Murphy insists on new IRA statement

The IRA must issue a new statement before the postponed Northern Ireland Assembly elections are held, Secretary of State Paul Murphy insisted today.

Even though the IRA have yet to publish their original peace pledge which is at the centre of the latest crisis in the political process, Mr Murphy claimed the Good Friday Agreement could collapse without a fresh declaration.

As Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble faced resignation calls over the election turmoil, the Secretary of State insisted the republican movement now needed to produce further guarantees before the delayed Stormont poll – now planned for the autumn.

He warned: “We do need that because without it there is no question in my view that we will not be able to move in the way that we want to.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are due to meet in Dublin on Tuesday in a bid to plot a way out of the political mess caused by Downing Street’s decision to halt the May 29 election.

Mr Blair insisted the IRA had not given a clear enough promise to end all forms of paramilitary activity, including buying guns, gathering intelligence, targeting and punishment attacks, in its original statement handed to the Governments.

Without a cast iron assurance from republicans that would restore devolution to Northern Ireland it was pointless pressing ahead with elections to a suspended Assembly, he argued.

But Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley’s anti-Agreement Democratic Unionists have furiously accused the Government of caving in to Mr Trimble, who refuses to share power with republicans until the IRA goes out of business for good.

Thousands of republicans are expected to show their anger during mass rallies commemorating the hunger strikers in Belfast and Londonderry tomorrow.

Mr Murphy stressed, however, that London and Dublin have been pressing the IRA for further commitments ever since power-sharing in Belfast collapsed after a suspected republican spy ring was uncovered at Stormont.

He told BBC Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics: “This goes back to October of last year when the Prime Minister, and indeed the Taoiseach as well, both said that we have come to this fork in the road, that we have to ensure there is an end now to paramilitarism and paramilitary activity.”

The Secretary of State also urged the IRA to now publish its original statement so the public could judge it against the British and Irish joint declaration.

That document includes commitments to slash troop levels in Northern Ireland by nearly 10,000 to a permanent garrison of just 5,000, pull town military watchtowers in Belfast and south Armagh, and grant a virtual amnesty to on-the-run paramilitary prisoners.

But the package depends on the IRA keeping its side of the deal, the Government has stressed.

Meanwhile, Green Party leader John Barry has called on Mr Trimble to make a dignified exit from politics following the latest crisis in the peace process.

The most dangerous divisions in Northern Ireland are now between the Ulster Unionists and the DUP, and even within the deeply divided UUP itself, he claimed.

Mr Barry said: “Trimble is an outstanding example of a politician who has yet to discover the art of leadership.

“The Green Party puts it to Trimble that his voluntary exit from the political scene may well serve the Belfast Agreement.

“A voluntary exit would be his only plausible and dignified contribution since signing up to the Belfast Agreement.”