SINN FEIN TO RESIST IMC SANCTIONS 

04/19/04 11:23 EST

By The Irish American Information Service

Sinn Fein will resist any move to impose sanctions on members over alleged IRA activity, a senior figure in the party said today.

Alex Maskey described as "ridiculous" suggestions that the British government should deduct Assembly salaries from Sinn Fein and the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party over allegations of IRA and Ulster Volunteer Force activity.

The South Belfast Assembly member was responding to claims that the four-member Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) has made the proposal in a report handed to the British government last week.

The commission was set up last year at the behest of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to monitor paramilitary ceasefires and whether all sides in Northern Ireland are honoring commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.

Its members are former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice, ex-Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist squad chief John Grieve, retired Irish civil servant Joe Brosnan and Richard Kerr, who was the deputy director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Maskey, a former lord mayor of Belfast, said: "Our position is quite clear on the Independent Monitoring Commission. We do not recognize it and I have told its members that at a recent meeting. The IMC was established outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement as a lifeline to (Ulster Unionist leader) David Trimble and is being used purely for political reasons."

"Sinn Fein does not accept the validity of financial penalties or any other sanction on us or anyone else for something somebody else may or may not have done. It is a ridiculous idea. We have always said that Sinn Fein is not responsible for anyone else other than ourselves. If financial penalties are imposed, we will resist it and oppose it."

Unionists have demanded some form of sanction against Sinn Fein since the alleged attempted abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city center bar in February. Northern Ireland`s most senior policeman, Chief Constable Hugh Orde, blamed the IRA for the incident. The IRA denied it had authorized any action against Tohill and Tohill himself also stated that the IRA was not involved.

The IMC`s first report on paramilitary activity, which is expected to be released tomorrow, was brought forward following the Tohill incident.

As power sharing does not exist in Northern Ireland at this time, it is believed the commission has looked at the possibility of fining Sinn Fein and the PUP over alleged Provisional IRA and UVF activity.

Sinn Fein has always pooled its members` salaries into a fund which goes towards the party and paying all its staff. The party has 24 MLAs and Assembly salaries are worth around GBP £31,000 each.

Following the release of the IMC report, the British and Irish governments are planning intensive all-party talks in London later this month to deal with paramilitarism and other problems in the peace process.

Ulster Unionist David Burnside said if the commission fined Sinn Fein it would prove how weak it was. "Sinn Fein/IRA control a vast illegal armed criminal empire throughout Ireland and this financial penalty against them will be treated with contempt within the Army Council of the Provisional IRA.Whilst Sinn Fein will protest publicly, privately they will laugh once again at the weakness of the British and Irish Governments who should have the courage and will to exclude Sinn Fein/IRA from any possibility of joining an executive government in Northern Ireland in the foreseeable future," The South Antrim MP indicated.

IMC PROPOSES SANCTIONS AGAINST SINN FEIN AND PUP 

04/20/04 10:47 EST

By The Irish American Information Service

The International Monitoring Commission (IMC) claimed today that leading members of Sinn Féin are operating at the highest echelons of the IRA.

It also backed an assessment by the PSNI that the IRA was behind the attempted kidnapping of a dissident republican in Belfast in February.

As the British government revealed plans to impose tough financial sanctions on Sinn Féin and the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), a dossier on paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland alleged there was the crossover between politics and paramilitarism.

In a report that will enrage republicans, the commission alleged: "Some members, including some senior members of Sinn Féin are also members, including, in some cases, senior members of PIRA."

The four-member IMC handed its report to the British and Irish Governments last week, and after studying its contents, Northern Ireland secretary Mr. Paul Murphy confirmed plans to impose sanctions on the political parties aligned to paramilitary organizations.

He told the Commons: "I am persuaded that it would be right to remove for a period the entitlement to the block financial assistance paid to Assembly parties in respect of both Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party. I propose to do so next Wednesday, April 28th."

