Trimble: 'Repudiate words of war'

Keenan is the IRA's delegate to the arms body

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has called on the republican movement to repudiate a statement claiming the IRA war against Britain is not over.

It was made by the IRA leadership's delegate to the body overseeing decommissioning in Northern Ireland, Brian Keenan.

Speaking on Sunday, the veteran republican said the "revolution" could never be over until British imperialism was "consigned to the dustbin of history".

But Mr Trimble, the first minister, said the remarks seemed to "imply that the terrorist campaign may be resumed in the future".

David Trimble: Call for repudiation of statement

He said they were a "clear contradiction to the statement made by Gerry Adams on 1 September 1998, when he said that violence 'must be for all of us now a thing of the past, over, done with and gone'.

"It is clearly now up to the republican movement, by keeping the promises they made at Hillsborough in May 2000, to repudiate Mr Keenan."

Last May, the IRA said it was ready to begin a process that would "completely and verifiably" put its weapons beyond use.

It was followed by the inspection of a number of IRA arms dumps by two international inspectors and a restoration of the suspended power-sharing executive.

Keenan once said the only thing that would be decommissioned in the province would be the British state

The issues of IRA decommissioning, along with policing and demilitarisation, are currently causing a stumbling block in the peace process.

On Sunday, at Creggan in South Armagh, Keenan called for republican unity at a time of increasing activity by dissident republican paramilitaries.

Brian Keenan addressed a republican commemoration

"Those who say the war is over don't know what they're talking about," he told those gathered.

"What war? The revolution can never be over until we have our country, until we have British imperialism where it belongs - in the dustbin of history."

He said his constituency should not be afraid of current events.

This phase, he said, would either be successful or it would be over.

He said the Good Friday Agreement would either stand or it would fall - his message was that the wider peace process was bigger than the agreement.

Keenan also stressed the need for political strength in the continuing negotiations.

However, he appeared to keep all options open as to how republicans would "prosecute the struggle".