Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 February, 2000
Tuesday, 15 February, 2000
Thursday/Friday, 17/18 February, 2000
Saturday, 19 February, 2000
Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
Outrage as Britain reneges on GFA
Efforts were being made this weekend to pick up the pieces of the Good Friday Agreement, shredded on Friday when the new political institutions were suspended and the North of Ireland once again subjected to direct British rule.
Nationalists were today grappling with the consequences of Friday's tragic developments when the British government, acting in concert with the anti-Agreement wing of the Ulster Unionist Party, openly defaulted on the 1998 accord.
By a unilateral order of the British Secretary of State Peter Mandelson, the power-sharing Exective, the Belfast Assembly, and the all-Ireland Ministerial Council were all suspended, and power returned to Westminster.
The action turned back the clock on the historic achievements of the past two years. On December 1, after 18 months of deadlock and a Review facilitated by US Senator George Mitchell, an agreed inclusive power-sharing administration was implemented for the first time. Just 72 days later, the most widely supported political dispensation in Irish history was shut down at the behest of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and a coterie of right-wing British militarists.
Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
IRA move ignored in rush to suspension
Republican cynicism is all the more pronounced at the manner in which a breakthrough on IRA arms, negotiated with extreme difficulty by Sinn Féin, was blithely ignored by Mandelson. His singular determination to ignore the democratically expressed wishes of the Irish people in 1998 referendums raises a question mark over the utility of future political action. Sinn Féin has not yet said if it will take part in a second Review of the Good Friday Agreement, to be announced this week by the two governments.
The past week has also seen a massive British propoganda offensive which has attempted to blame the developments on the IRA's refusal to decommission. An outrageous effort was made on Friday to suppress a report by the independent arms body set up to handle the issue of paramilitary arms. For the first time, the IICD set out the IRA's willingness to decommission and its conviction that it would be able to fulfil the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
That effort failed, but the propoganda offensive has continued. At one point, British officials were claiming that Mandelson was unaware of the IICD's report, even as it appeared on news services. Incredibly, they then attempted to put a negative spin on the breakthough, as the Irish government described it as "highly significant" and holding out "real prospect of agreement".
Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
New Trimble precondition on Executive
A delighted Ulster Unionist leader has taken advantage of the confusion to erect new preconditions on any resumption of devolution, in an attempt to drive another nail into the coffin of the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking after an uneventful meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council had taken note of the suspension, Mr Trimble claimed that republicans faced "make your mind up time" in the choice "between democracy and terrorism". He dismissed the latest IRA proposition as "not enough".
With his resignation threat on ice for now, Mr Trimble claimed he was "bitterly disappointed" that Sinn Féin had not "taken the chance" to get the IRA to give up its guns.
He said: "It's for Mr (Gerry) Adams and Sinn Féin to decide—do they want to be part of the political process? If so, they know what needs to be done.
"It's make your mind up time—that goes for the whole of the republican movement. The ball's very definitely in their court." A re-established power-sharing Northern executive could only include Sinn Féin if it "clearly and unequivocally demonstrated its commitment to peace and democracy", Mr Trimble said.
Meanwhile, a question mark now hangs over the future role of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday Mr Adams, along with party colleagues Martin McGuinness MP, Bairbre de Brun MLA and Gerry Kelly MLA said he wanted to be "very measured" in his response because of the difficult situation which now obtained.
Mr Adams said the Secretary of State's actions were "driven by a unilateral unionist demand and deadline". The confidence among nationalists and republicans in the approach of the British government had been "shaken", while the unionist perception thay have a veto had been confirmed.
The West Belfast MP challenged Mandelson's claim that he did not know of the IRA position or the contents of the De Chastelain report before he suspended the institutions.
"Let me say that both the British and Irish governments knew exactly what Sinn Féin was trying to do. They were part of this. And they knew the detail of each step as the situation progressed."
He accused Mandelson of focussing on his plan to suspend the institutions
for some time, referring to comments by UUP Negotiator Reg Empey spoke
of how the UUP had "gone through the scenarios with Mr Mandelson last November."
