Adams: no IRA move likely before elections

THE IRA is unlikely to state before the British elections on May 5 whether it will cease violence, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams indicated yesterday.

At the launch of the party's election campaign earlier this month, Mr Adams called on the IRA to end its "armed struggle" and embrace democratic politics.

The IRA, he stated at the time, was being used by both the British and Irish Governments and by unionists as an excuse "not to engage properly in the process of building peace with justice in Ireland".

The IRA later said it would consider Mr Adams's remarks and respond in due course. Many dismissed the event as an election stunt, including Fine Gael and Labour.

Yesterday, however, Mr Adams denied this, saying the issue of the IRA ceasing "all activities" was "bigger than the election".

Asked if there would be an IRA statement on the issue before May 5, he replied: "I don't think so ... I'm not expecting it within the next few weeks."

The IRA, he added, had to have "a real debate" about the issue. "You can't deal with 30 years of conflict and, before that, arguably centuries of physical-force republicanism ... within a short few weeks."

Asked whether he wanted the IRA to disband, Mr Adams said: "When I'm talking about taking the IRA out of the equation - the IRA taking itself out of the equation - I mean that it ceases all activities."

Mr Adams was speaking in an interview with RTÉ Radio's This Week programme.

But Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny last night branded as disingenuous Mr Adams's claims that the timing of his statement on the IRA was not an election stunt.

"Statements alone from Gerry Adams will never convince the Irish people that the provisional movement is serious about democratic politics; only action can do that," he said.

"Until the IRA completely ends all involvement with paramilitarism, crime and weapons, the Sinn Féin leader's pronouncements can be taken with a pinch of salt."

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble, meanwhile, urged voters in the North to ensure that both Sinn Féin and the DUP were consigned to the sidelines in the election.

He called for the creation of a cross-community administration based on the "centrist" parties from the unionist and nationalist communities.

Mr Trimble said that the "extremes" of Sinn Féin and the DUP - the two biggest parties in the last assembly elections - had failed to deliver agreement.

"I think it would be much better now to let the parties and the extremes have a bit of time in opposition where they can sort themselves out," he told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost. "I think you could have a cross-community administration based on the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP. I think that trying to have a cross-community administration that brings in every party isn't going to work in the present circumstances."

SDLP leader Mark Durkan agreed that Sinn Féin and the DUP could not produce a political settlement. "We will not get to destination progress with a Sinn Féin-DUP ticket."

He stressed, however, that any restoration of power-sharing had to be on a fully inclusive basis with no parties excluded.