Sinn Fein backs peace plan
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has told party members to accept the Anglo-Irish peace proposals to revive power sharing in Northern Ireland.
The West Belfast MP told senior party members in Belfast on Monday it was in Sinn Fein’s interest to affirm the political package proffered as the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement had been staunchly defended.
“Sinn Fein believes that it can be resolved to the satisfaction of all reasonable people,” a statement read last night.
The decision came after a second meeting between the party and chief constable Hugh Orde at Downing Street.
But Mr Adams’ upbeat statement came hours after Democratic Unionist Party leader Rev Dr Ian Paisley – fresh from a meeting with Tony Blair at Downing Street – reiterated his party’s stance that IRA decommissioning had to be full and verifiable, before he would join Mr Adams in devolved government.
“He said Sinn Fein believed that the weapons issue can be resolved to the satisfaction of all reasonable people,” Mr Paisley said.
The veteran leader of the largest Protestant party in the province said photographic evidence was required of IRA decommissioning.
“If you sin publicly, you have to repent publicly,” he said.
Sinn Fein said the insistence on photographic evidence was a bid to humiliate the IRA – they are suggesting that religious leaders from both sides witness the decommissioning.
“There’s nothing wrong with asking a terrorist to surrender his weapon,” Mr Paisley added.
“And there’s nothing wrong with asking a person who has been guilty of organising mass murder through the country, and trying to commit genocide of the whole Protestant population of the border, to say: ‘Give it up’. “
Danny Morrison, former Sinn Fein publicity director, told the BBC last night: “They will use these photographs to laud it over the Ulster Unionists and secondly to humiliate the republicans.”
Mr Morrison said a set of photographs or video “may well represent the symbol of surrender.”
A Sinn Fein spokesman said last night: “Mr Adams did not discuss the issue of IRA weapons at the meeting, but he made it clear that resolving the issue of weapons was a matter for the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and the armed groups.”
Mr Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are expected to state on Wednesday whether a deal has been agreed or not.