The penalties, which have yet to be finalized, will be taken from the GBP £120,000 paid annually to Sinn Féin and the £27,000 given to the smaller PUP. The IMC report also threatened to hold paramilitary chiefs publicly to account in future reports.

The Irish Government has said it accepts the conclusions of the Independent Monitoring Commission report. In a statement this afternoon, the Government said it had considered the first report of the IMC and had agreed that the report should be published today.

"The Government accept the conclusions and recommendations of the Commission," the statement said. "The Government appreciate the diligence and hard work of the Commission in bringing forward this report by three months."

"The report speaks for itself. It paints a disturbing picture in relation to paramilitary and criminal activity and deals with the links between political parties and paramilitary organizations. The Government acknowledge the constructive contributions that have been made by various parties in advancing the peace process to this point. But six years after the Agreement was signed, it is clear what must now be done if stable politics and a peaceful society in Northern Ireland are to be assured," the statement said.

"The transition to exclusively democratic means must be completed. We want this to happen once and for all, and as soon as possible. The people of Northern Ireland want a restoration of the devolved arrangements of the Good Friday Agreement. Everyone, including the two Governments, has a part to play in this but in order to make real progress it is essential that the issues raised in the IMC report are addressed as soon as possible," the statement concluded.

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, suggested action on prisoner releases would be better than proposed financial penalties directed at the political parties.

Trimble said he also welcomed the IMC statement that had the institutions been up and running, they would have looked at a number of options including the exclusion of Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party from office.

"I hope this and succeeding reports will tell the whole truth about the gangsterism, racketeering and oppression carried out by paramilitaries," he said. "Is it not the case that the proceeds of these crimes fund certain political parties? Should not the Electoral Commission and the Assets Recovery Agency be doing much more to stop this? Is it not time for the public mouthpieces for these gangs to tell the truth? It is a weakness that the IMC cannot sanction organizations without political representation," he said.

Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said the party would fight the sanctions "with every means at our disposal in a political way".

"We will take advice, technical and legal, and we will respond to it. But we will fight the British Government on this matter," he said.

Sinn Féin Assembly member for West Belfast Bairbre de Brun said that her party "did not accept the IMC and would politically fight the governments on this report and the sanctions it imposes".

De Brun said: "Sinn Féin has a substantial electoral mandate across Ireland. The British government does not have one vote in Ireland. We will not accept any proposal which discriminates against our party or our voters. Our firm intention is to politically fight the governments on this report and the sanctions it proposes."

"The IMC is not an independent body, it operates outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and is the tool of the two governments. The IMC Report is a proxy report for the securocrats who have done so much to damage the process up until now. It is complete nonsense that a so called independent body confirms what the PSNI are saying on the basis of a briefing from the PSNI."

"The IMC has no credibility with the broad nationalist electorate. It is a disgrace that the Irish government has signed up to the establishment of this body in the first place. There is of course nothing in the report of the IMC about the role of the British government in collusion, the continuing suspension of the political institutions or the continuing failure to demilitarize or deliver on policing, justice and human rights commitments," De Brun said.

DUP leader Ian Paisley called the sanction on Sinn Fein a "murder tax". He told the House of Commons that if parties did not keep to the rules governing the talks, they should not be allowed to take part.

The SDLP's Seamus Mallon described the "petty cash" sanctions imposed on the parties as "risible". He urged the secretary of state not to waste time "scratching at the surface" with meaningless financial sanctions. 

ADAMS REACTS TO IMC REPORT 

04/20/04 15:27 EST

By The Irish American Information Service

The Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, has described the report of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) as a "partisan" report and "a sham".

Adams was responding to the report's findings at a party rally in Dublin. Mr. Adams accused the British and Irish governments of "using the IMC to actively subvert democratic wishes and entitlements". 

The IMC report claimed leading members of Sinn Féin are operating at the highest echelons of the IRA. Because of this alleged crossover between politics and paramilitarism Sinn Fein faces financial sanctions, as does the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).

