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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 14, 2003

IRA Reconfirms Commitment to N. Ireland Peace Process

The Irish Republic Army (IRA) issued a brief statement to the British and Irish governments Sunday, reconfirming its commitment to Northern Ireland peace process and "desire to see it succeed."


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The Irish Republic Army (IRA) issued a brief statement to the British and Irish governments Sunday, reconfirming its commitment to Northern Ireland peace process and "desire to see it succeed."

The Catholic's largest paramilitary group in Northern Ireland said it had "closed on a statement" which also dealt with its approach to a third act of arms decommissioning, according to the reports reaching here.

The statement said the IRA would soon give details of the status of its cease-fire, its future intentions and its attitude toward disarming.

"Following approaches from others, the leadership of the IRA undertook to draw up a statement setting out our views on recent developments in the peace process," said the statement.

"We did so because of our commitment to this process and our desire to see it succeed," it said, with a signature of "P. O'Neill", the name traditionally used in IRA public statements.

A Downing Street spokesman said of the statement: "We are studying it and will respond in due course." "The two governmentshave received the statement and they are considering it," an Irishgovernment source said.

Belfast's Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Alex Maskey welcomed the IRA statement, claiming it was an "important development." Sinn Fein is widely seen as the political wing of the IRA.

The British and Irish prime ministers had been due to publish anew blueprint for peace in Northern Ireland on Thursday, the fifthanniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

It is widely expected that the long-waited peace plan, aimed atreviving the power-sharing government of Northern Ireland, would persuade the IRA to disarm itself and call an end to hostilities.

However, local reports said shortly before the plan was set to be published, Sinn Fein had warned the British government that thedemands for public IRA disarmament were impossible to meet.

If there is a demand that the IRA carry out an act of decommissioning in public, or there is an attempt to insert an exclusion clause into the process, then those could be deal-breakers, said a Sinn Fein spokesman last week.

Progress on implementing the Good Friday accords has been stalled since last October when Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive and assembly were suspended amid a row over alleged IRA spy activities.

Northern Ireland has been plagued by three decades of politicaland sectarian violence between Protestants committed to keeping the union with Britain and Catholics who want to end it and unite with the Irish Republic.


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