This was the "fraught context" in which Sinn Féin had sought
to avert Friday evening's "disaster", he said, adding: "Our failure to
save the institutions is the failure of politics in this part of our country."
The Sinn Féin President comprehensively set out the sequence of Friday's events, making it clear that despite being aware of the IRA position, of his party's view of it, and of the imminence of a positive De Chastelain report, Mr Mandelson proceeded with the suspension.
He concluded: "Within the nationalist and republican community there is a deep sense of anger and frustration at the way in which the UUP has dictated events and effectively set aside the spirit and the letter of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Mr Mandelson is in default of the Agreement. Mr Trimble is in default of the Agreement."
Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
Adams sets the record straight
The following is a summary of the remarks made at a press conference on Saturday by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP along with party, who was accompanied by colleagues Martin McGuinness MP, Bairbre de Brun MLA and Gerry Kelly MLA.
I want to be very measured in what I say after yesterday's events. We are all in a very difficult situation as a result of Peter Mandelson's decision last night to collapse the political institutions.
His actions were driven by a unilateral unionist demand and deadline.
Last night's decision by Mr Mandelson has shaken confidence among nationalists and republicans in the approach of the British government and confirmed a perception among unionists that they have a veto.
The British Secretary of State has claimed that he did not know of the IRA position or the contents of the De Chastelain report before he suspended the institutions.
Let me say that both the British and Irish governments knew exactly what Sinn Féin was trying to do. They were part of this. And they knew the detail of each step as the situation progressed.
What was Sinn Féin trying to do?
Sinn Féin was trying to find a resolution to the arms issue and to do that within a time frame that would prevent the collapse of the institutions.
We had made that clear to both governments several weeks ago. We had also made it clear that this task was made more difficult by the British threat to suspend the institutions, by the way unionists had presented the Mitchell review, and by the general and orchestrated campaign by anti-republican elements to gang up on Sinn Féin.
Peter Mandelson was presented with a unionist threat. That David Trimble would resign if the IRA did not meet unionist demands. he was told that he would have to suspend the institutions. Mr Mandelson decided that he would suspend the institutions. This has been his focus for some time now.
For example this morning Reg Empey spoke on BBC of how the UUP had gone ``through the scenarios with Mr Mandelson last November...''
This has been the fraught context in which Sinn Féin has sought to avert last evening's disaster. There are those who will say that we were pressurised into this. I can tell you categorically that our concern, and we have spelt this out to the media over recent days, our concern has been to save the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions and to maintain stability in the peace process.
Our failure to save the institutions is the failure of politics in this part of our country.
I want to deal with the question of what the British government knew and didn't know about developments. We were in contact on a daily and sometimes a few times daily with officials from both governments and with senior Ministers including the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, with the De Chastelain Commission and with the IRA and others. As the De Chastelain reports make clear the IRA was also on regular contact with it.
In the course of all of this the two governments were kept fully briefed by us on all developments.
For example, in paragraph 5 of the second De Chastelain report it describes an IRA position as ``particularly significant, and ......as valuable progress''. This position was communicated to the Commission in the middle of last week.
Sinn Féin discussed this with the two governments at that time. I give you this as an example of how w conducted this effort to save the institutions. So any suggestion that there was no knowledge of what was going on is a nonsense.
I don't want to take you through every wheel and turn of this so I will compress all of this into the period leading up to yesterday's suspension.
As part of very intense shuttle diplomacy an advanced IRA position was secured. I have since described this as a major breakthrough. We gave this to the Irish government in the early hours of Friday morning. Our meeting with them conclude at 4.30am.
Subsequently this position was passed to the British government.
I spoke to Tony Blair by phone about this around noon yesterday.
In the course of the afternoon I also spoke to the Taoiseach and to Peter Mandelson and Martin McGuinness and I were in contact on a number of occasions with senior British and Irish officials.
It had been my intention to meet with David Trimble. When it was not possible I asked Martin McGuinness to meet with him and to tell him that the IRA had put forward a new position. That took place at 2pm. If you have any questions about this Martin McGuinness will deal with that in due course.
