IRA takes back offer to give up guns

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Times
By Philip Webster, Political Editor



THE Northern Ireland peace process ran into a fresh problem last night as the IRA withdrew co-operation on disarmament.

Days after Sinn Fein was told by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern that the IRA’s involvement in the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery had prevented progress on a return to power sharing, the organisation said that its scheme to put all its weapons completely and verifiably beyond use was no longer on the table, claiming that the British and Irish Governments were no longer honouring their commitments.

In a lengthy statement, which did not surprise Lon- don or Dublin, it denied that it was an obstacle to a lasting settlement.

It said: “We do not intend to remain quiescent within this unacceptable and unstable situation. It has tried our patience to the limit. Consequently, on reassessment of our position, and in response to the Governments and others withdrawing their commitments, we are taking all our proposals off the table.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1468303,00.html

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1. BBC: Raid blame 'scuttles disarmament'

Last year, the IRA said it would complete decommissioning

Blaming the IRA for the Northern Bank raid has "scuttled" the chance of the organisation disarming, says Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.
The paramilitary group has withdrawn its offer to scrap all of its weapons.

The IRA, which denies claims it was behind the £26.5m Belfast bank raid, said the British and Irish governments had "tried its patience to the limit".

A Downing Street spokesman said they were not surprised by the statement and that the IRA was behind the bank raid.

Irish Premier Bertie Ahern said he did not regard the IRA's statement as particularly negative.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4231951.stm

[Rush1184]

2. This is not going to be pretty...

[praxiz]

3. BOMB DUBLIN AND BELFAST INTO RUBBLE!

Come on Tony Blair! I dare you, I double-dare you motherf***er!

Let freedom reign! Let the bombs fall! Kill every single terrorist in Ireland! Problem solved!

So what if a few thousand civillians also gets killed? FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH!!

[emad]

4. McGuinness blames governments for IRA U-turn: Guardian

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Thursday February 3, 2005

Sinn Féin today shifted the blame back to the British and Irish governments for last night's IRA withdrawal of an arms decommissioning offer, saying the entire peace process was now in "deep crisis".

Speaking the morning after the IRA formally withdrew its offer of allowing full inspections of arms dumps, chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern had been too quick to buy into the "opinion" of one police officer over December's £26m bank raid, blamed on the republican terrorists by Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde.

Although Downing Street has kept its nerve in the face of the IRA move, calling it "not unexpected", it comes just six days after Mr Blair met both Gerry Adams and Mr McGuinness for face-to-face talks at Chequers.

But as the war of words escalated this morning, Mr McGuinness told the BBC: ""The real difficulty here is that the two governments have opted for confrontation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1404955,00.html

[Moderator]

5. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1207078