The Hindu : IRA `committed' to peace process

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 18, 2002

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IRA `committed' to peace process

By Hasan Suroor

A file photo of policemen standing in the rubble after a car-bomb ripped through the market town of Omagh in Northern Ireland, killing over 20 people on Aug. 15, 1998.

LONDON JULY 17. In a dramatic move, widely noted for its huge symbolic significance, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has publicly apologised to the victims of its over 30-year bloody campaign and reaffirmed its "commitment" to the Northern Ireland peace process.

The IRA, in a statement, said it offered "sincere apologies and condolences" to the families of non-combatants killed or injured in violence. Referring to Bloody Friday, it said: "It is...appropriate on the anniversary of this tragic event that we address all of the deaths and injuries of non-combatants caused by us. We offer our sincere apologies and condolences to their families." The IRA, it said, was "totally committed to the peace process and to dealing with the challenges and difficulties which this presents."

The apology, regarded as an unprecedented gesture from an organisation which has consistently refused to repudiate its actions, came ahead of the 30th anniversary of Bloody Friday when nine persons were killed in a series of bomb blasts in Belfast on July 21,1972, marking a new phase in republican violence.

But Unionists dismissed it as a tactical move saying it was intended to fend off pressure on the IRA following allegations that the paramilitary group had been secretly re-arming itself despite its commitment to give up weapons. In recent weeks, the IRA has attracted a lot of flak for its alleged involvement in renewed violence, and hard line Unionists are demanding that its political arm, Sinn Fein, should be expelled from Northern Ireland's coalition government for its failure to rein in the IRA.

Unionist leaders said it was significant that the apology came a week before the Prime Minister, Tony Blair's widely anticipated statement on IRA activities. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader and head of the Northern Ireland Executive, David Trimble, cautioned Mr. Blair not to allow himself to be deflected by the IRA's announcement. "It is quite significant that this statement says nothing at all about the recent violence that the IRA has been involved in, nothing about what their future conduct is going to be. Consequently, this statement does not absolve the Prime Minister from the need for him to make clear what the Government will do in the event of breaches (of the ceasefire agreed under Good Friday Areement) by the republican movement," he said.

The British and Irish Governments, which have been working hard to avert a collapse of the peace process, welcomed the IRA's gesture describing it as a significant attempt by republicans to get over the past. Both London and Dublin were reported to have been pleasantly surprised by the IRA's announcement which came barely hours after Mr. Blair told a parliamentary committee that the IRA had "never been further away from the resumption of violence". The apology also went down well with families of victims though they said it meant nothing in real terms.

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