DUP wants exiles to return home
The IRA's death threat against people intimidated out of the North during the conflict will be on the agenda for next week's talks aimed at restoring devolution, unionists said today.
The Democratic Unionist Party has called on republicans to allow those driven out to come home as part of a deal on power-sharing.
The political parties are meeting at St Andrews to agree a deal to restore the apparatus of government by November 24.
DUP victims' spokesman Jeffrey Donaldson said: “Clearly if the IRA is no longer involved in terrorist activity as the Independent Monitoring Commission suggests then there is no reason why the people they have exiled cannot return home.”
“The IRA needs to issue a very clear statement saying that it is no longer a threat to these people.”
“Gerry Adams talks about the need to address the issue of the on-the-runs (IRA fugitives wanted by the British Security Forces) but it is time to end these double standards.”
The IMC issued a report last week stating that the IRA had disbanded several elements of its command structure in a report widely seen as paving the way for future ministerial positions for Sinn Féin.
The Families Against Intimidation And Terror Group has already written to the Irish and British governments calling for action on the issue of exile and the claim there could be thousands living outside Ireland and afraid to return home.
The IRA statement standing down its members in July 2005 didn't mention the exiles.
Sinn Féin president Mr Adams wants to discuss the issue of on-the-run during next week's negotiations but has emphasised that it was not a deal-breaker.
The government tried to legislate to allow IRA on-the-runs to come home during the last parliamentary sessions but the bill collapsed and met string opposition from the North parties.
