Cllr Mervyn Jones said: “Alliance proposed this amendment so that Belfast Council would show its opposition to all forms of violence and condemned all the deaths that occurred during the Troubles. I believe we need to have a holistic approach which can get agreement from all sides instead of looking at individual incidents.
“In my speech I condemned the murder of these two British soldiers, but by having a motion condemning all murders it would help us move forward us a society.
“With many anniversaries coming up in the next couple of years, I believe it is important for the Council to have direction in how we deal with the past by condemning violence from all quarters.
“If we are to work towards a shared society then we must have an agreed comprehensive method of dealing with the past, instead of concentrating on specific cases. We could have motions each month that brought up every incident which would not lead to progress in how we deal with the past.”
ENDS