Adams: 'Trimble agreed to leave decommissioning to IICD'
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has blamed Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble for sparking the latest crisis in the Irish peace process.
Yesterday, Mr Trimble refused to agree to resume sharing power with Sinn Féin, claiming the IRA’s latest act of decommissioning was not transparent enough to restore unionist confidence in the peace process.
Speaking this morning, Mr Adams said the Irish and British Governments and the UUP had agreed in advance that the issue of IRA decommissioning would be left to Canadian General John de Chastelain, the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
Mr Adams said he hoped General de Chastelain would not be made a scapegoat following Mr Trimble’s rejection of his statement on the destruction of IRA arms yesterday.
The general said he had overseen the destruction of IRA arms, ammunition and explosives, but he refused to given an inventory of the arms in question because of a confidentiality agreement with the IRA.
Earlier today, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a new agreement on decommissioning would be necessary to ensure unionist confidence in the process while also respecting the IRA’s wish that it not be portrayed as humiliation or surrender for the republic movement.
