Ahern demands help of Provos

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday made a direct demand of the Provisional movement to cooperate fully with the PSNI investigation into the murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast.

Mr Ahern, speaking in Dublin, said it was incumbent on everybody who was present in the Short Strand pub on the night the 33-year-old was stabbed to death to come forward and assist the PSNI.

“The only people who have the authority under law and the ability to deal with that is the PSNI. They need cooperation to do that and if the IRA can assist in all of that, then that’s part of the answer,” he said.

His call came as the Government confirmed that Mr Ahern will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Thursday to discuss the Northern situation including the continuing fallout from the McCartney murder.

However, Government sources said that in the absence of a detailed response from Sinn Féin to Mr Ahern on decommissioning and criminality, there is little prospect of any progress being made on the stalled peace process this side of the British general election.

There has been no contact between the Government and Sinn Féin since Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern met Martin McGuinness in Derry over a fortnight ago.

Meanwhile, the McCartney family yesterday urged the IRA to order those responsible for the murder of Robert McCartney to come forward.

The sister of the father-of-two, Catherine, told the BBC that those responsible must be forced to admit their role in his murder.

“They (his killers) haven’t handed themselves in and it’s been four weeks,” she said.

“Now those that were involved in Robert’s murder, many of them were members of the IRA.

“In our estimation, the IRA considers itself to be an army, so rather than just appealing to these people and saying ‘go and hand yourselves in please’ - should they not be ordered to hand themselves in?” she asked.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey said the IRA had made positive moves to help bring those responsible for Mr McCartney’s killing to justice.

Mr Maskey insisted that the Provisional movement was playing its part.

He again called on anyone with information on the January 30 murder to get in touch with the relevant authorities.