Adams calls on Britain to accept spy ring responsibility

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has called on the British government to accept responsibility for a spying scandal which brought down the North's power-sharing executive and exposed a key Sinn Fein party member as a British agent.

Mr Adams was speaking after talks with Northern Ireland Minister Peter Hain in the wake of revelations that Sinn Fein veteran Denis Donaldson was a British spy for 20 years.

The arrest in 2002 of Mr Donaldson and two others who were accused of spying for Sinn Fein brought down power-sharing Executive at Stormont and led to the resumption of direct rule from London.

Mr Adams said: "Essentially this issue is about the need for the British government to both accept responsibility for what has happened and what is happening and also to end political policing".

"A very unique power-sharing administration was toppled after centuries of conflict ... The truth of the matter is that British agencies were at the heart of that coup d'etat," he told reporters.

Mr Adams: "We are not going to be deflected by anything from that historic task.

"But it is not good enough for a British Secretary of State to simply dismiss the fact that his state agencies behave in the way they behave," he added.

Earlier Mr Hain ruled out an inquiry into the matter, saying it was not in the public interest to do so.

"Frankly, we have had inquiries galore in Northern Ireland . They cost hundreds of millions of pounds," he said.

But Sinn Fein's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said there were people within Northern Ireland's police force and within British intelligence who were hostile to his party's participation in the peace process.

"It is now time for the British to answer questions about their agents, about their agencies, and about their approach to the process," he said.

"What we are calling on them to do is declare that their war against republicans and the peace process is finally over."

Earlier Mr McGuinness said he would have 'no problem' with unionist calls for an inquiry into the affair.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern also held a meeting with Mr Hain today to discuss last week's events.

Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds said his party would this week press in the House of Commons for the Prime Minister to explain what he knew.

"The people of Northern Ireland deserve answers - not least the hundreds of families forced to take security precautions as a result of the spy ring affair," the North Belfast MP said.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan claimed that events in recent weeks showed the British Government and Sinn Fein were engaged in a cover-up of the past.

The Foyle MP said: "What has happened in recent weeks is that it has shown that people who for years gave us a dirty war are now prepared, at best, to give us a dirty peace.

"We see that in relation to the Hain-Adams Bill where the (British) government and Sinn Fein have conspired together to produce legislation that is aimed at burying the past and covering over the truth."

Additional reporting: PA

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