US politician warns against excluding Sinn Féin
A senior US politician warned today that excluding Sinn Féin from the Good Friday Agreement review was not the way forward.
Unionists have been pressing the British and Irish governments to impose sanctions on the party since the kidnapping of Belfast republican Bobby Tohill last month.
But senior congressman James Walsh said he did not believe the abduction bid was ordered by IRA leaders and urged against the exclusion of Sinn Féin from current talks.
“More important than anything else is that the people who have been elected to lead in Northern Ireland need to get together and address these issues themselves, face to face, and work them out,” he said.
The Independent Monitoring Commission is expected to produce a report into the abduction of Mr Tohill next month as the pressure mounts on republicans to end all paramilitary activity.
Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde blamed the Provisional IRA for the incident but the organisation has denied its leadership authorised any kidnapping.
Mr Walsh, chairman of the Friends of Ireland and co-chair of the US-Irish Inter-parliamentary Group, said he met with representatives of the four major parties in Belfast last week and was not discouraged.
“I had a sense that the people who are in a position to lead and to run a devolved government will do that and it’s a matter of time and negotiation,” he added.
He expressed confidence that when they make a deal, it will stick.
The temporary exclusion of Sinn Féin from Agreement talks would be a bad move, not least because most murders committed in the troubles had been by loyalist paramilitaries, he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I don’t believe there was any top-down decision to do this.
“In my view there are people who run their own scams and deals whether they are IRA-related or UVF-related.”
Mr Walsh, who represents New York State in the House of Representatives, also said he thought it was time Sinn Féin became involved in the new Northern Ireland policing service.
“It would send a strong message that they want to be part of Government,” he added.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams recently claimed the Irish government was contemplating excluding his party from the political process.
But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern insisted this was not the case and that only all-inclusive talks would lead to a lasting resolution of the problems in the peace process.
The renewed pressure was placed on republicans to dedicate themselves to solely democratic means last week when British prime minister Tony Blair and Mr Ahern said all parties knew exactly what had to be done to create stable power sharing institutions at Stormont.
Both leaders vowed to step up the pace of talks after the St Patrick’s Day break in a bid to force a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process.
