Conference tallis::celt

    
    Interesting.....
    
    So SF gets all wrapped around the axle over East Timor, but can't
    bring itself to condemn the senseless murder of a cop in their own
    country.
    
    Help me out with this one.....I'm really trying, but....
    
    Mike (who had to look on a map to find East Timor)
    
    
    

    Thanks for posting that, Shaun; much appreciated. It's interesting to
    see double-standards at work, and is, IMO, an indication of the
    enormous difficulties ahead, in trying to reach a compromise.
    
    Laurie.

    http://www.smart.net/~wcooke/sinnfein.html

    Amazing URL there Laurie....I'm glad Sinn Fein have finaly decided to
    adopt a more honest policy with regard to their activities.
    
    Shaun.

    Monday, June 17, 1996 
    US administration may be losing patience with Gerry Adams 
    
    From Joe Carroll, in Washington 
    
    As the strongly worded condemnations of the Manchester
    bombing by President Clinton and Senator Edward Kennedy
    show the US administration's anger with the IRA, there are
    signs that patience with Sinn Fin is also running out. The
    administration may now "give up" on the Sinn Fin president,
    Mr Gerry Adams, following the Manchester bombing, a
    Newsweek article predicts in today's issue. "If Adams cannot
    deliver the IRA, he is of little use to anyone," it says.
    
    "True, the Americans were starting to get impatient with Adams
    who kept telling them that re-instituting a ceasefire `takes time',
    but they had never quite given up on him. They may now have
    to," the article says.
    
    The strong language in the statements of President Clinton and
    Senator Kennedy singles out the "men of violence" and the
    "terrorists" of the IRA for condemnation. Mr Clinton speaks of
    this "cowardly act of terrorism" and the "viciousness" which
    deserves universal condemnation.
    
    Last week, during President Robinson's visit here, the emphasis
    from President Clinton was on hopes for an IRA ceasefire
    soon which would allow Sinn Fin into the talks. He
    "congratulated" Mr Adams on the size of the Sinn Fin vote
    and insisted it was "not a vote for violence".
    
    While Irish-American politicians have been blaming Britain for
    the hold-up in the talks, the belated endorsement of Mr George
    Mitchell as chairman was seen as giving the IRA a positive
    signal to go ahead with the ceasefire. The timing of the
    Manchester bomb is now seen as incomprehensible.
    
    Senator Kennedy's statement said pointedly that "the terrorists
    do not have the support of friends of Ireland in the United
    States. Whatever the goals of the IRA, they are gravely
    mistaken to believe they can achieve them by killing police
    officers and bombing shopping malls."
    
    In an interview in Newsweek just before the bomb exploded in
    Manchester, Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fin refused to
    speculate on a ceasefire but added: "Senator Mitchell's
    presence makes a much more conducive atmosphere for
    republicans to be associated with any process he is chairing".
    
    
                               (C) Copyright: The Irish Times
                               Contact: [email protected] 
    
    

    UK News Electronic Telegraph Wednesday June 19 1996
    
    By Toby Harnden in Belfast 
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
    SINN FEIN was pushed further into the wilderness last night when the
    Irish government delivered its strongest attack on the republicans
    since the IRA ceasefire ended, expressing doubts that they were
    "capable" of pursuing peaceful democratic politics.
    
    The attack coincided with the return of troops to the streets of
    Northern Ireland yesterday as security was stepped up after the
    Manchester bombing.In London, Labour joined the Government in saying
    that the Belfast talks could continue without Sinn Fein, with Tony
    Blair emphasising that it should not expect any better treatment under
    a Labour government.
    
    Mr Blair said that Sinn Fein now faced a "moment of truth".
    
    The Prime Minister, who is expected to talk by telephone today with the
    Irish premier, John Bruton, said that he would not allow Sinn Fein to
    derail a process which could continue regardless. "It is now up to them
    to demonstrate their credibility."
    
    A two-hour meeting of the Irish cabinet to discuss the response to the
    Manchester bombing produced a marked hardening of its stance. Although
    the cabinet decided to maintain its official contact with Sinn Fein, it
    said that the question of future meetings would be "kept under review".
    
    This would depend on Gerry Adams's response to two straightforward
    questions about whether he had asked the IRA for a ceasefire and
    whether Sinn Fein continued to support the terrorists' armed struggle.
    
    The decision to maintain "limited official contact" with Sinn Fein was
    seen as a victory for Dick Spring, the foreign ministe
    
    The Dublin statement expressed "serious concern" that Sinn Fein had not
    persuaded the IRA to restore its ceasefire. The "outrages" in
    Manchester and Limerick, where an Irish detective was shot dead 12 days
    ago "provide no grounds for confidence that Sinn Fein is capable of
    pursuing normal democratic politics based on exclusively peaceful
    methods".
    
    The decision to maintain "limited official contact" with Sinn Fein was
    seen as a victory for Dick Spring, the foreign minister. Mr Bruton is
    thought to have urged a tougher line. Sources close to Mr Spring also
    sought to distance him from the two questions.
    
