THE DUP has said the Maze peace centre is "entirely in the hands of republicans", after its architect insisted yesterday that it will be built.
New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind said First Minister Peter Robinson's withdrawal of support from the centre is merely a natural "pause" in the process.
Mr Libeskind, who designed the Ground Zero project in New York and the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Berlin, remains convinced his latest plans will become a reality, despite the DUP leader's recent announcement the project has been halted.
In the summer, Mr Robinson wrote to party members claiming necessary broad consensus on it operation is missing.
The centre forms the flagship part of a £300 million redevelopment of the site near Lisburn.
However, unionists have been unhappy at the prospect of public use of the one existing H-Block, where paramilitaries were held - and the hospital where republican hunger strikers died. "I've seen that pause button in every project," Mr Libeskind said. "I think that every building [I've worked on] had a similar process; initial impetus then: How do we get consensus? How do we bring people together? "But in evetry one of those instances the building was able to forge a path towards the future. So I think it will happen. I think that people will understand that it's not a shrine to terrorism. I have full confidence that it will happen."
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the party "has always supported the development of the Maze site, but we are adamant that it must be a shared space inviting and welcoming to all".
He said Mr Robinson had been clear "it was up to republicans to convince unionists that they are serious and sincere". "Unfortunately even in the last few days we have seen senior Sinn Fein
representatives causing great offence as they sought to glorify a prison escape which resulted in the death of a prison officer," he said. "It is entirely in the hands of republicans when or if that consensus will ever exist."