Posted on 01/27/2005 11:57:56 PM PST by jonatron
Sinn Fein, the most powerful Catholic party in Northern Ireland, said it was steeling itself for a "confrontation" with British Prime Minister Tony Blair following recent rows that have imperiled the peace process in the province.
"I think it is very fair to say that there is a very deep sense of crisis in the peace process at this time," Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams told reporters in London a day before a meeting with Blair.
Efforts to resolve Northern Ireland's political deadlock, which nearly succeeded in talks before Christmas, have been badly hit by a massive bank robbery last month which Northern Irish police blamed on Sinn Fein's paramilitary wing, the Irish Republican Army.
Adams said his camp would go into the meeting with Blair with a positive outlook but admitted that "difficulties" had emerged in negotiations since the robbery in Belfast was attributed to the IRA.
"Obviously, the accusations flowing from that robbery have compounded the difficulties," Adams said, also blaming the hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for rejecting "seismic" concessions in the pre-Christmas talks.
He said Blair's official spokesman had characterized the Friday huddle at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence outside London, as "a confrontation -- we are going to be told straight what is happening and so on".
Top officials in Britain and Ireland who have overseen negotiations between Northern Ireland's rival Protestants and Catholics have also been blunt in attributing blame to the IRA for the December 20 heist.
In what is believed to be Britain's biggest-ever robbery, 26.5 million pounds (38 million euros, 50 million dollars) was stolen from coffers of the Northern Bank in Northern Ireland's main city.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who met with Adams in Dublin on Tuesday, confirmed that he blamed the IRA for the crime but said the peace process had to move forward, and Sinn Fein had to work to restore lost confidence.
A deal to restore Northern Ireland's semi-autonomous power-sharing government stalled in December, largely because of a dispute over how to disarm the IRA in a way that would be credible to Protestant parties.
DUP leader Ian Paisley insisted Thursday that all negotiations were off with Sinn Fein.
"There can be no question of the talks process that was brought to an end by Sinn Fein/IRA being renewed. There can be no place in government for bank robbers and criminals," he told journalists in Belfast.
His son, Ian Paisley Jr., a DUP official seen as a possible successor to his father, called for Irish and British "sanctions" against Sinn Fein.
"They need to be seen to be punished as a result of the robbery," he said.
Northern Ireland has been governed by direct rule from London since October 2002, when the Belfast executive and assembly were suspended over allegations of IRA spying
Oh Come on...That's what Peace-processes are all about nowadays.
Of course it is, when the terrorists were shooting opponents within their own community (as opposed to shooting people from the other community) the government dismissed it as 'housekeeping'.I suppose stealing $50 million dollars in cash can just be regarded as balancing the family budget.
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