Sinn Fein said in a statement last night that Mr Gerry Adams, in an unscripted response to the plenary session of the talks process at Stormont, described the attitude and remarks of Mr Ken Maginnis as "deliberately provocative and hypocritical".He continued, according to the statement: "I have no intention of responding point by point I want to draw your attention to the minutes of the plenaries which dealt with these matters."I reject your assertion that Sinn Fein is the IRA. We are here as of right on the basis of our electoral mandate to put our republican analysis."I have listened carefully in recent weeks to the provocative comments of Unionists saying that they intend confronting Sinn Fein. Despite this provocation our commitment is to build a democratic peace settlement which includes all of our people.""Conflict has touched everyone. We all share in the responsibility for resolving it; for building a lasting and just peace."One of the difficulties is that no section of our people understands fully the suffering endured, or the suffering of the families of British soldiers."I acknowledge that it is likely that republicans don't fully understand or comprehend the suffering which unionists and loyalists have endured, or the suffering of the families of British soldiers."It is also likely that unionists and loyalists don't understand what nationalists and republicans have suffered and endured. But the difference between us and the Ulster Unionists is that Sinn Fein is prepared to listen to them and to engage with them and to try and reach out to them."Nineteen members of Sinn Fein have been killed, family members have been killed and scores have been injured in attacks. That's an awful lot of pain, an awful lot of funerals. People who stood for our party or who worked during elections knew that when they signed up for us they could be signing a death warrant and they did so to uphold democratic principles and the democratic rights of our electorate."I say this not to recriminate. If I wanted to do that or to indict others I could point to Ken Maginnis and Jeffrey Donaldson, two former members of the UDR, a disreputable force which was disbanded by the British government because of its appalling sectarian record."I could indict the British government. I could indict the loyalists. I don't want to do that. I want to get on with the business of making all of this a thing of our past. We will not be deflected from this. We want to get down to the real business of negotiating peace."The statement added that Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, in his address to the plenary session, said the Unionist contribution was "more hysterical than historical, but I recognise that despite everyone else's frustration that this was a big step for the UUP and the smaller loyalist parties."He said: "[Everyone] is at a crossroads. This business of making peace is a matter of life and death. All of us could look backwards and every party brings their own baggage into this process."There is a collective responsibility upon leaders to look into the future. The talks could end in failure and I often wonder how far we would have progressed if John Major had not been the British Prime Minister in 1994. Perhaps we would not have succeeded, but Sinn Fein tried then and Sinn Fein is trying now."