I also asked Martin McGuinness to meet with the IICD. He did yesterday as well.
By this time the Commission had received the IRA's position. Martin McGuinness discussed these matters with the IICD for a short time and then contacted me by telephone and Martin and I formed a clear view that the second report would be positive and was imminent.
I spoke to Mr Mandelson around this time and on the basis of the new initiative I urged him not to collapse the institutions. It was obvious that he was intent on proceeding with suspension.
I also spoke to Mr Trimble by telephone and asked him to withdraw his resignation on the basis of this new initiative. He told me it was not enough.
In this context I decided that the public needed to know that:
there was an initiative capable of resolving this matter that a second
and a very positive IICD repot was imminent and we hoped to forestall Mr
Mandelson's move to suspend the political institutions And I issued a statement
at 5.10 pm outlining the initiative. The rest is history.
It appears to me that if the second De Chastelain report been issued Mr Mandelson could not have suspended the institutions because the conclusion of the report says ``the Commission believes that this commitment, on the basis described above, holds out the real prospect of an agreement which would enable it to fulfil the substance of its mandate. We will make a further report to the two governments as appropriate.'' Mr Mandelson was however working to another imperative and that was that Mr Cunningham the President of the UUP was going to deliver Mr Trimble's resignation yesterday afternoon and that the UUP were warning that this could only be prevented if an announcement of the suspension was on the 6pm news.
So despite being aware of the IRA position, of Sinn Féin's view of it, and of the imminence of a positive De Chastelain report, Mr Mandelson proceeded with the suspension.
Within the nationalist and republican community there is a deep sense of anger and frustration at the way in which the UUP has dictated events and effectively set aside the spirit and the letter of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr Mandelson is in default of the Agreement. Mr Trimble is in default of the Agreement."
Saturday/Sunday, 12/13 February, 2000
Text of IICD arms report, February 11th
The full text of Friday's report by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, addressed to the Northern Secretary, Mr Mandelson, and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue.
We also note the IRA assessment that the question of British forces and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland must be addressed. While the future of British troops is outside our remit, the elimination of the threat posed by the loyalist paramilitary arms is clearly within the Commission's remit.
We have been advised by loyalist representatives of their commitment to address the issue of their arms in the context of similar action taken by the IRA.
In our discussions this week with the UVF and UFF representatives, each confirmed their positions as stated in our 31 January report and the UFF representatives further engaged with us on methods of decommissioning and related support issues.
We welcome the IRA's belief that the "state of perpetual crisis" can be averted and that the issue of arms can be resolved.
We find particularly significant and view as valuable progress the assertion made to us by the IRA representative that the IRA will consider how to put arms and explosives beyond use, in the context of the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and in the context of the removal of the causes of conflict.
The Commission welcomes the IRA's recognition that the issue of arms needs to be dealt with in an acceptable way and that this is a necessary objective of a genuine peace process and their statement that for those reasons they are engaged with us.
The Commission further welcomes the IRA's commitment to sustain and enhance its contribution to a durable peace and their statement that they have supported and will continue to support efforts to secure the resolution of the arms issue.
The report is dated Belfast, 11 February 2000 and is signed by Tauno Nieminen, John de Chastelain and Andrew D. Sens.
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 February, 2000
Crisis deteriorating as Mandelson rejects new appeals
Broad appeals by the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Dublin government to British Secretary of State Peter Mandelson to revoke the suspension of the North's political institutions appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams gave his bleakest analysis of the peace process Tuesday after talks with Mandelson in Belfast.
"It was a bad meeting quite frankly," Adams told reporters after a meeting to try to reverse the disastrous course of the past week. "Sinn Féin can move no further... we have seen the failure of politics."
Speaking before an IRA statement announcing its withdrawal from talks with the IICD international body on decommissioning, Mr Adams said the arms body's latest report was very clear.
"The only way to go forward is through the institutions being put in place and through that report being accepted by all the parties involved and by people's rights and entitlements being upheld," he said. He added that there was "no evidence whatsoever" that Mandelson was contemplating that.
