two people were injured and two more arrested during clashes at the junction of the Ormeau Road and Donegall Pass.
Police came under missile and petrol bomb attack and two shots were fired at them when they were confronted by rival groups armed with bottles and sticks.
A stockpile of petrol bombs in two crates were recovered by the security forces at Walnut Street in the Donegall Pass area, said a PSNI spokeswoman.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein is likely to come under extra pressure over its terror links when US president George Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland visits the province this week.
Richard Haas is accompanying a group of US policing experts on a two day midweek visit.
The Haas visit may reveal the US administration's latest thinking on the IRA's links with FARC guerrillas in Colombia and whether Washington plans sanctions on Sinn Fein.
Up to 15 senior IRA figures are now suspected by Colombian and US security agencies of visiting FARC in Colombia to give training in urban warfare techniques.
Three Irish republicans are currently awaiting trial in the South American country after being arrested in the FARC controlled southern area last year.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said today's meeting with Sinn Fein should be seen as part of a "continuum" of meetings.
The spokesman said: "Everybody recognises that at this time in the calendar of Northern Ireland it is historically a testing time of year, but last week's violence – from both sides – was totally unacceptable and the Prime Minister expects leaders on all sides to do what they can.
"The message from the Prime Minister will be consistent as it has been throughout: that all paramilitarism has to come to an end."
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