Posted on 10/24/2001 7:17:43 AM PDT by Sparticle
The IRA said today it had begun decommissioning its weapons. Here is its statement in full
The IRA is committed to our republican objectives and to the establishment of a united Ireland based on justice, equality and freedom.
In August l994, against a background of lengthy and intensive discussions involving the two governments and others, the leadership of the IRA called a complete cessation of military operations in order to create the dynamic for a peace process. 'Decommissioning' was no part of that. There was no ambiguity about this.
Unfortunately there are those within the British establishment and the leadership of unionism who are fundamentally opposed to change. At every opportunity they have used the issue of arms as an excuse to undermine and frustrate progress.
It is for this reason that decommissioning was introduced to the process by the British government. It has been used since to prevent the changes that a lasting peace requires. In order to overcome this and to encourage the changes necessary for a lasting peace, the leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (IRA) has taken a number of substantial initiatives.
These include our engagement with the IICD (Independent International Commission on Decommissioning) and the inspection of a number of arms dumps by the two international inspectors, Cyril Ramaphosa and Martti Ahtisaari.
No one should doubt the difficulties these initiatives cause for us, our volunteers and our supporters. The political process is now on the point of collapse. Such a collapse would certainly, and eventually, put the overall peace process in jeopardy.
There is a responsibility upon everyone seriously committed to a just peace to do our best to avoid this. Therefore, in order to save the peace process, we have implemented the scheme agreed with the IICD in August.
Our motivation is clear. This unprecedented move is to save the peace process and to persuade others of our genuine intentions.
They told him they were going to, then he looks good by asking.
It takes more than a few hours to organise that amount of concrete!!
synical......me??
Soon to be? Tony, we are already subjects to the American Empire and have been for more years than most are willing to admit. If only the boos for the Great northern Tyrant were as loud as they are for Klintoon we would be able to begin the return not only to the politcal ideals of the Constitution but the moral ones implicit from the Founders as well
What it actually means is that the Army will dismantle the observation towers on the Armagh border faster than the WTC towers came down. Craven submission yet again by the Uk Giovernment to the scumbag Adams and murderous crew of jailbirds, drug runners and pimps.
There is not going to be any publicly verifiable decommissioning of weapons, they will be "permanently beyond reach." i.e. if we decide we want to get cracking again, we'll be able to get to them.
Typical IRA-Marxist double-speak.
Also, some of you people should listen to some of the comments of people in Republican areas. Discounting people like Ruari O'Bradaigh who idealogically see this as a surrender, a lot of the grassroots have a big problem with the idea of decommisionning, fearing a repeat of the position in which they found themselves in 1969 when the Official IRA failed to protect them from loyalist pogroms. Adams and McGuinness have done remarkably well to keep the movement together (for the most part) and bring them to this point. This is a huge step for Republicanism. Whether or not it turns out to be another false dawn remains to be seen. If the UDA decide to up the ante some more, there will be a lot of resistance to the idea of further decommisionning in Republican areas.
(And no, I'm not a Sinn Feiner. I think that a united Ireland will do little to solve the sickness of Northern Irish society.)
I've also been impressed with that northern slogan, "When the Brits are out, then the battle really begins." You boys planning another civil war? The way I heard it in the Republic, it didn't seem that many people were interested in reunification, but let's not concern ourselves with that.
To get to the point, I pray for peace in that poor god forsaken piece of real-estate. I've met people on both sides of the conflict that I would be proud to call, friend. Catholic, Protestant, it doesn't make any difference. They were both willing to give you the shirt off their back and help you out any way they could.
Yes I hope that Gerry Adams is speaking from the heart, and I hope that Mr. McGuiness is serious about peace. I hope that they encourage serious, courageous, young catholic men and women to get involved in the new police service. I hope there can be a dialogue between some of the greatest, heart warming people I have had the pleasure to know.
You and I both know how things are set up to put a spin on it. If they are going to get rid of the weapons, why do they not want to do it in public and show the whole world.
Now, should I sing a stanza from "The Men Behind the Wire"? I have been back and forth to The Republic and N.I. many times over the years, Hell I had just driven past the RUC barracks in Newry when the last RPG got shot at it. That was just before the cease-fire, remember. God yes I hope for peace, I just hope Ireland doesn't get stuck with a Marxist dictatorship down the road. (From your Irish-Catholic Texas cousin in Dallas)
there'll be no aircraft carriers in the Irish Sea, there'll be no Army Rangers in west Belfast, it's a DAMNED JOKE folks. Ok?
maybe I shouldn't speak too soon, but I have a feeling in a minute the Catholic bashers will jump on board.
It makes me sick the way the discussion on FR has turned in the past month. Your comments regarding America wanting her own empire are unfounded, you've read them from idiotic hotheads who want us to drop nukes and destroy both the Middle East and Islam. What the hell country do these people think we live in? (no offense).
You'll notice the same idiotic hotheads saying that as soon as we're done nuking an entire region of the world, that we're going to advance across Europe, killing ETA terrorist and Basque seperatists in France and Spain, of course going to Ireland to eradicate the IRA, with a followup in South America for FARC and other marxist terrorists in that region. It's absolute madness and it's sad to think that the discourse of FR has been brought to this level.
As YOU well know, even ardent supporters of Irish reunification and republican nationalism support LIMITED ends (yeah, as if we want to see another civil war after the North leaves the UK) to the struggle and certainly not means that have been used in the recent past.
At any rate I'm happy, for whatever the reason, that Adams and McGuinness have gone for the next step. I will say however that there needs to be an equal step taken by the unionist counterparts in order for this to work. There would be no IRA if there weren't any unionists and I think that the "volunteers" would gain more grassroots support for disarmament if the unionist militias would make appropriate concessions.
regards,
my comments were directed more towards posts like ""If we so much as lit a firecracker in the future, an American aircraft carrier filled with mean dudes would park itself off the coast of Ireland and deal." and "the IRA know that they would probably be on the extermination list very soon. Time to lay low...for awhile."
as if we're going to storm the globe in the hunt.
I do understand the feeling of taking the train from Dublin to Belfast and finding that you are in a different "nation," but maybe the same "country". I've walked the streets of Belfast, seeing Irish flags down one street and the Union Jack down the next. But the history and politics go far beyond mere "British subjugation of Ireland." And Clinton's meddling didn't really help matters.
< /sarcasm >
I somehow keep on thinking about that old saying, "For the great Gaels of Ireland are the people God made mad, for all their war's are merry and all their songs are sad." Keep your powder dry
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