Politics.ie

IMC WILL PREDICTABLY IGNORE BRITISH BREACHES – SINN FEIN

18 April 2004

Sinn Féin National Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin has said that media speculation concerning the content of the IMC Report ‘vindicated entirely his party’s position that the body is little more than a tool to be used by the British government to undermine the electoral mandate of Sinn Féin’.

Mr. McLaughlin said:

“ Reports about the content of the IMC document in the media today speculate that the body will major on alleged republican activity, slow pedal on the activities of unionist paramilitaries and ignore entirely the British government breaches of the Agreement up until now.

“ It will be interesting to see what the IMC have to say about the British government policy of state sanctioned murder recently exposed by Judge Cory, or the series of murders carried out by unionist paramilitaries over the past year, many of which are reportedly linked to British agents working within the unionist paramilitaries.

“ It has been indicated that the IMC will ignore the British government’s decision to suspend the political institutions and cancel elections on three separate occasions. It will ignore the failure of the British government to demilitarize its war machine in Ireland and it continuing failure to deliver on Good Friday Agreement commitments on policing, justice, human rights and equality issues.

“ The timing of the IMC Report in the lead up to the latest round of negotiations is clearly political and clearly designed to influence those discussions. Many people will be angered at the actions of this unrepresentative and unelected quango exerting a negative influence over the peace process.

“ The irony of a body set up by the British who are in breach of the Good Friday Agreement themselves passing judgments and recommending sanctions over participants in the peace process is not lost on the broad nationalist and republican community.

“ Our position regarding the IMC is very clear. They are a smokescreen for exclusion, operate outside the terms of the Agreement and have no positive role to play. It is my belief that the contents of their report will entirely vindicate this position.

“Sinn Féin is responsible only for the actions of Sinn Féin. No party has done more to help make this process work than Sinn Féin. Our record in and commitment to this process cannot be questioned. Sinn Féin is not prepared to have our rights and entitlements and those of the majority of nationalists in the North undermined or diminished by the British government through its proxy the IMC.

IOL

AHERN: REFERENDUM WILL NOT AFFECT AGREEMENT

19/04/2004 – 11:02:44

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted that the Government’s planned citizenship referendum poses no threat to the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Ahern was responding to a request from the SDLP for the referendum to be postponed until its implications for the 1998 peace deal can be properly debated.

In a letter to the Taoiseach last week, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said he was extremely concerned that the referendum would alter the terms of the agreement.

However, Mr Ahern said today: “There is no difficulty with the British-Irish agreement. We have taken legal advice here and in Britain and there is no difficulty whatever about the changes.”

Justice Minister Michael McDowell echoed Mr Ahern’s comments in a separate interview with journalists today. Mr McDowell said the changes contained in the proposed referendum were “wholly consistent” with the Good Friday Agreement.

He also said Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley was wrong to suggest that the referendum represented a unilateral alteration of the agreement by the Irish Government.

“Mr Paisley is wrong in relation to this,” the minister said. “The two governments have conferred closely on this matter and, in the next 24 hours, I will be indicating the position of the British and Irish governments. Manufactured arguments, either here or in Northern Ireland, suggesting that it is inconsistent with the agreement are wide of the mark.”