Sinn Féin 'must move or be left behind'

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair were due to launch a fresh bid today to breath new life into efforts to restore Northern Ireland’s Assembly.

But as the two leaders prepared to head to Hillsborough Castle for a round of meetings with Stormont Assembly parties, they were urged to put pressure on republicans about Sinn Féin’s link with the IRA.

In his speech to Democratic Unionist colleagues at Killyleagh last night, Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said his party would be reminding Tony Blair that he had said the parties should not be expected to sit in government with those who had active paramilitary links.

“Nothing short of acts of completion by the IRA is enough,” Mr Donaldson insisted.

“It is time to leave the past behind and move forward together on a democratic basis.

“Sinn Féin/IRA needs to do what is required of them. Why should democrats be penalised because of Sinn Féin/IRA?

“The ball is in Sinn Féin/IRA’s court to measure up, not to unreasonable conditions, but to democratic norms which every other party has to meet.”

Mr Donaldson, who quit David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists to join the DUP in January, said there was also an onus on other Assembly parties to be prepared to go ahead without Sinn Féin if they did not sever paramilitary links.

“Other parties must realise that there is no incentive for Sinn Féin to measure up if everything remains stagnant and they are in the same position as the rest of us,” he argued.

“By demonstrating that things can move on without them, we would be establishing the primacy of democracy in the process and would show Sinn Féin what they could be part of if they were a proper and pure political movement.”

The two Prime Ministers’ decision to take part in talks in Northern Ireland comes at a time when discussions on the future of the Good Friday Agreement at Stormont appear to be drifting.

No deadline has been set by the British government for the review of the Agreement.

The agenda has also been dominated by the issue of ongoing paramilitary activity following the attempted abduction and beating of Belfast republican Bobby Tohill last month.

Northern Ireland’s most senior policeman Hugh Orde blamed the IRA for the incident.

However the Provisionals denied their leadership authorised any kidnapping.

Their denial failed to satisfy Unionist concerns about links between Sinn Féin and the IRA and they have demanded sanctions against republicans in the talks.

The governments have secured a commitment from a four-member commission which monitors paramilitary cease-fires that they will bring forward their first report on terror groups to Easter.

British and Irish government sources were playing down expectations ahead of today’s visit that Ahern and Blair would have any formula to break the political deadlock.

“What is needed right now is an injection of momentum into the political process,” a Northern Ireland Office source said.

Government sources also dampened down speculation that Mr Blair and Mr Ahern would try to set a deadline for progress.

Nationalists SDLP leader Mark Durkan called on both leaders to hold firm for the Agreement and an end to paramilitarism.

“We cannot go on stumbling from crisis to crisis,” Foyle MLA insisted.

“We cannot go on with gestures and half-measures. We have to have completion now.

“That means an end to armed hold-ups by paramilitaries and political hold-ups by unionism.

“Nothing less will do. Paramilitarism must end and unionists must work the Agreement.”

Sinn Féin was expected to demand at today’s meetings that the British and Irish governments acknowledge they had reneged on commitments under the Good Friday Agreement and would have to implement them to build confidence.