US calls for IRA to disband
Irish group's offer to 'shoot' killers threatens Sinn Fein with political banishment.
Michael Reiss, the United States envoy to Northern Ireland, called on the Irish Republican Army on Wednesday to
disband following its offer to shoot four men responsible for last month's killing of Robert McCartney, a Catholic civilian, in a bar brawl, reports the
New York Times.
Mr. Reiss also told Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed IRA, to "distance itself" from the paramilitary organization.
'It's time for the IRA to go out of business...It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated.'
It was "the
bluntest US criticism of the IRA to date," reports the
The Associated Press.
The Bush administration's call comes a week ahead of St. Patrick's Day when "leaders of the IRA-affiliated Sinn Fein party won't be guests of the White House for the first time in a decade," reports
AP. This year, the "invitations are going to the five sisters of the IRA's most recent victim."
The sisters of murder victim Mr. McCartney continued their campaign against the IRA, stating again yesterday that they would not be satisfied "until his
killers faced a court," reports the
Telegraph.
And they claimed intimidation was still preventing witnesses to the killing from coming forward despite the public call from both the IRA and Sinn Fein for people to tell what they know. Security sources say that despite their public appeals, the IRA has privately been telling witnesses to say nothing. In response to calls for the break up of the IRA, the
Irish Echo quotes Sinn Fein leader
Gerry Adams as saying:
'There is no place in republicanism for anyone involved in criminality. Our detractors will say we have a particular view of what criminality is. We have not.
We know that breaking the law is a crime. But we refuse to criminalize those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives.'
But
outrage over the IRA's willingness to "mete out its traditional punishments" in the aftermath of McCartney's murder continued to well up reports the
Guardian.
Irish premier, Bertie Ahern, said on Wednesday:
'We all want to see justice done, but [the IRA's] response to that was to eliminate three or four people....It's horrific.' Democratic Unionist party leader, Ian Paisley, called for the arrest of Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the IRA's rationale "frankly defies any description," reports
AP.
The
Times of London in its
lead editorial on Thursday excoriated Sinn Fein and the IRA, calling its public stance as nothing but a play for time.
They will hope, improbable as it seems, that the collective impact of the
Northern Bank robbery and the McCartney saga will gradually fade. A willingness to operate on the basis of "the long game" is embedded in them.
The arrogance of its revelation that it had offered to shoot those responsible for Mr McCartney's death is just as chilling as the proposed 'remedy'. It has revealed publicly the assumption that the self-appointed armed 'representatives' of the republican community have the right to exercise a power of life or death in parts of the Province. The IRA's words were beyond belief.
Echoing the
Times, Thursday's lead editorial in the
Toronto Globe and Mail
approached contempt at the IRAs "extraordinary offfer" to reduce pressure brought on itself in its own Catholic stronghold of the Short Strand neighborhood in Belfast.
Instead, it merely underlined the brutality of the IRA, which has evolved from terrorist group to criminal gang, up to its neck in everything from bank robberies to extortion. Both the British and Irish prime ministers properly condemned the outrageous IRA offer. The US envoy even said it is "time for the IRA to go out of business." Past time, in fact. And in a totally damning editorial the
Boston Globe likens
IRA practices to that of the mafia.
In the opening scene of "The Godfather," Don Corleone agrees that his thugs will beat up two men to provide rough justice for an aggrieved father. The Irish Republican Army showed itself no different from this fictional Mafia family with its offer to shoot the men who killed Robert McCartney in January.
The Mafia, however, never organized a political party as its accomplice and agent. Sinn Fein, the IRA's adjunct, cannot play the leading role it wants in Northern Ireland politics until the IRA goes out of business.
Britain's House of Commons began debate on Thursday on a government motion "calling for a
suspension of parliamentary allowances for Sinn Fein's four MPs, worth about ���500,000 [US $961,500] to the party," reports the
Financial Times.
Editors note: After the Monitor published this Daily Update,
Bloomberg reported parliament
suspended funds to Sinn Fein.
Two
Belfast Telegraph-BBC Newsnight polls taken last week and this week indicate that the "very existence of the IRA is being questioned within nationalism" [Those in favor of Northern Ireland becoming a part of Ireland]
The
results of the polls found:
•Six out of 10 nationalists - including almost half of Sinn Fein voters - believe the IRA should disband now.
•Seven out of 10 nationalists said the IRA should decommission all its weapons now, including a clear majority (59 percent) of Sinn Fein voters.
However, the polls reveal the still widely differing views, most likely distrust, between Catholics and Portestants in Northern Ireland.
Even if complete disarmament and disbandment happened, Protestants remain lukewarm about the return of the Assembly [official governing legislature] with Sinn Fein. Forty-five per cent say they would welcome the restoration of the Assembly in these circumstances, compared to more than two-thirds of [overwhelmingly Catholic] nationalists.
Also...
•
Provisional IRA: War, ceasefire, endgame (
BBC)
•
IRA threats continue say McCartneys (
Guardian)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Jim Bencivenga
.
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