Republican News · Thursday 25 July 2002

Blair bows to unionist pressure

BY FERN LANE

On Wednesday, the British Prime Minister and his Secretary of State, John Reid, bowed to unionist pressure and told the House of Commons that "more rigorous standards" would be applied in future when the integrity of the IRA cessation was considered.

The British leaders made their statements just days after the UDA shot dead Gerard Lawlor. This was the culmination of weeks of UDA-organised attempted murders, of shootings, stabbings, petrol and pipe bombings, arson, stoning, attacks by 50-strong mobs on entire residential streets and the terrorising of Catholic families out of their homes. There have been rampages through schools, church burnings, violent attacks on ambulance crews attending to injured civilians and masked and armed loyalist paramilitaries issuing public death threats against Catholics.

Although he refrained from a total capitulation to David Trimble's demands for sanctions against Sinn Féin, Tony Blair nevertheless implied that such sanctions would be forthcoming if the newly recalibrated British definition of ceasefire was to held be breached by the IRA. He did not directly refer to the UDA, which is not on ceasefire, nor indeed, the UVF, which has repeatedly breached its ceasefire and whose political representatives are in Stormont.

Responding, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams accused the British government of failing to deal with the real crisis in the Six Counties, which is the sustained and orchestrated campaign of sectarian violence by loyalist groups, especially the UDA campaign.

"Their comments do not address this dangerous situation," he said. "The British government today also failed to assert the primary responsibility of the First Minister to give leadership at this difficult time against the loyalist death squads.

"We welcome the adoption of proposals to put in place a communication network in interface areas. Sinn Féin made these proposals to the two governments and the other parties a month ago at Hillsborough. Despite a lobby by us, the British government thus far have failed to make progress on this issue.

"What the vast majority of people who support the Good Friday Agreement wanted and needed to hear this afternoon was the assertion by the British government of the primacy of politics, the protection and promotion of the Good Friday Agreement and forthright opposition to sectarianism. We did not hear that today.

"There is a concern that this manufactured crisis could continue. The onus is on the British and Irish governments to ensure that this does not happen.

The priority at this time has to be a united and unambiguous opposition to sectarianism and the British and Irish government and David Trimble, as First Minister, have a particular responsibility in this regard and to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement."

Clearly referring to the IRA in his Commons statement, Bthe British Prime Minister had said: "It should be clear that paramilitary organisations are not engaged in any preparations for terrorism and that they should be stood down altogether as soon as possible. We have to be clear that preparations for violence have also ceased."

In reviewing the ceasefires, he continued, the Secretary of State will "give particular weight to any substantiated information that a paramilitary organisation is engaged in training, targeting, acquisition or development or arms or weapons or any similar preparations for terrorist violence in Northern Ireland or elsewhere. If there are in future such fundamental breaches of the commitment to exclusively peaceful means, they will be taken into account in assessing the ceasefires and it is right that with the passage of time, these judgements should become increasingly rigorous." So far, of course, "substantiated information" includes unproven allegations by unionists and the Crown forces about IRA involvement in Colombia and the Castlereagh 'break-in'.

In a statement in which he also did not mention either the UDA or the UVF, but in which he referred to the IRA five times, Secretary of State Dr John Reid declared that "There can be no acceptable or tolerable level of violence."

"In recent weeks and in particular over last weekend, we have seen serious disturbances which have brought violence to the streets of Belfast and elsewhere culminating in the appalling murder of Gerard Lawlor by so-called loyalists on Monday morning. This was not an isolated incident; over the previous 72 hours there had been five attempted murders, eight shootings, and five other violent attacks." He neglected to add that the UDA was responsible for almost every one of these attacks.

d, despite all the evidence that the UDA operates with virtual impunity, and that the RUC is routinely abandoning Catholic communities to their fate at the hands of its mobs - the most recent example being Skegoniel - Dr Reid claimed that "Security forces are bearing down on the paramilitaries to deny them the freedom to operate, to prevent murders, shootings, pipe and petrol bomb attacks.