After being urged by unionists to pursue a confrontational strategy with the IRA over decommissioning, Mandelson on Friday unilaterally— and illegally—broke his government's commitments to the Good Friday Agreement and assumed direct rule of the North of Ireland.
With the peace process facing its gravest crisis in several years, the IRA was on Friday moved to make a dramatic late concession on arms. The IRA proposition setting out the context in which it would decommission was recognised as a potential resolution to the arms standoff in the IICD's report.
But Mandelson rejected the IRA offer—and the IICD report—and ordered the suspension of all of Ireland's new power-sharing political institutions.
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 February, 2000
IRA responds to suspension
In a widely expected response, the IRA today said that their offer and others made since November, when the institutions were established, had now been taken off the table.
It said that its talks on arms had been predicated on the basis that they would be "part of a series of events including, and in particular, the establishment of the political institutions set out in the Good Friday Agreement."
But the IRA noted that the British Secretary of State had now suspended those political institutions and had "reintroduced the unionist veto". This had "changed the context" in which it appointed a representative to meet with the IICD." It also accused the British government and unionists of seeking a military victory by refusing to deal with the issue of arms "except on their own terms... this cannot and will not happen".
Mid-Ulster MP Martin McGuinness earlier described the British rejection of the arms report and the suspension decision as "absolute lunacy". Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, he said the British government did not have the right to say that the report by the commission headed by retired Canadian General de Chastelain was not enough.
"General de Chastelain was given a very important job and on Friday he said that he could report valuable progress. Those are his words, not mine. In my opinion that should have been accepted by the British government. It was rejected by the British government.
"We have ended up in the ludicrous situation where Peter Mandelson is effectively telling General de Chastelain and his international commission to pack their bags and go.
"The way out of this is for the British government to climb down from their position, to accept the de Chastelain report and to move to rescind the suspension order and to re-establish the institutions."
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 February, 2000
Dublin's constitutional limbo
The suspension of the new institutions, including the all-Ireland implementation bodies and North-South Ministerial Council, has also created a constitutional crisis for the Dublin government, which had written the relevant international agreement into the 1937 constitution. Only a referendum can reverse these changes.
In a newspaper article yesterday, the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stated that the constitution had been amended to include the terms of the Good Friday agreement, terms "which do not expressly include provision for suspension. In that context suspension raises issues of concern for the [Irish] Government, and any significant extension of it could make the situation more difficult."
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, has meanwhile called for a statement from the IRA on decommissioning to clear up "speculation" over the latest arms report.
He said a formal commitment to decommission would not be enough to satisfy his party's demands—now being set by the hardline Ulster Unionist Council following a vote by the body on Saturday. "Will they now address the question of how and when it will occur?," asked Trimble.
Meanwhile, the North's 12 former ministers are to begin moving out of their offices at Stormont later this week. It is understood they will have their salaries suspended and will lose their ministerial cars and other priviliges.
Their responsibilities have been divided up between British government ministers. Adam Ingram will acquire the responsibilities for Trade and Industry; Agriculture; Finance and Personnel; Higher and Further Education and Training; and Regional Development. George Howarth will take responsibility for Health, Education, Culture, Social Development and Environment. The Northern Secretary will himself acquire the duties of the former First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon.
Monday/Tuesday, 14/15 February, 2000
RUC paid thousands for loyalist's lies
Sinn Féin has called for an independent inquiry into revelations by a convicted loyalist gunrunner, Lindsay Robb, that RUC members colluded with a loyalist death-squad to frame and jail a prominent Republican figure.
Robb, who was part of a PUP talks delegation that had discussions with the British government before the 1994 loyalist ceasefire, has stated that RUC Special Branch officers struck a deal with loyalists to send a prominent Lurgan republican, Mr Colin Duffy, to prison for the shooting of a former British soldier, John Lyness, in 1993.
Mr Duffy's sentence was later overturned following Robb's conviction in 1995 of conspiring to acquire arms and ammunition for the UVF.
