Blair quizzed over IRA amnesty claim
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was being challenged today over claims he has agreed a deal to let IRA fugitives escape prosecution.
Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine vowed to question the Prime Minister about any incentives offered to Sinn Fein in a bid to rescue the Northern Ireland peace process.
As he prepared for a meeting at Downing Street later today, Mr Ervine warned the Protestant community would be furious if republicans on the run were granted an amnesty.
He said: “The IRA’s war is not over and yet we have the Prime Minister likely to do things for them without any guarantee that there will be a removal of the causes of conflict.
“My community would be very angry if every combatant has to go through an inquiry while the Provos get an amnesty.”
The Prime Minister has scheduled a series of meetings with Northern Ireland political parties in the latest effort to save the Good Friday Agreement.
Republicans have already denied claims the IRA is set to get rid of its weapons and end all military activity as part of a package designed to restore the power-sharing administration in Belfast after the alleged republican spy ring was uncovered at Stormont.
But Sinn Fein has been demanding the British government allow on-the-run prisoners back into Northern Ireland and let ex-paramilitary inmates sit on the 29 local policing boards.
Mr Ervine, whose party is linked to the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, claimed a bargain was struck behind closed doors during the peace talks at Weston Park in Staffordshire more than a year ago which he walked out of.
He said: “We are angry at the way some secret stuff was done and I have plenty of questions for the Prime Minister.
“What is he about to do, because it’s clear he’s about to do something?
“What incentives is he about to offer the republican movement, and what does he anticipate the response of the unionist community to such incentives will be?”
The cross-community Alliance Party leader David Ford insisted any proposals dealing with fugitives must also include those expelled from Northern Ireland by terrorists.
Mr Ford is also set to question Mr Blair today over government plans to monitor paramilitary ceasefires.
Former Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid announced in September the watchdog would be set up following a spate of killings and shootings, most of them carried out by loyalist groupings.
But Mr Ford expressed concern that no-one has been appointed yet.
He said: “It must be remembered that such a person would identify decreases in paramilitary activity, as well as increases.
“I will be anxious to hear about what plans the British government has to take on sectarianism next year, given that it has expended so much effort combating the twin evil of racism in England recently.”
Efforts to ease the political crisis following the Stormont Assembly’s suspension have been occupying minds at the Northern Ireland Office.
But an NIO spokesman insisted the idea for a ceasefire monitor had not been scrapped.
He said: “The matter is still under consideration.”
