Irish Republican News and Information

In a speech on Thursday, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that Catholics were second-class citizens in the North before the Agreement and that they deserve the equality promised to them in the 1998 peace deal.
He promise full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement if the IRA disbands.

Equality is an elementary human right
that must not be used by the British government as a bargaining chip.

Irish Republican News and Information, 19 October 2002, http://irlnet.com/rmlist/

IRA reject 'unrealistic demands'

The IRA "will not accept unrealistic demands" for its disbandment, a senior source in the organisation said today.

In a response to British pressure, the source denied the IRA was a threat to the peace process".

Just five days after the British government's suspension of the Belfast Assembly and power-sharing Executive in response to a unionist ultimatum, the IRA source said:

"There is considerable concern within the IRA at recent developments.

"There is also real anger at the attempt to present the IRA as a threat to the peace process.

"The IRA is not a threat to the process and will not accept the imposition of unrealistic demands."

The comments followed a speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning that the IRA's continued existence was undermining the Good Friday Agreement.

IRA'S DAY IS OVER - TRIMBLE

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble said today that IRA disbandment, not promises, was needed to get devolved government restored.

He told his party's annual conference in Derry that a statement that "the war is over" would not be enough for him as it might once have meant something but "cut no ice today".

Neither would deeds, if, again they were "grudging and minimalist".

Unionists would not be satisfied with some "phantom disbandment". The IRA really had to "go away". "

"Their day is over," Mr Trimble declared.

The former First Minister said had no intention of going back to his party seeking backing for a return to the power-sharing administration "until it is demonstrably clear that this time obligations have been fulfilled."

He said republicans were not "wholly unreconstructed" but during the past spring and summer the "evidence of serious backsliding" had been "overwhelming".

To Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams he said: "It's up to you, only this time do not expect promises or beginnings to do the trick."

SINN FEIN RESPONSE

Reports today have indicated that Sinn Fein will deliver its response to Tony Blair's latest speeech at a conference attended by Sinn Fein's elected leadership next weekend.

Nationalists have been infuriated by Blair's speech on Thursday. Yesterday, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams reiterated his party's full support for the Good Friday Agreement and insisted that republicans will not abandon the peace process.

However, Mr Adams also said that republicans and nationalists are growing increasingly angry at the current focus on the IRA while loyalist paramilitaries are still active.

MASS MURDER BID

In the latest incident since Mr Adams spoke, four nationalist youths were the victim of an attempted loyalist mass murder last night bid in north Belfast.

Two 14-year-olds, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old were fired upon in a hit-and-run gun attack on Clifton Street at midnight last night. The four miraculously escaped without injuries.

Adams said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech in Belfast on Thirsday has exacerbated nationalist anger.

"This is not a time for ultimatums, this is not a time for deadlines," he said. "That has never worked in the past.

"What we need to do is to understand that the removal of the political anchor of the process was a grievous mistake and that the only way to make politics work is actually to make them work, to uphold and assert the primacy of politics."

Adams also accused the British Prime Minister of making equal rights for Catholics conditional on IRA disbandment.

On Thursday, Mr Blair appeared to promise full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement if the IRA disbands.

The British Prime Minister also acknowledged that Catholics were second-class citizens in the North before the Agreement and that they deserve the equality promised to them in the 1998 peace deal.

However, Sinn Fein has pointed out that this equality is a right and cannot be used by the British government as a bargaining chip with the IRA.

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