Sinn Fein official innocent, says McGuinness
Sinn Fein minister Martin McGuinness today said he is convinced a party official facing charges over the infiltration of a government office in Belfast is innocent.
His comment came as unionists threatened to pull down the power-sharing institutions over allegations that Sinn Fein acquired sensitive government documents from a mole in the Northern Ireland Office.
But Mr McGuinness said he was convinced of the innocence of Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein’s head of administration at Stormont, who was arrested after a raid on the party’s Assembly offices on Friday.
Police said today that Mr Donaldson would appear in court tomorrow to face a total of five charges connected with having information likely to be of use to terrorists.
Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said earlier today that Sinn Fein leaders would have to explain themselves when they have a planned meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair which officials were now working to bring forward.
Mr McGuinness said: “Allegations have been flying about left, right and centre.
“I have many questions to ask about that. In the course of the discussions we will have with Tony Blair shortly and John Reid tomorrow, we will asking straightforward questions.
“Was the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly told of the bogus raid on the Sinn Fein office at Stormont because everybody knows that there was nothing found in the Sinn Fein offices?
“Did the First Minister (Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble) know? Did the Deputy First Minister (Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan) know?
“At what operational level was the decision to raid our office taken?
“One thing that we are sure of since our office was invaded in Stormont, we were absolutely sure that somebody was going to be charged.
“I am entirely convinced that Denis Donaldson is absolutely innocent of any charge.”
Dr Reid had earlier confirmed that Mr Blair was seeking an emergency meeting with Sinn Fein leaders.
Hr also said that republicans had to give an assurance that they would abandon all paramilitary activity.
The Northern Ireland Secretary declared: “I think we are at a stage which is not only serious, or grave as the Irish Prime Minister said in the last three days. I think this is at a critical stage.
“Somehow we have to have an assurance that if these things have happened in the past, they will happen no longer.
“Now we have never had a signal of that nature. The IRA have never been prepared to say the war is over or that their army is being stood down.
“We have come a huge way in terms of the ceasefire. There have been no attacks on the police or the (British) Army, no planting of bombs, but the constant drip feed of allegations that the maintenance of the apparatus of terror is being carried on is undermining hugely the confidence in this (Good Friday) Agreement.”
Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio Ulster that the IRA had not been at war for many years.
He added: “I do think it is a bit rich at a time where people are asking these questions that people are not exercising themselves on behalf of the British Government or on behalf of the political leadership of unionism about the ongoing attacks on the Catholic community.
“I think the IRA has made the most powerful contribution to the search for peace that we have seen and of all the armed groups in the equation have stuck rigidly to their cessation of military operations.
“I think what we are seeing now being constructed very clearly is John Reid effectively taking up the demands of the unionist political leadership who already have stated very clearly that they are opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. Is the Government now asking republicans to jump through more hoops?”
