Trimble accuses IRA of ‘word games’
As the British Government again called for the IRA to end all paramilitary activity and London and Dublin prepared for a new round of talks with the political parties in a renewed drive to restore devolution, Mr Trimble said the penny did not seem to have dropped about what was required from republicans.
Mr Trimble stressed: "We all expected there would be a transition period after the Good Friday Agreement, but five years after the Agreement, is it not reasonable to expect that transition to have been completed and for us now to be living in a society where there are no private armies and there is no paramilitary activity?
"Putting it simply, the republicans have not got that point clearly in their minds and they still seem to think that somehow they can manoeuvre through this with a fog of words."
They would have been useful beginnings, he said, but fell a long way short of acts of completion.
"Last night's statement is just a continuation of that manoeuvring and the penny doesn't seem to have dropped that they are in a qualitatively different situation where they have to actually convince people that they are going to now fully implement the agreement," said Mr Trimble.
He accused the IRA of "playing word games" with their statement and said parts of it were "meaningless".
Insisting he was committed to restoring the devolved institutions at Stormont, Mr Trimble said the IRA needed to address how it was going to wind up paramilitary activity and could start by stopping it.
The IRA has insisted it is committed to the peace process.
However, Ulster Secretary Paul Murphy said yesterday the statement of future intentions did not answer the central question of whether paramilitary activity was to end for good.
"While the original IRA statement does represent some progress, it does not answer the questions which were put to the IRA and Sinn Féin."
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