Reid: I will suspend Assembly

Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid has confirmed his intention to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly, it was claimed tonight.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said that Dr Reid contacted Gerry Adams this evening to tell him he was going to suspend the institutions tomorrow morning.

As expected, the suspension will come into effect at midnight on Monday.

“The British Secretary of State phoned Gerry Adams this evening, presumably along with all of the other party leaders to give Mr Adams formal notice that he would announce at 10am tomorrow morning the suspension of the institutions,” he said.

According to the spokesman, Dr Reid told the Sinn Fein president that while the institutions were suspended, the election date of May 1 was not.

“He asserted that the two governments were going to implement the outstanding aspects of the Agreement. However Mr Adams remains sceptical about Dr Reid’s commitments on these matters.

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

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.

It is understood Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will issue a joint statement around midday, 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 massive spyinga 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.