State scraps amnesty plans for on-the-runs

THE Government last night moved to abandon plans to grant 'on-the-run' republicans presidential pardons after Britain did a dramatic U-turn over its own amnesty initiative.

Dublin stopped short of declaring its proposals dead, insisting they had been "suspended" in the wake of Northern Secretary Peter Hain's sudden climbdown.

Mr Hain was forced to scrap controversial plans to allow fugitive paramilitaries to come out of hiding under licence as the legislation faced almost certain defeat in the British parliament after provoking widespread anger across the North.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern made it clear the Government had been deeply unhappy about members of the British security forces suspected of terrorist collusion and murder being covered by the amnesty.

"The British have succeeded in uniting everybody against their particular proposals. It was just politically not feasible for them to succeed," he said.

Mr Hain said the legislation was being abandoned because of the lack of support from Sinn Féin.

However, he insisted the matter of 'on-the-runs' (OTRs), who would have qualified for the early release scheme if they had been in jail at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, would have to be dealt with again in the autumn.

The embarrassing about-turn came after a poll in the North showed almost two-thirds of people were opposed to the plans. Less than a quarter of those surveyed described the proposals as "acceptable" and 65% saw them as an amnesty.

Mr Hain tried to pump new life into restoring power-sharing in the North by calling for all-party talks early next month and by making it clear that he was no longer prepared to pay around £85,000 (€123,654) a year to members of the assembly which has cost £78 million (€113m) since it was suspended in October 2002.

Mr Hain said 2006 was a "make or break" year for Northern politicians.

The scrapped British OTR amnesty plans would have covered up to 150 people wanted for crimes committed before 1998. In the Republic, pardons would have been granted to around half a dozen people.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said inclusion of crown forces in the deal had been a "serious act of bad faith" by the British government, adding that OTRs must be allowed to return home.

The SDLP welcomed the move, insisting Sinn Féin had initially agreed to the inclusion of British forces in the amnesty as part of a "shabby" deal and had been forced to backtrack due to nationalist opposition.

Meanwhile, William Frazer of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives said: "I am glad Mr Hain has done this - it's about the only sensible thing he has done since he came to Northern Ireland."