The penalties, which have yet to be finalized, will be taken from the £120,000 sterling paid annually to Sinn Féin and the £27,000 given to PUP. The IMC report also threatened to hold paramilitary chiefs publicly to account in future reports.

Adams this evening said the IMC was "not independent".

"The Commission's report is a proxy report by the securocrats which recommends sanctions against Sinn Féin - despite the clear fact that we are not in any way in breach of the [Belfast] Agreement, nor did they suggest we were," he added. 

He said the "duplicity" and "double standards" in the report were outrageous.

"Sinn Féin will not accept this partisan report. We will not accept this attack on our integrity. We will not accept this attack on our electoral mandate. We will challenge it by every means at our disposal and at every door we go to in the upcoming election campaign here in the south. We will also put responsibility for the current crisis precisely where it belongs - with the two governments. The Commission, after all, is the child of the two governments. It is only doing what it was set up to do. Its report is a sham."

Adams said he looked forward on the basis of the Belfast Agreement with the Taoiseach, but this meant the Irish Government "need to step up to the mark".

"It needs to stop allowing the British government to set the agenda in the peace process. It needs to stop setting the Good Friday Agreement and the rights and entitlements of nationalists and republicans aside at the whim of unionists - whether it is David Trimble or Ian Paisley." 

04/24/04 15:11 EST

The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, says he wants answers from the Taoiseach about how to put the peace process back on track, after the Independent Monitoring Committee advised the Irish government to take sanctions against his party.

Adams said: "There is an anger at the IMC and the way it`s conducted its business. There is a grave and bitter disappointment at the Taoiseach."

Speaking to party activists in Belfast this morning, he added: "The taoiseach was here, you may recall, on invitation just a short time ago, and people just are beside themselves that an Irish government would work with a British government, and step outside the terms of the Agreement, to give a British minister the right to penalise the party."

He said their reckless attitude towards the Peace Process needed to end and he called on nationalists and republicans to rally behind the Process and make their voices heard.

"Nationalists and republicans are justifiably incensed this week. It has been almost ten years since the first IRA cessation. In that time, republicans have taken enormous risks for peace, often entailing great sacrifice. At times, even our harshest critics have acknowledged the work we have undertaken. But sometimes, like now, our contribution is completely ignored. This week's report from the British government's so-called IMC is a partisan, short-sighted, unjust attack against Sinn Féin and is evidence of both governments growing recklessness."

Sinn Féin had fulfilled the promises they made in the Good Friday Agreement, said Adams. "But we have had to deal with the many unfulfilled promises of the two governments, with regard to policing, demilitarisation, human rights, equality and many other areas. Sinn Féin didn't bring down the Assembly and the Executive. It wasn't our actions that postponed the elections last May. We didn't walk away from the sequence of events aimed at restoring the political institutions last October.

"And yet our electorate are victims of the two governments' cynical attempts to blame Sinn Féin for everything that is wrong with the Peace Process. What is at stake here is a very valuable prize - a Peace Process that has brought, and can continue to bring, much needed change to this island. The two governments seem to be willing to risk that prize for the sake of short-term political gain. They must be made understand that the Peace Process is too important for that to happen."

"I firmly believe that these events do not reflect the public's attitude towards Sinn Féin. I firmly believe that, just as the public made their position clear in the Assembly elections last November, they will use the European elections to make their views clear once again.

"It is obvious that our support is not diminishing, it's growing. It is growing because people value our contribution to the Peace Process and our work to bring about real change across all of Ireland. And we have to build on this work in June. I believe that these elections - North and South - have the potential to be our best elections so far. We have never elected a representative to Europe.

"This year, will be the year this can be achieved. It's essential that we encourage our voters to show the same support for us that they did in the Assembly elections. That will remind the two governments, and all our opponents, once again, that the Peace Process cannot be held to ransom. That will be the loudest answer we can give to them, and to every obstacle they choose to put in the path of the Peace Process," Adams concluded.
 

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