According to Robb, the plot to jail Mr Duffy was hatched when RUC officers approached the loyalist paramilitary UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) following the Lyness murder and asked them to supply a "clean witness" with no direct paramilitary links. The witness would then claim to have seen Mr Duffy in the vicinity of the Lyness shooting.
Robb says he was approached by senior UVF figures and instructed to testify against Mr Duffy, who was subsequently jailed for life.
After the court case, Robb was issued with a gun and #2,000 "by way of a thank-you from the RUC". "My evidence against Duffy was part of a deal struck with loyalist terrorists, namely the UVF, and the RUC," said Robb. "Initially I didn't want to give evidence. However, when the RUC approached the UVF and asked for help in dealing with Duffy I agreed.
"Those who approached the UVF were RUC Special Branch officers. I told the RUC that I wasn't going to do this for nothing, and that's why I was given the gun and the money."
Following Robb's revelations, a Sinn Féin Assembly member, Dr Dara O'Hagan, said: "We are looking at proof positive from a man linked to a loyalist terrorist organisation that collusion was going on."
Dr O'Hagan and the party's spokesman on policing, Mr Gerry Kelly, both called for an immediate, comprehensive, independent inquiry to be set up to investigate Robb's allegations. The party also intends to raise the matter with Amnesty International.
IRA withdraws representatives from arms talks
The following is the full text of a statement issued today by the IRA announcing that is withdrawing frm talks with the IICD (Independent International Commission on Decommissioning) following the rejection by the British government of the IRA's latest proposition on decommissioning and its suspension of the political institutions.
On November 17 the leadership of the IRA agreed to appoint a representative to enter into discussions with the IICD. This was on the basis that it would be part of a series of events including, and in particular, the establishment of the political institutions set out in the Good Friday Agreement. This was designed to move the situation out of an 18-month impasse. This impasse was created and maintained by unionist intransigence and a failure by the British Government to advance the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
The British Secretary of State has reintroduced the unionist veto by suspending the political institutions. This has changed the context in which we appointed a representative to meet with the IICD and has created a deeper crisis.
Both the British Government and the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party have rejected the propositions put to the IICD by our representative. They obviously have no desire to deal with the issue of arms except on their own terms. Those who seek a military victory in this way need to understand that this cannot and will not happen.
Those who have made the political process conditional on the decommissioning or silenced IRA guns are responsible for the current crisis in the peace process.
In the light of these changed circumstances the leadership of the IRA have decided to end our engagement with the IICD. We are also withdrawing all propositions put to the IICD by our representative since November.
Talks continue to undo 'Bad Friday'
In the latest efforts to salvage what remains of the Good Friday Agreement, a Sinn Féin delegation lead by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were in London today to meet the British and Irish Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern.
An Ulster Unionist delegation lead by David Trimble and Reg Empey also took part in the talks.
Adams had been due to visit London anyway to to address a meeting of Jubilee 2000, which campaigns for an end to third world debt. But with the Good Friday Agreement now facing its greatest crisis, Mr Adams voiced Sinn Féin's dismay and frustration at the move on Friday by Peter Mandelson to collapse the embryonic power-sharing Northern administration in order to secure the position of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
Mr Adams, speaking outside No. 10 Downing Street, said London had moved outside the Good Friday Agreement with its unilateral decision to collapse the eight-week-old political institutions, including the new British-Irish and all-Ireland bodies, and reimpose direct rule on the six northeastern counties of Ireland.
"There is no legal basis whatsoever for this and it is that which has created this very difficult situation for everyone." Sinn Féin is currently considering whether it has any further role to play in resolving the arms question, over and above the obligations of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr Adams referred to the repeated and serious "body blows" the party had received over the past years in its attempts to move the process forward.
"Our objective is - and the only objective of the two governments should be - the putting back in place of the institutions as soon as possible. We cannot make progress in a political vacuum."
Adams said the move by the IRA yesterday to withdraw from arms talks did not detract from the organisation's five-year-old IRA ceasefire or its commitment to political progress.
