The republican movement must stop pretending to be like the peacemaker Nelson Mandela when it is in fact closer to the dictator Robert Mugabe, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said tonight.
In another bitterly critical attack on Sinn Fein and the IRA, Mr McDowell said the movement had presided over a situation where young men suspected of being informers were tortured with cigarette burns and forced to confess to their families on video.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell
"All of this is done with a cruel and vicious pretence that if they will only own up, they will save their lives. And then they send those tapes to their relatives afterwards and dump their bodies like animals on the side of the road."
At the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) in Kerry, he said this was carried out with the express authority of the Army Council of the IRA.
"I would not stand in public or in private while people who are in fact Mugabe pose as Mandela. I believe strongly that the rule of law in Ireland and democracy itself is threatened by compromising on these fundamental values."
Mr McDowell praised members of the Gardaí for uncovering a sophisticated Provisional IRA money laundering operation in recent months.
"The Garda operation showed, to borrow a phrase, that An Garda Siochana hasn't gone away you know," he said.
Mr McDowell, who published a 3,000-word statement criticising republicans in the new year, said he had been accused of obstructing the peace process.
"That is of course to stand reality on its head. This is a state built on a rule of law. There is no place for those with a ballot box in one hand and a money laundered bank draft in the other," he said.
Mr McDowell pledged to outsource speed cameras to an outside agency so that gardai could concentrate on other policing duties.
He said the Road Traffic Corps, which is to have 1,200 members by 2008, would have separate targets.
"The measured targets I want are not measured in summonses or a pile of money on Brian Cowan's table. What I want is them to measure speed in their areas.
He added: "I don't want to throw you into the position of being mean-minded revenue gatherers for the state. The people who will be given brownie points are the people who can say the motorists are more compliant (in their area)."
On the subject of his proposed on-the-spot fines, Mr McDowell said they should not be delayed by spurious arguments about human rights.
"The provision is aimed at stopping abusive thugs from making life a misery for decent, vulnerable law-abiding citizens," he said.
Gardai in two stations, Finglas in Dublin and Castleisland in Kerry, have threatened to walk out this summer if improvements were not made to their run-down buildings.
Mr McDowell said huge investment was being made to upgrade substandard Garda stations and added that the two stations would be treated as a priority.
PA