Ceasefire boosts talks on Ulster .sx By Our Belfast Correspondent and Ralph Atkins .sx LOYALIST PARAMILITARIES in Northern Ireland last night said they would enforce a qualified 'ceasefire' to coincide with the start in less than two weeks of formal talks on the province's political future .sx A statement issued in Belfast by the so-called " Combined Loyalist Military Command " said the suspension of operational hostilities was a genuine attempt to assist the talks process initiated by Mr Peter Brooke , Northern Ireland secretary .sx However , the statement said loyalist groups retained the right to take what it called " defensive or retaliatory action " - assumed to mean in response to action by the Irish Republican Army .sx Although the gesture comes from organisations abhorred by the government and the province's constitutional parties , it gives a further fillip to Mr Brooke who defied the expectations of many in winning agreement last month for round table talks .sx Loyalist murder gangs in Northern Ireland have been behind far more killings in the province this year than the IRA .sx Mr Brian Mawhinney , minister of state at the Northern Ireland Office , had earlier announced a starting date of April 30 for the round table-talks which will cover alternatives to the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement as well as devolution in the province .sx Details of the three or four man negotiating teams are expected to be announced shortly by the four political parties involved .sx The ceasefire move follows a series of meetings recently between leaders of the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association , which is still legal in the province .sx The UVF , sometimes using its flag of convenience , the Protestant Action Force , has been behind 11 murders in recent weeks .sx One outrage last month in which two teenaged girls and a young man were shot dead at a mobile shop in County Armagh horrified all sections of the community .sx Mr Peter Robinson , deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , welcomed the ceasefire saying it was indicative of the mood of the vast majority of people who wished to see peaceful solutions to Northern Ireland's problems .sx British and Irish ministers will meet a week tomorrow for a conference under the 1985 agreement , which Unionist leaders are anxious to see replaced .sx After then the workings of the agreement will , in effect , be suspended for about 10 weeks while talks take place .sx Round table talks will start with a brief series of bilaterals with Mr Brooke to agree an agenda .sx The Garda , the Irish police , have launched a high level inquiry into reports that a top secret Garda document was in possession of the IRA and had led to the murder of a protestant man in Northern Ireland .sx Mr Ian Sproule was shot dead by the IRA outside his parents home in County Tyrone last Saturday morning .sx The Garda document reportedly listed Mr Sproule as a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force , an illegal loyalist paramilitary group .sx The documented allegedly says Mr Sproule had been responsible for incendiary attacks on premises in the Irish Republic in 1987 .sx The Northern Ireland Office said it had expressed concern about the allegations to the Dublin government .sx It said :sx " The greatest care must be taken with information of such sensitive nature , " and hoped the Garda investigation would be " swift , full and comprehensive " .sx Excitement found in the middle lane .sx Ivo Dawnay discovers the driving passion within the Green Party .sx FOR MORE than two-and-a-half-years , the political control of Nottingham City Council , has depended on the antique mechanics of a 10-year-old , scarlet Ford Escort .sx In that time , its owner - 68-year-old Councillor John Peck , DFC - has successfully negotiated both uncounted traffic hazards and the potential pitfalls of holding the balance of power in the central England authority between 27 Labour and 27 Tory colleagues .sx A journey in this politically-crucial machine , nonetheless , gives the lie to the claim that the homely world of local government is unexciting .sx As Mr Peck - travelling at about 22mph on a busy commuter road - explained his agonised decision to abandon communism for the Green Party , there were several moments your petrified reporter was convinced that his pivotal role was granted only by the grace of God .sx If his driving skills might be questioned , Mr Peck is undoubtedly a formidable argument in the case for devolved power .sx By successfully campaigning on issues like grass-cutting and street-lighting , he has kept Labour in power and in check .sx His most prestigious victory was won by voting with the Tories to halt industrial development on local allotments .sx Above all , he believes politics should be as close as is feasibly possible to the people it affects .sx As an example , he cites the case of a High Street amusement arcade opposed locally and at council level but that eventually won approval on appeal .sx " If the dispute is between people on the ground and the planning authority , then go to arbitration , " he argues .sx " But if there is not a dispute , then I don't see why some bugger in bloody London should interfere .sx " .sx As must be the case in many of the local elections now under way , " bloody London " - birthplace of the poll tax and instigator of the squeeze on local spending - is probably more crucial to Nottingham than who runs the council .sx With Nottingham Forest football team in the FA Cup Final , busy shopping centres , a diversified business base and a prize-winning polytechnic , the city appears to be weathering recession almost cheerfully .sx Local development needs - a new Light Rapid Transport system and electrification of the Midland railway - enjoy all-party support .sx So , too , does the desire to win back the powers granted to the county council in the 1974 re-organisation .sx Indeed , one understandably anonymous local businessman conceded that many of his colleagues were as happy to see Labour in the magnificent 1929 Council House as the Tories .sx " Both lots agree on the main issue of fighting to develop Nottingham , " he said .sx " The headline-grabbing issues are always peripheral .sx " .sx That view is fiercely contested by the two main parties which are aware that with the three marginal Westminster seats ( one Labour , two Tory ) at stake , Nottingham