IRA won't move again, says Adams

SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams warned the British and Irish Governments this weekend that the IRA will carry out no further decommissioning until they honour their obligations under the Good Friday Agreement.

Addressing the party's Ard Fheis in Dublin, Mr Adams made a pointed reference to the breakdown that occurred immediately after the IRA's third act of decommissioning last October.

"We who want to see maximum change are called upon to take the greatest risks," he said.

"So there can be no doubt if the two governments apply themselves to acts of completion of the Good Friday Agreement then others must do likewise."

The 'others' he referred to was widely seen as a reference to the IRA.

In the speech to over 1,000 delegates at the RDS, Mr Adams avoided the controversies of the previous week, including the botched abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's comments that he always assumed the Sinn Fein leader was in the IRA.

Instead, most of the address was devoted to the stalled peace process, which he portrayed as facing its "greatest crisis".

There was strong criticism for the Irish government, which he claimed had failed to live up to its responsibilities. He particularly referred to commitments in relation to the release of republican prisoners in the South (including the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe); the status of the Irish language; and for Northerners to contest Irish elections and to address the Senate.

Mr Adams said that political attacks on his party were motivated purely by fears in the South that his party would make strong electoral gains in the local and European elections.

He singled out Justice Minister Michael McDowell who has repeatedly alleged that Sinn Fein is benefiting from the proceeds of the criminal activities of the IRA: a reference that prompted the loudest cheer from the party's delegates.

"Between now and June and the local government and European Union elections, we can expect more nonsense from Minister McDowell," he said.

"Let's not take it too seriously. Michael does not know it yet but his lá is tiocfaidh-ed".

Mr Adams insisted that Sinn Fein would not be coerced into seeking another IRA act of decommissioning unless both governments moved first to carry out "acts of completion" required of them in the Good Friday Agreement.

"Efforts to put Sinn Fein under pressure are a waste of time We will not be bullied or denied our rights," he said.

He referred to the events that precipitated the aborted attempt to restore the institutions last October.

"The IRA [put] its third and largest amount of arms beyond use. But [David] Trimble wasn't the only one to dishonour his commitments. He was joined by the British and Irish governments and neither one of them have moved once inch since then on the undertakings they gave."

Mr Adams attributed the 'core difficulty' in the process to British government inaction.