Friday, Apr 08, 2005
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By Angelique Chrisafis
BELFAST, APRIL 7. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has challenged the IRA to consider jettisoning forever its strategy of holding the Armalite in one hand and the ballot box in the other. In an extraordinary turn of phrase, the Sinn Fein leader said: ``In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic. Now there is an alternative ... the way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives.'' He appealed to the IRA ``to fully embrace and accept this alternative''. Mr. Adams's dramatic speech in west Belfast, which he said was addressed directly at IRA members, set the tone for a debate within the group about whether it should go into retirement. However, Mr Adams stopped short of calling on the IRA to disband.
Unprecedented pressure
The timing of his address on the second day of the U.K. general election campaign, when he is under unprecedented pressure from nationalist families who say IRA members murdered their relatives, was also significant. Sinn Fein is facing allegations from within the nationalist community that the IRA is lording over Catholic areas and engaging in criminality. Before he made his speech, Mr. Adams met the family of James McGinley, a handyman from Derry, who allege he was killed by an IRA member. They said they were being threatened for speaking out, and urged Mr. Adams to ensure the threat was lifted. At the same time, the McCartney sisters, whose brother Robert was killed outside a Belfast bar after an argument with IRA members, took their campaign to Brussels complaining of a ``political cover-up''. Mr. Adams was not only addressing the IRA in his speech, but also speaking to his electorate, particularly moderate and middle-class Catholics who voted in large numbers for Sinn Fein for the first time in the Assembly elections in 2003, but who have been worried by the McCartney case and the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery which police blamed on the IRA.
Power-sharing
When talks to revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland collapsed in December, the IRA faced demands from Belfast, London, Dublin and Washington to end all criminal and paramilitary activity. To many, the IRA had seemed on the point of retirement if a political deal could be done. The Taoiseach (Ireland's Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern, said Mr. Adams's statement had the potential to move the peace process forward but would be judged against how the IRA responded. ``For so many years we have had false dawns and dashed hopes,'' he warned yesterday. Downing Street said the statement was ``significant'' and hoped it was the way forward ``to peaceful and democratic means.'' The nationalist SDLP deputy leader, Mark Durkan, said: ``We don't know whether this statement is sincere. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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