OCTOBER 2002
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 17
NORTHERN IRELAND ROUND-UP
New Crisis as Police Raid Sinn Fein Offices wojence
'Shame' of Unionists' Silence on
BELFAST - Even by Northern Ireland's standards, the latest developments at Stormont have been extraordinary. Parliament Buildings - the seat of power in Belfast - suddenly contained more police officers than politicians as a major search was carried out of a Sinn Fein office.
The theft of confidential correspondence between Secretary of State John Reid and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was claimed to lie at the heart of the dramatic daylight raid on Sinn Fein offices at the Stormont Parliament Buildings. The peace process now hangs in the balance as the IRA stands accused of obtaining sensitive security and political information.
One woman and three men, including Sinn Fein's Stormont administrator Denis Donaldson, and an ex-Northern Ireland office employee, have been arrested. Republican sources said three of the four people arrested were part of a Sinn Fein policy group on policing, human rights and justice. Security sources said the documents missing "breached national security."
The arrests have sparked outrage among republicans. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said the raids were politically motivated and accused the police of being "anti-peace process, anti-Sinn Fein and anti-democratic."
Documents and computer discs were seized and taken away for forensic examination as part of the massive operation involving 200 officers. Republicans claimed papers relating to policing, human rights and justice issues were taken by police during the search of Donaldson's office, which focused on his desk and surrounding area.
Security sources said they are confident of charges against at least one of those arrested. The ex-NIO employee at the centre of the investigation, who sources claim had access to external and internal mail from Secretary of State John Reid and security minister Jane Kennedy's offices, was arrested at his Ligoniel home in north Belfast.
First Minister David Trimble, who is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair said he does not see the Assembly continuing unless action against Sinn Fein is taken. He said, "The challenge is to John Reid. Fulfil your word. Take appropriate responses. You have a duty to act, a responsibility to act, we expect you to act and we say you must act."
Fellow MP Jeffrey Donaldson said that if action was not taken against Sinn Fein then unionist ministers would withdraw from the executive "within days." Reid said he knew of the alleged breech of security some time ago but had not authorised the raid of Sinn Fein offices.
The SDLP and the Irish government urged caution warning it would be unwise to rush to judgment. SDLP leader and Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan said,
"We would all be well advised not to say too much too soon. Different people have been jumping to emphatic conclusions in different directions before we have any reliable material to assess."
The timing of a unionist walk-out could be the subject of some wrangling within the Ulster Unionist Party. Leader David Trimble is not yet ready to resign as First Minister, but the anti-Agreement MP Jeffrey Donaldson is demanding immediate action.
If Ulster Unionist ministers are still in the executive by the end of this month, Donaldson is likely to call another meeting of the party's ruling council to force his leader's hand. It may not come to that. Trimble may decide after talks with the Prime Minister in the coming days to take matters into his own hands.
Adams Denies IRA Connections
BELFAST - Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has denied fresh allegations that he was a senior member of the IRA. The West Belfast MP said he has sought legal advice about a new book by journalist Ed Moloney which claims Adams was involved in setting up an IRA unit which murdered and secretly buried at least nine people in the 1970s.
While admitting he had not read the book, A Secret History of the IRA, but had read newspaper reports on it, the Sinn Fein leader said, "I find some of the claims outrageous and think some people will be deeply upset by a mixture of innuendo, recycled claims, nodding and winking. I have not been and am not a member of the IRA."
Moloney's book also carries sensational claims that the IRA came within a whisker of assassinating former British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe in Brussels. The author alleges that the attempted assassination of Sir Geoffrey was to have been the start of an IRA campaign on the continent ahead of the attempt to blow up a British military band in Gibraltar in 1988. That operation was foiled by the SAS, with three IRA members being gunned down in controversial circumstances on the Rock.
At a press launch for the book in London, Moloney confirmed the central theme of the book was that Adams should have received the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, "Adams more than any other individual," was the inspiration for the peace process.
The Sinn Fein president, he claimed, was someone who moved from being a "hawk" in the Republican movement to someone who worked for peace. The author claims Adams kept his peace plan secret from other senior IRA figures during some of the darkest days of the Troubles.
BELFAST - SDLP leader Mark Durkan has described the lack of reference to loyalist violence in the recent Ulster Unionist Council statement as "shameful."
Durkan said he was sceptical of the motives of the Ulster Unionists who voted to pull out of the executive if the IRA had not disbanded by January 18.
While Durkan said he shares unionist concerns about continued republican paramilitary activity, he said, "I am deeply sceptical of the motives of unionist politicians vociferous about republican paramilitarism, and yet silent on the even greater threat emanating from loyalism.
"The fact that those who drafted the statement shamefully did not think to make a single reference to loyalist violence speaks for itself."
Durkan's comments came days after two UVF members were jailed in Scotland after being caught in a bid to ship enough explosives to Northern Ireland to construct 10 car bombs.
Speaking at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party conference in Blackpool, Durkan added,: "Nor can I see how threatening our constitutional structures will succeed in delivering the lasting peace that we all want. As in any normal society, the rule of law should be upheld through the courts.
"Collapsing our institutions will punish the public not the paramilitaries. They will be happy to be handed the whip hand of democracy."
Durkan said he believed the perception that unionism had gained little or nothing from the Good Friday Agreement was incorrect.
"I believe that this perception is misplaced. For the agreement is not about winners and losers. It is not about the victors and the vanquished. Above all it is not about creating a 'cold house' for anybody.
"The very opposite is the truth. The agreement is about rejecting the zero sum gain - the insidious theory that one community's gain can only be the other community's loss.
"It is about undermining that false logic with a basic truth; everybody benefits. That is the crucial message. One which unionist politicians should be - but are not - delivering."
Durkan said the implementation of the changes found in the agreement must continue even if unionists withdraw from the agreement.
"Equality lies at the core of the agreement. And nationalists cannot be asked to accept any diminution or delay in any aspect of it; social or economic; institutional or symbolic.
"There can be no turning back the clock on the changes of the agreement - neither in politics nor in policing. But what nationalists can be asked to do is to demonstrate that equality is not a oneway street. And that is what the SDLP is doing."
VancovveK's. ^.
Kept
Located in Stanley pank
Open for lunch on Fridays!
Wedding Receptions • Conventions • Meetings Book your next event with as Special rates available for Rugby Members Clubhouse (604) 681-0640 • Fax (604)681-0664
EST. 1990 FREE ESTIMATES
Sandblasting of concrete. & steel
Amlkatw, of interna, & externa protective coatings
6632 - 901^. Avenue S.E. Calgary, Alberta TiC 2T3 TEL: (403) 236-0988 FAX: (403) 236-0993
(Work performed on industrial and civil projects) FULL YARD & MOBILE EQUIPPED FACILITIES
Pat McCay - Owner
WIUDlMiiSELLY
plumb.nSSt.Mors ltd.
4
- Complete Mechanical Contracting —
Vancouver Branch
190-4611 No 6 Road Richmond B.C. Tel: (604) 278-3553 Fax: (604)278-3573
Calgary Branch San Diego Branch
2-2355 Pegasus Way N.E. Tel: (619) 303-9375 Calgary, Alberta Fax: (619) 303-9384
Tel: (403) 735-3267 Fax:(403)735-6227
wtvw.wkellyandsons.com