    Labour's response yesterday will have severely dented the view of some
    of those close to Sinn Fein that the republicans have now abandoned any
    hope of progress under the Tories and are waiting for a change of
    government in London.
    
    Mr Blair's comments were viewed as a calculated effort to dispel any
    such hopes. Speaking during Prime Minister's question time, he told MPs
    that Sinn Fein had reached a "moment of truth" as to whether it really
    wished to engage in a genuine search for peace. If there was no new
    ceasefire, the democratic political parties should move on without it.
    
    Then, in a comment which will delight Unionist MPs, Mr Blair said that
    the international community which had been quick to involve itself in
    the problems of Northern Ireland should learn from the Manchester
    bombing.
    
    "The US and others abroad have perhaps been given a telling lesson in
    the realities of the IRA," he said. Mr Blair asked Mr Major: "Isn't the
    only course now open to Sinn Fein to ensure that the IRA ceases its
    violence, or if it cannot or won't, then this process should proceed
    with the democratic parties, an agreement should be reached and put to
    a ballot of the people?
    
    He pledged that the search for a political settlement in Northern
    Ireland would continue with or without the republicans
    
    "Doesn't the responsibility now lie squarely upon Sinn Fein if they are
    to play any part at all in the future progress of peace?" Mr Major
    condemned the Manchester bombing as a "callous and inhuman act".
    
    He said: "The time has come for Sinn Fein to make up its mind. "Either
    it is going to be a democratic organisation, taking part in democratic
    politics, or it is going to stay side by side as the reverse coin of
    the IRA, with intermingled membership, in which case it has no part in
    democratic politics whatever."
    
    He pledged that the search for a political settlement in Northern
    Ireland would continue with or without the republicans. With his voice
    rising in anger, Mr Major said that what was "so startling" was the
    total indifference of the bombers to those they had injured and could
    have killed.
    
    He said that the victims were "people who had no connection whatsoever
    with the disputes that are in Ireland or the disputes the IRA may have
    with the British Government or others".
    

    
                                                                  
    FRONT PAGE - Friday, June 21, 1996
    
    RUC warns of loyalist reaction if IRA hits North 
    
    (C) Irish Times 
    
    
    By Geraldine Kennedy, Dick Grogan and Paddy Smyth 
    
    The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, has predicted
    immediate loyalist retaliation if there are any IRA attacks in the
    North. His warning came as the Taoiseach and the British
    Prime Minister prepared to meet today in Florence. 
    
    Mr Bruton again challenged Mr Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein
    president, to say that his party no longer supports the IRA's
    use of violence. He indicated that Mr Adams's response in an
    article in yesterday's to questions posed by the Government to
    Sinn Fein was inadequate. In Florence, where the EU summit
    starts today, the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said last night that Sir
    Hugh's prediction that loyalists would attack the Republic if the
    IRA campaign resumed in the North was a "realistic security
    assessment".
    
    He said loyalists had behaved in a "stoic and responsible way
    since their ceasefire in October 1994 despite provocation". He
    hoped they would continue to show restraint and stay in the
    talks. It was important they should not be provoked. He said
    the multi-party talks would continue.
    
    Referring to the Sinn Fein stance on the IRA's "armed
    struggle", Mr Bruton said Mr Adams had stated he did not
    advocate violence. The IRA itself did not advocate violence
    either. It used it like any bully as long as it was not getting its
    way. On whether Sinn Fein asked the IRA to restore the
    ceasefire, Mr Bruton acknowledged that the Government knew
    Sinn Fein had ongoing contact with the IRA. The two
    organisations were associated and were in regular contact. The
    Taoiseach said: "Now, I'm asking them, have they gone to the
    IRA to ask for a ceasefire? And will they go to the IRA to ask
    for a ceasefire? That question hasn't been answered."
    
    Speaking in Belfast at the publication of the RUC annual report
    for 1995, Sir Hugh Annesley said the current security situation
    was "worrying and unsettled".
    
    It was conceivable that there could be a short, sharp campaign
    of violence across the North and affecting potentially the
    Republic and Britain. If this happened, however, his view was
    that it would be relatively short-lived. The Chief Constable said
    he believed it would not take much at this point to push the
    loyalist paramilitaries over the edge.
    
    It was extremely difficult at the moment to read the mind of the
    IRA, he said. He believed that at the top of the republican
    movement, the IRA and Sinn Fein were "inextricably linked".
    He said: "I believe Messrs Adams and McGuinness are very,
    very influential people and I think they have a major say in the
    conduct overall of the republican thrust."
    
    He added: "There are people in Sinn Fein who devote
    themselves purely to politics. But the control of the movement
    at the top is closely linked. There are members of Provisional
    Sinn Fein who are on the army council, and there are members
    of the army council who are on the political talks level of Sinn
    Fein."
    
    Sinn Fein's national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said Sir
    Hugh's claim lacked credibility.
    
    (c) Irish Times

Sinn Fein and the IRA do not want peace, they want control.

    That just about sums it up Simon.
    
    
    CHARLEY