is a weather-vane for the imminent general election .sx To make it more central still , the city's battles are being fought on propaganda and ideological territory strongly similar to that mapped-out in national headquarters .sx In consequence , Mr Bill Bradbury , the no-nonsense Tory leader , concedes that Labour has so far successfully sold its " modern " image .sx But he goes on to warn of a hidden agenda of irresponsible high-spending on " loony " leftism which once included a " world first " of gay swimming sessions at city pools .sx Mr John Taylor , Labour's bearded deputy leader , counters that his party is now the champion of " enabling local government " in partnership with the private sector , while the Tories inhabit an out-dated Thatcherite past of ineffective market forces .sx Pointing to a number of development schemes for vacant land , he says constructive intervention in the local economy is the only alternative to simply leaving Nottingham's future to the ebbs and flows of the national economy .sx Bounce that claim back off Councillor Bradbury and he will replies sic !sx that several of the projects were actually initiated by the Tories .sx If the party political arguments soon sound sterile , however , the Nottingham microcosm is an interesting reflection of the national picture .sx Both parties are wrestling for the centre ground on platforms of sound management based on private and public sector partnership .sx With the poll-tax fiasco and the Tories' high 1987 vote achieved on a tide of national affluence , Labour must , and almost certainly will , win outright control of the city this time .sx But whether the margin will be adequate to augur a General Election victory remains doubtful .sx As one neutral city leader put it :sx " If interest rates drop to 10 per cent and inflation is down to five per cent , that is also pretty persuasive .sx " .sx Kurdish groups welcome protection for refugees but raise further questions for allies .sx Iraqi stability " may hinge on Kurd problem " .sx By Victor Mallet , Middle East Correspondent , in London .sx THE DECISION to send US , British and French troops to establish and defend Kurdish refugee camps in northern Iraq raises the question of how long the Kurds will need protection from their own government .sx The answer , according to Kurdish refugees and exiles , is that the United Nations or the western powers will have to safeguard Iraq's 4m Kurds at least until President Saddam Hussein is overthrown , and possibly longer .sx Kurdish groups yesterday welcomed US President George Bush's announcement on the deployment of troops to protect Kurdish zones in northern Iraq , but they emphasised that the move responded to urgent humanitarian needs without providing a political solution to the Kurdish problem .sx Most Iraqi Kurds , including the main opposition groups fighting the Iraqi government , have oficially rejected separatism and are demanding autonomy within a united and democratic Iraq .sx Few of them , remembering the killings of recent days , the gassing of Kurds at Halabja in 1988 and the destruction of 4,000 Kurdish villages on Mr Saddam's orders , will ever be persuaded to accept at face value Mr Saddam's periodic offers of amnesty to Kurdish refugees .sx Kurds say that even if Mr Saddam is removed , Arab nationalist and anti-Kurdish sentiments fostered by the Iraqi authorities may cause further misery for the Kurdish people .sx " We don't want to be reduced to a refugee population in a number of camps , " said Dr Kamal Mirawdeli , director of the Kurdish Information and Educational Project in London .sx " But even if the Shia come to power , or another government - a pro-Saudi government - there is not guarantee that they won't behave in the same way .sx .. The only guarantee is for there to be a federal state and for the UN to recognise that .sx " .sx Kurds facing long stays in bleak refugee camps are acutely aware of the mistakes made by their Palestinian fellow-refugees .sx They fear they may live to regret leaving their homes in the face of real or threatened persecution , and moderate Kurds are anxious to restrain those who advocate terrorism .sx " If we're going to have a permanent refugee problem then obviously it's going to be worse , a lot worse than expected , " said Mr Abbas Vali , senior politics lecturer at the University of Wales at Swansea .sx " It's going to be a breeding ground for all sorts of negative tendencies in the Kurdish movement .sx " .sx The Kurds have few qualms about seeking military help from the outside world .sx They argue that the world has obligations under the Genocide Convention of 1948 .sx They point out that foreign intervention to help peoples subjected to tyranny is not unprecedented and they cite the US invasion of Panama in 1989 and the Tanzanian overthrow of Uganda's Idi Amin 10 years earlier .sx Kurdish guerrilla groups resent the suggestion that they miscalculated by launching an ill-advised rebellion throughout Iraqi Kurdistan after the allies defeated Mr Saddam's army and drove it out of Kuwait .sx What in fact occured was a spontaneous popular uprising that the guerrillas could not ignore .sx At first they had only 10,000 fighters under arms but their ranks were swelled by mass defections from the government's Kurdish militia .sx All were lightly armed and could not hope to hold the towns when confronted with Iraqi tanks , artillery and helicopter gunships .sx They were defeated in Kirkuk but elsewhere they simply melted into the hills to continue the fight .sx Civilians in towns , meanwhile , took fright as the government again seized control and took its revenge ; in the old days they would have taken refuge in their mountain villages , but Mr Saddam had destroyed these .sx They fled to Iran and Turkey , leaving Iraqi Kurdistan all but deserted and suffering the catastrophe which has finally embarrassed the US and its allies into taking action .sx If the Iraqi Kurds are ever to leave the refugee camps , which have yet to be built to receive them , and if the international community is ever to be relieved of the responsibility of protecting them , the Kurds will have to become part of Iraq's political system .sx Kurds insist that the successful achievement of this aim , which could be accompanied by a better deal for the Kurds in Turkey and Iran as the Turks and the Iranians seek better relations with the west , depends on the removal of Mr Saddam .sx