Blair calls for IRA to disband

["D OC" <donaloc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Coverage courtesy of www.utv.ie (unionist TV - although they've put a .ie
for equality!!):

In his speech (Wednesday night) the Prime Minister warned the troubled peace
process in Northern Ireland could not work unless the Provisional IRA
removed the threat of violence for ever.

Sinn Fein`s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness he claimed, had taken huge
risks to bury the past and make the Good Friday Agreement work.

But with the IRA leadership resisting unionist demands to get rid of all
their weapons and disband the organisation which waged 30 years of
bloodshed, the Prime Minister said the crunch had arrived for the republican
movement

In Belfast today he said: ``We cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half
out of this process. Not just because it isn`t right any more. It won`t work
any more.

The British will simply not countenance any path other than implementing the
Agreement

Hardline unionists were also told by Mr Blair that the government would not
bow to pressure for a re-negotiation of the historic peace deal reached at
Stormont four and a half years ago which led to the creation of the
power-sharing administration.

In his frankest assessment ever since unionists, nationalists, republicans
and loyalists signed up to the April 1998 Accord, he said: ``The British
will simply not countenance any path other than implementing the
Agreement.``

With the Stormont administration suspended in the aftermath of IRA spying
allegations and the total breakdown of trust between David Trimble`s Ulster
Unionists and Sinn Fein, Mr Blair went to Belfast today in a bid to try and
reassure both sides and get the process up and running again.

But the thrust of his message was directed at the IRA leadership which still
retains control of a heavily-armed organisation and which Unionists claim
poses an enormous security threat.

The Provisionals have decommissioned twice, but have access to a vast
arsenal of guns and explosives.

Mr Blair said: ``Another inch by inch negotiation won`t work. Symbolic
gestures, important in their time, no longer build trust. It is time for
acts of completion.``

The government, he insisted, was prepared to do what was necessary to
protect the institutions against arbitrary interruption and interference.
But that also meant commitment from others - unionists to make the
institutions secure and stable, and nationalists to act if violence
returned.

Mr Blair said: ``Republicans must make the the commitment to exclusively
peaceful means real, total and permanent.``

He also urged to them to endorse Northern Ireland`s policing arrangements by
joining Hugh Orde`s new force. He declare: ``There can`t be two police
forces.``

Earlier today Mr McGuinness, the education minister in the power-sharing
executive said he did not believe any of the armed groups would disband in
the present circumstances.

But the Prime Minister`s appeal, delivered at the Harbour Commissioners
Office in Belfast, to an audience of business leaders, trade unionists,
community workers and senior British and Irish civil servants, was by far
the strongest on Northern Ireland since he came to power.

He said he did not believe it true that unionists had rejected the
Agreement, or that they did not support the concept of it.

The Prime Minister said: ``They don`t believe it is being implemented
properly whilst paramilitary activity remains.``

No democratic political process could yield to terrorism, he said.

Violence was pointless and an obstruction to politics. People may be worried
about losing their cultural identity, but they realised the days of
justifying discrimination were gone.

He said: ``In the end, justice for peace is in tune with our age. That`s why
this process in Northern Ireland, despite it all, can still work.``

Mr Blair said he had trust in all parties he had dealt with.

He added: ``Now is the moment of choice. The same standards must apply to
all, and we must implement the Agreement in full because it is the choice of
the people; the people here, the people in the south and the people of the
United Kingdom as as whole.``

When Mr Blair arrived at the Belfast Harbour Commissioner`s office today he
was jeered by around a dozen Sinn Fein protesters.

As Mr Blair got to his feet to deliver his speech inside the building, the
number of demonstrators outside grew.

More than 30 people then gathered, many of them unfurling large banners
asking ``Who`s Afraid Of Peace``.


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