"The fact is that [the IRA] moved in the first place to actually enter into discussions with the de Chastelain Commission. In the last two weeks it issued two public statements, which were completely ignored by the British government, and its representative put forward propositions to the Commission which lead to the De Chastelain Commission to issue a report in which it said that it had the basis to fulfil its remit. The British government rejected those proposals."
He said the meetings today had come on the back of the failure of the British government to take the process forward. "There may be some suggestion that by coaxing or cajoling or stonewalling that Sinn Féin will be able to move forward again because the whole process has been one of republicans taking initiatives.
"We have no room at all in this situation, given the failure of our initiatives. The only breakthrough which can make politics work is a return of the institutions."
Adams blamed the crisis on a British government decision that there cannot be a peace process without David Trimble, who had been threatening to resign without an early IRA weapons handover.
"I accept absolutely that David Trimble is a very important person in this process, but he is only a positive and constructive and useful element in the peace process if he sticks to the agreement which he made on Good Friday. If that agreement is set to one side, and there is an attempt to build a peace process on David Trimble's terms, or on the terms of Unionism, then the whole basis of the process has been changed.
"That is the double vision which lead Peter Mandelson into this decision - even though he had received all the IRA propositions and the De Chastelain Commission's report. That needs to be rectified."
Rejectionists encouraged by suspension – Adams
He said Ulster Unionists could not be blamed for its refusal to face up to its responsibilities because a British government had "wobbled" on the issue. The problem arose from a new conviction by the Ulster Unionists that thay can now force the British government to concede any concession they wish.
"The rejectionist Unionists will be encouraged in their tactical approach; the British government has done this once, will they do it again if we ever get the institutions up again and the Unionists aren't satisfied with the Patten Report? Will they go along to Mr Mandelson again and say 'bring down the institutions again' if they weren't satisfied with the review of the judicial system?
"It is a huge crisis that we are into because a government has moved away from an agreement and because a government has unilaterally and illegally broken a commitment."
Mr Adams painted a bleak picture currently facing Republicans and nationalists:
"Consider briefly that since the British partitioned Ireland, we have had 60 years of one-party rule - domination, discrimination and repression. We then had 30 years of war, and then we had eight weeks of inclusive government, and the British government moved to tear it down.
"I think that should give you some sense of nationalist concerns and disappointment about how the government is currently handling the situation."
He said the crisis had been exacerbated by the fact that the British government had come to this "in a good way". But he believed that Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson "in their heart of hearts" did want to bring in the changes that are required under the Good Friday Agreement, "but are engaged in this tactical game which means them surrendering their governmental responsibilities to backwoodsmen and women of Unionism".
The issue of decommissioning had been used throughout the process as a means of putting a brake on change. The irony, he said, lay in the fact that he was convinced that David Trimble, Reg Empey and others are convinced of the Sinn Féin argument on decommissioning, as were Tony Blair and British Secretary of State Peter Mandelson. Given that, he "had to ponder on why they then do things totally outside that logic. It has to do not with guns, but with change. Change is within the rights of people who live in Ireland; it not within the gift of a British Secretary of State or a Unionist leader."
Asked about the possibility of Sinn Féin taking part in any new review set up by the British government, Mr Adams said there was "no question" of there being a review "because there is no legal basis for a review. The Good Friday Agreement is very specific; there can be a review when difficulties arise, but there cannot be a review on the basis of a unilateral suspension. So the question doesn't arise."
More talks planned
The North's parties will tomorrow take part in further talks after almost three hours of discussions this evening.
Afterwards, British Prime Minister Blair said all the participants had recommitted themselves to securing the implementation of the Good Friday agreement. But Mr Adams, speaking after his party's meetings were concluded, cast doubt on the possiblity of progress on arms while the British suspension of the institutions stood.
"The institutions have been torn down and the Good Friday Agreement has been torn up," he told reporters. "I do not think we can play a useful role on the arms issue when all we are met with is rejections and rebuttals."
While he pledged to do all in his power to prevent a deterioration of the situation, Adams stressed he could not do it alone. "I can only work within the possibilities of human and political endeavour. It is a two-way street," he said.
