North talks have made little progress - Adams

Talks aimed at restoring devolution in Northern Ireland have made little progress, Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said tonight…

Talks aimed at restoring devolution in Northern Ireland have made little progress, Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said tonight.

Mr Adams told a public meeting in Belfast his party was committed to the peace process.

However in a rebuttal of weekend speculation that the IRA is close to ceasing all paramilitary activity, he warned there would only be progress if the two governments came forward with an implementation plan for honouring commitments on policing, demilitarisation and other aspects of the Belfast Agreement.

Mr Adams said: "So far in our efforts to bring back the institutions there has been no substantive progress.

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"And there will not be until the British and Irish governments come forward with time-framed programmatic implementation plans for those aspects of the Agreement which are their responsibility.

"While Sinn Féin believes that the institutions need to be reinstated as soon as possible, they should not have been suspended in the first place. Even if the institutions are not reinstated all other aspects of the Good Friday Agreement must be and will be fully implemented.

"I say 'will be fully implemented' not because I have any great confidence in the British Government, ironically unionists and the rest of us on this island have that in common, but because there is no way that we can accept anything less than the changes that are required to bed down a sustainable process."

The Sinn Féin president was speaking at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in south Belfast at a public meeting sponsored by the zero28 Project Citizenship under the title of "The People's Process".

Mr Adams said republicans were "frustrated" that unionists had ignored the contribution they had made to the peace process despite all the difficulties it had caused them.

He expressed annoyance at the use of the word terrorists to describe his party and its supporters.

The West Belfast MP also criticised the focus of unionism on IRA activities.

"On the republican and nationalist side there is anger, frustration and annoyance that there is little focus on the ongoing killing and sectarian campaign by unionist paramilitaries or the actions of the British forces," he said.

"For example: On Saturday night a young man is killed in Ballygowan, on Sunday morning three shots are fired, two cars are burned out and a caravan destroyed in Westland drive in North Belfast, 15 families have fled the lower Shankill in recent weeks and last night two families were targeted in pipe bomb attacks and a young man was shot and wounded on the Shankill.

"And yet we are told that the present crisis within the political process is fuelled by a concern about paramilitarism. I have no doubt that there is concern. However, there is a perception within nationalism that there is a different attitude towards the actions of unionist paramilitaries."

The West Belfast MP argued Sinn Fein's growing mandate in Northern Ireland as the largest nationalist party was the main reason for the current crisis.

"That is the core of Mr Blair's position," he said.

"It is also the core of the unionist position.

"In other words if Sinn Féin did not have the support we have there would be no question of suspending the institutions, even if the allegations about the IRA were proven. "

PA