Republican News · Thursday 25 October 2001

Historic week in peace process

BY MICHAEL PIERSE

On Monday Evening, republican activists gathered in Conway Mill, off the Falls Road in West Belfast, to hear what would later be rightly described, however clichéd the phraseology, as an historic speech from Gerry Adams.

The Sinn Féin leader stated that he and Martin McGuinness had held discussions with the IRA: "...and we have put to the IRA the view that if it could make a ground-breaking move on the arms issue that this could save the peace process from collapse and transform the situation".

Republicans in Ireland and elsewhere would have to "strategically think this issue through", he advised. "I would appeal to republicans to stay united. I would particularly appeal to IRA Volunteers and their families, and to the IRA support base, to stay together in comradeship. This is the time for commitment to the republican cause. It is a time for clear heads and brave hearts."

It was also time for the British government to build on "the dynamic created by [the IRA initiative]," he warned. "The British political leadership has to show by deeds, not just words, that they also want to take the gun out of Irish politics and they accept the imperative of politics and the imperative of peace making."

Martin McGuinness, speaking on the same day in New York to US republicans, used language that was almost identical to Adams in describing the current state of affairs. He said, in a room above Rosie O'Grady's Saloon on 52nd Street and Broadway, that US and international support was vital if what he termed a "new and transformed situation" was to succeed in implementing the Good Friday Agreement. It was necessary that "the rejectionists and opponents of peace, unionist, republican and the British establishment, are faced down".

The following day, Tuesday, at 5pm, the IRA issued a statement. In it, the Army said that it had decided to implement the scheme, on putting arms "completely and verifiably" beyond use, that it had agreed with the IIICD in August.

The IRA statement emphasised that demands for republican decommissioning had been used by the British government and unionism to frustrate progress and that the difficulties faced by the IRA leadership should not be underestimated.

"Our motivation is clear. This unprecedented move is to save the peace process and to persuade others of our genuine intentions."

At 8pm that evening, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning issued a report to the British and Dublin governments. It said that it had witnessed an event, which it regarded as "significant", in which the IRA had put a quantity of arms "completely beyond use". The material in question included arms, ammunition and explosives, it said. While the IICD said that it "would not further the process of putting arms beyond use were we to provide further details of this event", it did specify that the actions carried out by the IRA were in accordance with the scheme and regulations agreed in August.

On Wednesday, the British government released a statement from Downing Street in which it proposed to dismantle four 'military installations' in the Six Counties. The chosen installations are in South Armagh, Magherafelt and Newtownhamilton. They will be dismantled, the statement said, "as quickly as is logistically possible". The dismantling was agreed as part of the Weston Park Summit earlier this year. The statement also said that the British government would conduct a review of its Policing Bill, with a view to bringing it more in line with the Patten Proposals. It also spoke of a "continuing threat from dissident republicans".