"Over 250 additional police officers and soldiers have been brought in to dominate the interfaces in North Belfast. This means more police and army resources are now deployed in north Belfast than at any point since the beginning of the ceasefires."

But despite the huge disparity between the numbers of Catholics and Protestants who have been the victims of sectarian attacks - some 95% are Catholic - Reid said that 15 loyalists and 12 republicans had been charged with public order offences arising out of the recent disturbances.

Reid also announced that he is considering providing the RUC/PSNI with additional powers. "I have asked the Attorney General to lead an examination of police powers, bail arrangements and the scope for additional criminal offences. He will also examine whether there are any changes in the criminal law which could be made to facilitate successful prosecution for acts of terrorism, violence and organised crime. All this would complement the enhanced activity of the police and the army.

"It is now four and a half years since the second IRA ceasefire" he continued. "The ceasefires have made a huge contribution to political progress in Northern Ireland in addition to reducing the appalling human cost of the conflict."

"The recent statement by IRA was a welcome step in the right direction, but it is simply not enough for paramilitary organisations on ceasefires to have brought an end to their terrorist campaigns. Whatever their real intentions, and in the case of the IRA I share the assessment that they have never been further away from a return to their campaign, nevertheless nothing can be more damaging than the sense that the options were being kept open in this way.

"The judgements I make about ceasefires have to be made in the round, taking account of all relevant factors, including those which the statute obliges me to take into account. This is what I will continue to do. But with the passage of time, it is right that these judgements should become increasingly rigorous. In reviewing the ceasefires, I will give particular weight to any substantiated information that a paramilitary organisation is engaged in training, targeting, acquisition or development of arms or weapons or any similar preparations for a terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland or elsewhere."

Speaking on at a press conference on Tuesday, Gerry Adams had criticised the fact that the British government was focusing on the IRA when loyalists were engaging in a "killing spree".

"The reality is that Catholics are being killed in Belfast," he said. "There is a planned, organised campaign by loyalists against Catholics. The unionists' response to this is to seek the exclusion of Sinn Féin from our rightful place on the executive and tomorrow the British Prime Minister is making remarks aimed at republicans at the behest of the Ulster Unionist Party and the securocrats within their own system. It is disgraceful; it is totally unacceptable.

"For the life of me I don't accept for one moment that the police service and British intelligence agencies didn't have advance notice that the Ulster Defence Association was about to go on a killing spree."

He also criticised David Trimble for failing to defend the Good Friday Agreement.

"What is required is confidence building measures by pro-Agreement parties, by the Executive, led by the First Minister, which make it clear that sectarianism is wrong and which uphold the primacy of the political institutions as the place to sort out these problems," he said.

Adams warned that republican confidence in the Agreement was waning because of the focus on the IRA and because of the loyalist campaign of violence.

Wednesday's events at Westminster, he said, whilst totally unacceptable, were "a surreal side-show because those living in the interface areas will find it crazy that the Prime Minister is zeroing in on republicans when they are victims of a loyalist campaign."

Speaking after Blair's and Reid's respective statements on Wednesday, Sinn Féin's Mitchell McLaughlin said that the British government had missed an opportunity to address the real crisis confronting the peace process; "the ongoing, and ongoing for some considerable time now, campaign against Catholics and the Catholic community".

He added that more emphasis should have been placed on the leadership role of the First Minister and on the primacy of politics. "We had hoped to see much more substance in both statements addressing that issue" he said. "This is about leadership and if there is drift within the unionist community - and that has to be contrasted with the strong support for the peace process within the broad nationalist community - then it is a question of leadership. Sinn Féin would hope that we would see a response, which we would be prepared to be a part of. We want to work with David Trimble in managing this political process and dealing with the genuine issues of concern and misunderstanding which arise in any process of conflict resolution."