Sinn Fein

Yahoo! News ^ | 10/10/02 | Robert Barr

[Angelus Errare]

Sinn Fein: Let Government Collapse Thu Oct 10, 9:11 AM ET By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - Britain should let Protestants tear apart Northern Ireland's power-sharing government rather than try to keep the crumbling coalition going, Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams said Thursday.

He dismissed calls for the rapid disbanding of the Irish Republican Army (news - web sites), which has been accused by police of continued activity including intelligence-gathering for a potential resumption of full-scale violence.

After meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) at his Downing Street office, Adams said his IRA-linked party wanted to keep working with First Minister David Trimble, whose Ulster Unionist Party intends to resign unless Sinn Fein is expelled.

"I don't want Mr. Trimble to walk out of the institutions. But if Mr. Trimble wishes to walk out of the institutions, then let him walk out of the institutions," Adams said. "Because when we get to putting this together again, unionism will have to walk back in again."

Blair said he hadn't decided yet whether to strip powers from the Northern Ireland administration, a maneuver that allowed the four-party coalition to survive intact through previous crises.

Trimble — whose party is legally required for the administration to operate — wants Britain to propose a legislative motion to expel Sinn Fein from its two posts in the 12-member administration by Tuesday; otherwise, Trimble has threatened to withdraw.

Suspending powers could forestall an Ulster Unionist walkout and allow Britain the chance to transfer authority back once the current Ulster Unionist-Sinn Fein showdown is defused.

"We've got another crisis to overcome. We'll overcome it and we'll move forward, because in the end it is the only way through," Blair said in a BBC interview.

Blair's minister for Northern Ireland, John Reid, told journalists that the province's nearly 3-year-old experiment in power-sharing could not survive "any suggestion that democracy is being combined with violence or paramilitary activity."

Last Friday police raided homes and offices of Sinn Fein workers and allegedly seized stacks of stolen British documents. Some, police said, listed the home addresses of hundreds of prison officers, a past IRA target.

Adams — who was identified this month in a new IRA history as being a still-serving IRA commander — said it was unrealistic to expect him to declare that the IRA's "war" is over.

In a BBC interview before Thursday's meeting, he dismissed Trimble's call for the IRA to disband. Trimble earlier this week said this was the only way he would resume cooperation in government with Sinn Fein.

"Making a demand like that it happen by Christmas is a bit like wishing for Santa Claus," said Adams, who argued that the only way the IRA would ever fade away would be if power-sharing was allowed to continue.

The Good Friday peace accord of 1998 proposed the creation of a Catholic-Protestant government for Northern Ireland, which had been governed exclusively by Britain since 1974.

Trimble in late 1999 agreed to form a coalition including Sinn Fein on condition that the IRA gradually disarm, another goal of the 1998 pact.

The IRA in October 2001 and April 2002 scrapped a few of its weapons dumps, but is estimated by British and Irish anti-terrorist authorities to retain more than 50 tons of weapons, largely supplied by Libya in the mid-1980s.

[Angelus Errare]

So much for peace in Northern Ireland.

[Desdemona]

Ping

[Happygal]

Dialogue is the only way forward, and to tell you the truth the DUP pulling out the power sharing executive, and Trimble's threat to Blair that he's not playing anymore and is taking the ball home...is painful.

In the same way it's painful to Adams pretending he's an innocent in all this.

But dialogue MUST be the only way forward.

[Mo1]

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[Dog Gone]

I can't say that I understand everything that's going on here, but this certainly is a setback. It rather baffles me that the governments can't simply shut down and round up the IRA. They should have been thoroughly infiltrated by now by intelligence agents.

[John_11_25]

But dialogue MUST be the only way forward.

I agree 100%. If the Jackasses want to withdraw, it will only guarentee the resumption of violence on both sides.

People like Paisley would be happy with that situation, but Peace loving people in Northern Ireland would not.

Give Peace a Chance.

[Fergus MacCool]

"It rather baffles me that the governments can't simply shut down and round up the IRA"

Takin the IRA out of the equation wid not stop the murderin scum "Reverend" Paisley and the unionists from terrorizin N. Ireland's Catholics ma friend.

Fergus

[Trouble North of the Border]

I thought American sympathies and therefore IRA funding had been shut down since 9/11.

A terrorist is a terrorist, through drug-running and gun-running they are all connected, and that means the IRA or Sien Fein, no longer have a legitimate right to the claim of "war".

The IRA are no different than Al'Queda. To say that the IRA is different is to give Al'Queda room to call their "struggle" legitimate.

Tony Blair cannot condemn Arab terrorists and Saddam and then wink at Adams when he is still talking about the IRA's "war" in Northern Ireland. Paisley may be a fool but Adam's rhetoric is no longer acceptable.