Thursday/Friday, 17/18 February, 2000
Bloody Sunday Tribunal defied as more evidence is destroyed
The British Ministry of Defence has destroyed two of the last five remaining rifles used in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre despite instructions to safeguard the vital evidence.
British Labour backbencher Kevin McNamara was told yesterday the weapons were destroyed on January 26 and 27 this year, three months after the ministry gave an undertaking to preserve the guns.
Now only three of the 29 SLR rifles submitted to the original Widgery tribunal into the killing of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry are available for testing by the new Bloody Sunday inquiry.
The news has provoked fury among relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead and injured.
Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was shot dead, said nothing short of a criminal investigation would now be acceptable.
And a Derry lawyer has claimed one of the rifles could have been that of Soldier H whose evidence Lord Widgery said was "unworthy of belief".
The destruction of the rifles used on Bloody Sunday started just three days before Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a new inquiry.
In September last year, Lord Saville's inquiry discovered 14 of the 29 rilfes were destroyed, with a further 10 sold to private firms. The British Army officials said the five remaining SLRs were being stored safely and further movement was barred.
In the House of Commons Mr McNamara was told that the destruction of the evidence was "a matter of deep regret" and an investigation had been launched.
An angry Tony Doherty said last night: "I think this needs to be looked at from the point of view of a thorough investigation, the parameters of which must be viewed by families' solicitors."
He added any investigation must consider if this was an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
Nine reasons why the IRA won't decommission now
By Anne Cadwallader, Ireland on Sunday, 06.02.2000
"Why can't the IRA hand over just one bullet?". "Why can't they give in a rusty gun, or an ounce of semtex?". From Cork to Drogheda and from Kerry to Louth - there appears to be only one frustrated question on people's lips this weekend. If you put that question to Sinn Féin spokesmen, they usually duck it by referring the question back, for understandable reasons, with the now-hackneyed phrase "You'll have to ask the IRA that".
So, in the interests of public debate, and in the absence of an IRA spokesman popping up in public to be questioned, it might be worth trying to answer this quite understandable and legitimate question.
These are not reasons why the IRA SHOULD NOT decommission. They are reasons why the IRA WILL NOT decommission.
The Ulster Unionist Party wants the beginning of a process of decommissioning that is verifiable, significant and capable of completion by May 2000. A symbolic act, and they've been honest enough to say so, would not be enough. There is no guarantee at all that if the IRA does hand over a single bullet, that the unionists will reciprocate. They promised all things would be possible if Articles 2 and 3 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement were decommissioned, but their demise hasn't resulted in any evident political generosity.
Because the IRA emerged from a split caused by 'decommissioning' in August 1969.
The split between the Provisionals and the Officials came about as the result of Catholic Belfast being left undefended by the then Stormont administration, which was controlled and dominated by the Ulster Unionist Party. Its armed forces, the RUC, B-Specials, linked with the UDA and UVF to attack the Falls and Ardoyne, burning all before them. The IRA had barely two weapons in self-defence.
The Official IRA had either moved the rest down south, or had sold them to the Free Wales Army, from whom they were eventually taken by British police. As a result, there was nothing left to defend the Falls. The present republican leadership has a mindset which is informed by the psychological scars of that experience and are highly unlikely to repeat what they believe was a strategic mistake by their forebears.
Lest anyone say it could not happen again, look at vulnerable Catholic enclaves like the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, look at the burnings of Catholic churches in the summer of 1996, look at the gradual ethnic cleansing of Catholics in south and east Antrim.
How much worse would all this have been if it were not for the deterrent factor provided by the very existence of the IRA's potential to return fire. That might not be a salient factor in Cork or Kerry, but it matters to people in Portadown.
The very existence of an IRA arsenal, even one buried deep in sealed bunkers in the Republic, is still seen by many nationalists as a powerful deterrent against the forces of loyalism. The RUC isn't transformed yet!
Because there is no deadline on decommissioning in the Good Friday Agreement.
Page 20 of the published version of the Agreement commits the parties to total disarmament and their "intention to work constructive and in good faith with the Independent Commission, and to use any influence they may have, to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within the next two years".
