Adams and McGuinness under fire

The Northern Ireland peace process remained under pressure today after claims IRA weapons testing in Colombia was sanctioned by two of its most senior members.

Three IRA suspects are currently awaiting trial in the South American country charged with training Marxist Farc guerrillas, something they and the republican movement deny.

But a top level assessment by the security forces is that the IRA was using Colombia as a testing ground to try out new weapons including rockets, and that the activity was ‘‘definitely sanctioned at IRA army council level’’.

Ulster Unionist Michael McGimpsey, a minister in the power-sharing Stormont Government, said of the revelation: ‘‘This is a clear breach of the ceasefire, a dramatic breach of the ceasefire.’’

He said Sinn Fein and the IRA had signed up to a peace process which required ‘‘exclusively peaceful democratic means’’ and added: ‘‘Why develop weapons if the war is over.

‘‘I think that is something we will have to consider and take a considered view over.’’

Mr McGimpsey said he had never believed republican denials over the affair, which started with the claim that the three men detained were unknown to them - something Sinn Fein was later forced to backtrack on.

The latest revelation was an indication that either Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were ‘‘playing a clear and dishonest game’’ or that ‘‘they are unable to speak for the IRA and the IRA is beyond their influence’’, he said.

If republicans were not standing by the Good Friday Agreement the government had a duty to act against republicans, he said.

‘‘The government has a duty to ensure that they are not allowed to destroy the process and are in fact expelled from the process.’’

Unionists needed answers from the government, the republican movement and most importantly from Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

‘‘They made a string of promises to the people of Northern Ireland and if this is true either Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have been breaking their word or they are being duped by their colleagues and former colleagues in the IRA.’’

The security assessment is that Brian Keenan, the IRA’s representative to the international body working on IRA weapons decommissioning and considered by the security forces to be a member of the IRA army council, and Thomas ‘‘Slab’’ Murphy, considered to be the IRA chief of staff, sanctioned the Colombia activity, according to a special report on BBC Radio Ulster.

The link had developed over a number of years and went back to around 1997 and had involved up to eight republicans.

The IRA has dismissed the security assessment as unsubstantiated allegations by unnamed securocrats.

The IRA link came to light when the three men being held in Bogota were arrested last year after spending time in an area of Colombia controlled by Farc.

The trio, Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were claimed to have been refusing food for the past five days because of fears they could be poisoned before they stand trial.

Hardline Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the government should exclude Sinn Fein from government following the latest revelations.

But Ulster Unionist leader and Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble was more measured in his response and indicated he was prepared to give republicans more time to show their democratic colours.

‘‘Let’s proceed step by step, let’s not start off with an assumption of failure,’’ he said.

The timing of the latest revelations could not have come at a worse time as Mr Trimble is already under pressure from party colleagues to act over the IRA ceasefire.

Tomorrow he faces a meeting of the 120 strong UUP executive at which he is expected to face renewed demands for a withdrawal from the power-sharing government.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the peace process could not be allowed to be wrecked by those with ‘‘ulterior motives’’.

‘‘We cannot allow the untoward activities or the ulterior motives of people in the darker corners of the peace process to undermine the central value of the political process.’’

Meanwhile the trial of the three alleged IRA men has been delayed by the authorities in Colombia who said they could not guarantee their safety in court.

It had been due to begin in July but Farc has threatened prosecutors and other public officials, it was claimed.