Ireland and Britain consider response to IRA arms statement
Irish and British officials will today consider their next move in the Northern Ireland peace process after the IRA announced it would intensify its efforts to resolve the weapons issue.
With speculation mounting that the Government will suspend the political institutions at Stormont for one day in a bid to buy more time to resolve the arms question, the paramilitary group said it wanted to speed up efforts to comprehensively resolve the controversial issue.
In a statement published in today’s edition of An Phoblacht/Republican News, the Provisionals declared: ‘‘Progress will be directly influenced by the attitude of other parties to the peace process, including and especially, the British Government.
‘‘The IRA’s commitment is without question.
‘‘However, as we have said before, peace making and peace keeping is a collective effort.
‘‘It is our considered view that the Irish peace process can succeed. The continued failure or refusal to sustain the political process and to deliver real and meaningful change has a direct bearing on how this will be accomplished.’’
The IRA’s move came hours after a leading anti-Agreement Ulster Unionist warned he would be urging his party’s ministers to pull out of the province’s power sharing executive if the Government opted for a one day suspension in order to avoid the collapse of the Assembly and other political institutions at midnight on Saturday.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson claimed new UUP members would not tolerate anything other than a long-term suspension of the Assembly and a review of the Good Friday Agreement if the IRA fails to disarm by Saturday.
Under a constitutional technicality, the one-day suspension, which was deployed last month, would trigger a new six-week period for the parties to concentrate on finding a solution to the dispute over IRA arms and policing.
But Mr Donaldson warned: ‘‘The UUP will not be prepared to give any credibility to a further one-day suspension.
‘‘There is no way we as a party can continue sitting in a power-sharing executive with representatives of a full-time terrorist organisation engaging in international terrorism.
‘‘After events in Colombia and the United States, the UUP must stand up for the democratic process and in the event of a one-day suspension must withdraw from that executive, denying the representatives of terror a place in Government.’’
The IRA statement also expressed sympathy with the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and the plane crash in Pennsylvania.
The group also sought to allay US concerns about the arrests of three Irishmen in Colombia last month on suspicion of training left-wing FARC rebels, by insisting it had sent no-one there to ‘‘train or to engage in military co-operation with any group.
‘‘The IRA has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia and will not do so. The IRA is no a threat to the peace process in Ireland or in Colombia.’’
Unionists were not, however, impressed by the IRA’s statement.
Democratic Unionist MP, Nigel Dodds branded the statement ‘‘nauseating’’ and a ‘‘cynical PR stunt’’.
‘‘Do they seriously expect us to believe that those three leading Republicans where there either on holiday or as part of a desire to educate themselves about Colombian politics?’’ the North Belfast MP asked.
An Ulster Unionist Party spokesman tonight repeated warnings that the IRA would face further penalties if they did not begin emptying their arms dumps.