[MadIvan]

I agree to a point, Darling. Sinn Fein does need to make it clear that they are not going to go back to blowing things up and certainly those who are directly responsible for the theft of the information need to go to prison.

Quite frankly, the people of Northern Ireland as a whole are being poorly served by their politicians and the paramilitaries alike. Amazing how a determined minority can successfully muck things up for a weary majority.

Love, Ivan

[Dog Gone]

The Protestants certainly have their thugs and murderers, too. They need to be treated just like the IRA terrorists.

[Cicero]

The IRA are no different than Al'Queda.

Well, no, that simply isn't true. Muslim terrorists think nothing of killing women, children, babies, and innocent civilians, the more the merrier. Except for a few violent splinter groups that have broken away from the IRA, the IRA does not deliberately kill civilians. They have regularly phoned in warnings before blowing up buildings. That is unlike the Paisley faction, which has a record of killing Catholic civilians more or less at random.

The IRA has kept this recent truce for four years, although the Protestants have used every opportunity to drag their feet and refuse cooperation--which is precisely what they are doing now.

[dfwgator]

But gee, I thought Bill Clinton fixed all this when he made them "belly up to the bar."

[Trouble North of the Border]

Cicero, I don't care if it is the IRA or their sub-counterpart factions they are terrorists.

I have been in Northern Ireland and seen the hole in the ground left by the terrorists in the town of Omah, days after their attack.

A bomb threat was called in from the other part of town and the people were directed into the path of the explosion not away from it. The bombing was done on the town's annual fair day. So there were lots of people in the stores and streets. It was done to buildings that everyone has to drive by on Ireland's main thoroughfare.

Catholics were injured as well as Protestants. Many people died. Many lost limbs. Very sad. Only one of many terrorist attacks in N. Ireland as well as England.

"Except for a few violent splinter groups that have broken away from the IRA, the IRA does not deliberately kill civilians."

This is likely what the Palestinians tell themselves about the PLO and their "few violent splinter groups" they cannot control.

The terrorist extremists cannot let go -- it is their livelihood. That is the problem.

The IRA and their splinter groups can no longer be tolerated if the war on terror is to be successful.

[Trouble North of the Border]

I agree, the Protestant terrorist attacks are not as well publicized as the IRA. They too must go.

[Consort]

I thought George Mitchell solved this problem.

[Brian Allen]

<< .... the [Grandiosely self-styled!] "i r a" does not deliberately kill civilians. >>>>

Bullshit.

The murder-addicted fascist mob of endemically-alcoholic psychopathological criminal bastards that flatters itself the "i r a" was born in the gutlessly-anonymous murder of innocents and has, while creeping about in masked mobs in the dark, since 1916, mindlessly maimed and killed thousands of babies, little girls and boys and old women.

And is different than Al'Queda only in that it has more gutless murders to its name.

Osama bin Adams?

Gerry O'Ladin?

Ideologically-identical, amoral, mass-murdering twins.

Rid the British Ulster Province of Sinn Feinira!

[The Irishman]

Both sides have lost innocent people and neither is innocent. The goal now should be to bring peace to Ulster and it will only happen when Ulster has a political identity that matches the identity of the population and history of the province.

Repression of the nationalist population in Ulster has a very long history. It has not, will not, work my friend. As long as that is the only response that republicans can expect, the IRA will have a following and Sinn Fein will have strong, probably rising, public support.

[Trouble North of the Border]

"The IRA in October 2001 and April 2002 scrapped a few of its weapons dumps, but is estimated by British and Irish anti-terrorist authorities to retain more than 50 tons of weapons, largely supplied by Libya in the mid-1980s."

If you think the IRA are distinct and sepearate from Al'Queda look at where they got there guns: "50 tons of weapons, largely supplied by Libya". These terrorist networks are all related through heroin and gun running.

The IRA and the Protestant terrorists are not exempt from accountability in the war on terror.

Gerry Adams should choose his words more carefully if he doesn't want GWB breathing down his neck (rightfully so)next.

[MadIvan]

Gerry Adams already mucked up relations with President Bush. The main newspaper of Sinn Fein put much of the blame for September 11th on the USA.

And then there was his visit to Cuba.

Regards, Ivan

[Trouble North of the Border]

"Repression of the nationalist population in Ulster has a very long history. It has not, will not, work my friend."

This is how the PLO and other factions explain and justify their continued terrorist activities.

Having visited N. Ireland and stayed in the town of Omah, days after the bombing, I sincerely empathise with all sides.

However, after 9/11 my view point has changed in that across the world terrorism needs to be addressed directly and not pushed under the rug, and Ireland is one of its breeding grounds.

Scapegoats are too easily found in these fanatic's and extremist's causes.