SF 'likely to snub' body to monitor paramilitaries

Sinn Féin is likely to snub an invitation to meet a new commission which is monitoring paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, a senior party figure revealed tonight.

Alex Maskey launched a hard-hitting attack on the new four member Independent Monitoring Commission set up by the Irish and British governments today, warning that it could aggravate the problems facing Northern Ireland’s political process.

The South Belfast MLA was reacting after the commission said it wanted to meet all political parties elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in November and also hear from clergy, community groups and members of the public.

Mr Maskey said: “We have made the point that this commission will only invite problems, it will encourage problems, it will encourage people who want to frustrate progress to come forward with problems and complaints.

“You can see that today in the statement that the IMC have issued that that is what they are doing.

“I doubt that there will be a meeting between ourselves and the commission because we have said ever since this idea was floated that the concept of the IMC is outside the Good Friday Agreement.

“We do not support it and we are therefore unlikely to facilitate it.”

The Independent Monitoring Commission was proposed last May by the Irish and British governments following unionist concerns about Sinn Féin occupying ministerial posts in a devolved government while the IRA remained active.

The Commission formally came into being today and will report every six months on IRA and loyalist paramilitary activity.

The four member body of political and intelligence experts will also scrutinise whether the British government is sticking to its programme of scaling down the army’s presence in Northern Ireland.

It will probe complaints about tactics used by parties to undermine the stability of the political institutions during devolution.

The four members are former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker, Lord Alderdice; John Grieve, who was the former head of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist squad; retired Irish civil servant, Joe Brosnan; and Richard Kerr, a former deputy director of the CIA in the United States.

In a statement the IMC said its primary aim was to promote “stable and inclusive devolved Government in a peaceful Northern Ireland.”

The Commission insisted it would be wholly independent and accessible to all.

It added: “We believe it is essential that we receive information and views from individuals and the community as a whole.

“We urge people to let us have their views so that our reports can reflect the widest possible body of opinion.

“We have invited Northern Ireland parties who secured seats in the recent Assembly elections to meet us. We also hope that the churches, community groups and members of the public get in touch.”

The IMC confirmed it would seek information from the governments in London and Dublin and from law enforcement agencies operating on both sides of the Irish border.

All information received would be treated on a confidential basis.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy claimed the new commission could help boost public confidence in the Good Friday Agreement.

After confirming in the House of Commons that the IMC had become fully operational, he said: “It will play an important part in helping to provide assurance to the people of Northern Ireland that the necessary moves towards a genuinely peaceful and democratic society and stable democratic Government are real and permanent.”

David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have supported the setting up of the IMC, but the rival Democratic Unionists, who emerged Northern Ireland’s largest party during November’s Assembly election, have been more sceptical.

The Nationalist SDLP have given a cautious welcome to the body, expressing concerns about proposals to remove from government parties who are found in breach of the Good Friday Agreement.