Sinn Féin argues that the agreement calls on ALL parties to work towards decommissioning, i.e. the UUP also has a responsibility - to prove that politics can vindicate everyone's right to equality and security. So there is no January 2000 deadline, no May 2000 deadline, no deadline at all that is binding on Sinn Féin other than to "use their influence" and none at all on the IRA that was not a party to the Agreement. It was this perceived failing in the terms of the Agreement that led to Jeffrey Donaldson's walk-out in the final hours on Good Friday. Sinn Féin insist that David Trimble, a constitutional lawyer, knew perfectly well what he had signed-up to.
There would never have been a Good Friday Agreement if the UUP has insisted on a deadline on decommissioning. Sinn Féin was explicit during negotiations that it could not speak for the IRA, nor could it bring decommissioning about, let alone guarantee it.
If Gerry Adams had gone to a Sinn Féin ard fheis, told his party that the IRA had to decommission, and then called on them to remove the constitutional bar on participating in a Stormont assembly, he would have been laughed out of court.
Because there was no deadline on decommissioning in the Mitchell Review.
David Trimble says he made it clear, verbally, "again and again and again" to Sinn Féin during the November review that the risk he was taking, of going into the executive before decommissioning, was be "time limited and would not run beyond the end of January".
This is flatly contradicted by Sinn Féin, whose leader, Gerry Adams, is nothing if not sharp-minded and an experienced negotiator even under extreme stress. Probably only the review's chairman, George Mitchell, could sort this one out - and he's not saying.
No IRA convention has been called to discuss decommissioning because the leadership knows only too well that there is no consensus and the mere fact of discussing the question would be divisive and potentially disastrous. The Sinn Féin leadership has made keeping the republican movement together an absolute priority, with good reason. A split IRA would hugely complicate any future negotiations and reduce the chances of lasting peace to virtually nil. Consider the effects of the last IRA "mini-split" when the so-called Real IRA peeled off and was responsible for the Omagh atrocity. Who would exercise discipline and keep control of arms dumps in the event of a more serious split?
Because the IRA was not defeated.
The entire peace process was predicated on a realisation that neither the IRA nor the British Army could achieve a military victory. Military stalemate required a political solution, with neither side victorious or defeated. In republican terms, involuntary decommissioning means an acknowledgement of defeat. Voluntary decommissioning, however, could be seen as a gesture towards healing and reconciliation.
There is no stretch of the imagination that could justify calling the context in which we are now, David Trimble threatening resignation to collapse the Agreement, a situation where there is any voluntary element. On the contrary, the unionist demand for decommissioning has elevated one element of the Agreement into a symbol of defeat/victory, making it even less likely.
Because republicans suspect David Trimble has a secret agenda.
There is a school of thought within republicanism that believes the UUP leader knew well that decommissioning was the single issue on which the Sinn Féin leadership could not deliver.
Seismic changes, such a putting a united Ireland on the back-burner, entering an assembly at Stormont, taking an executive role in a partitioned state, agreeing to co-operate with a new police service - all were possible. But, so the theory goes, Trimble knew that decommissioning, redolent of humiliation, surrender, failure and defeat, was not a deliverable demand, so he latched onto it, knowing it had the potential to destroy the Agreement he never loved or wanted.
Alternatively, if the IRA - or a significant section of it - did agree to decommission, it would split and become weakened. Heads I win, tails you lose.
We have Albert Reynolds' word for this, and Martin McGuinness's. A senior British civil servant also admitted to this reporter, at Christmas 1995, that decommissioning was created as an issue by John Major. Major needed to keep Ulster Unionists support in the lobbies of the House of Commons so he could hang on until an advantageous time to call a general election. The ploy worked so well, the UUP grabbed the ball and have been running with it ever since.
It took a new, Labour, government to revive the peace process in May 1996 after the Canary Wharf bombing. The breakdown in the IRA ceasefire was the result of a lack of progress in talks - itself caused by deadlock over this same issue - the decommissioning of arms which are silent and whose owners have no desire or intent to use again.
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