Adams: Suspension will not break up IRA

Suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly will not help bring about the disbandment of the IRA, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams warned tonight.

As the North’s political leaders anticipated the return to direct rule from Westminster, there were calls for immediate talks to help get the peace process back on track.

Mr Adams, whose party is under pressure to bring about an end to the IRA, insisted that suspending the institutions was not the “least worst option“.

“It strikes me as paradoxical that the aim of getting rid of, or disbandment of, all of the armed groups is being presented by Mr Trimble in the way that it is, when he seeks to bring down the very vehicle which was established to achieve that aim,” he said.

The move to suspend the institutions was precipitated by unionist anger over allegations of an IRA spy ring operating at the heart of government which emerged after raids at Sinn Fein offices at Stormont and houses in north and west Belfast.

The appearance in court in Dublin of five men believed to have links to the IRA will be seen as another major headache for Sinn Fein, already reeling from a series of incidents involving the terror group.

The men were charged in Dublin’s anti-terrorist Special Criminal Court in connection with a police raid in Co Wicklow that uncovered bogus weapons and other equipment.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid is expected to announce the suspension of the institutions during a press conference tomorrow at Hillsborough Castle.

It is understood Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will issue a joint statement affirming their determination to uphold the Good Friday Agreement.

According to a Downing Street source there were no plans to set up a “shadow administration” with the outgoing Stormont ministers monitoring their departments.

Instead, there could be an increased role for the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, set up by the Agreement to deal with non-devolved issues.

This is likely to be strongly opposed by unionists who don’t want to see an enhanced role for Dublin.

As unionists and republicans continued to blame each other for the latest crisis, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called on the two Sinn Fein ministers to resign from the Executive over the failure of the IRA to commit to peace.

“If Martin McGuinness were a man of integrity he would resign, and there would be then no suspension. If Mr McGuinness wants politics to go on ... then let him do the decent thing before that.

“His colleagues organised a massive spying ring on me, on John Reid, on Tony Blair and on President Bush. Is that normal politics? No it is not,” he said.

Mark Durkan, leader of the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, recognised there was a crisis of confidence among unionists and nationalists adding that all-party talks must begin as soon as possible to help restore devolution.

“I want to see an all-in exercise and an all-out effort by both governments and all parties to face up to these confidence issues and to round up all the bits of the Agreement that haven’t been progressed in the way they should have.

“I think we can come out of suspension in a way that allows people to say that this time it isn’t a fudge or another breakdown waiting to happen,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Ahern warned of the dangers of “vacuums and tensions” emerging if the political institutions are suspended for too long.

He said that his government would work closely with Mr Blair to resolve the outstanding issues.

Clearly the fact that violence still exists, and clearly the fact that there is still not a full move away from the past, from the activities of the past, into total democratic means, that is creating tensions, it is breaking trust.

“We have to try to deal with that problem, along with a lot of the other outstanding problems ... there is demilitarisation, there is the whole issue of paramilitary activities. There is the sectarianism that is in northern society,” he added.