Posted on 10/30/2002 4:33:01 AM PST by Happygal
REPUBLICAN leader and former Northern Education Minister Martin McGuinness pledged last night: "My war is over."
Mr McGuinness, who has been a senior member of the Provisional IRA, said his job now as a political leader was to prevent war.
"My job is to continue to ensure a political set of circumstances which will never again see British soldiers or members of the IRA lose their lives as a result of political conflict. I feel very passionate about that," he told a BBC documentary programme on his life.
Mr McGuinness said: "My political project until the day I retire from politics or die is to build a better future for all of our people. It is a political project, not a military one."
His comments were immediately welcomed in government circles in Dublin and London as the latest indication from the republican movement that it remains fully committed to the peace process despite the setbacks in recent weeks.
A statement from the IRA two weeks ago repeated that it was not a threat to the peace process while at the weekend Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said he could envisage a future without the IRA.
Mr Adams' remarks drew favourable reaction from new Northern Secretary Paul Murphy, SDLP leader Mark Durkan and UUP leader David Trimble.
Last night, Mr McGuinness said he was totally committed to politics and was no longer a member of the IRA.
He had joined the Provisional IRA in Derry to end injustice. "Certainly in the minds of those people who were 17, 18, 19, 20 years of age - I was 19 years of age approximately at that time - thoughts do turn to how you can be more effective in terms of confronting the British army and the RUC."
He added: "And I suppose there are limits to what you can do with a stone. There are limits to what you can do with bricks and bottles and at the same time lead bullets were being used against the people.
"So I and many others made a very conscious decision to join the IRA and be more effective in resistance."
"All I am saying is that I was part of the IRA.
"I think the responsibility for all that has happened over the course of the past 30-odd years is a responsibility that goes all around the houses from 10 Downing Street right through to streets in this area, streets in Belfast, Stormont, the Stormont parliament, the unionist administration."
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