Unionist warning over IRA files

IRA activity could rebound on political process

Unionists are expected to press for sanctions against Sinn Fein over the seizure of an apparent IRA hit list containing details of senior Conservative politicians and British army bases.

The files were discovered during raids by police investigating the theft of sensitive security force documents from Special Branch offices in Belfast last month.

The Ulster Unionist Party ruling executive agreed a motion on Friday evening pledging "further action" on the find.

If it becomes clear the IRA have been in breach of the ceasefire all along, there must be some penalty

Quentin Davies
Conservative

The party's assembly members are meeting on Saturday to discuss the matter.

The files are also understood to contain details on some loyalist Northern Ireland politicians.

Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson, said: "The IRA cannot have it both ways.

"If they think the Ulster Unionist Party is going to sit back and ignore their activities they can think again."

Security sources have told the BBC they believe the files show that the IRA had been involved in gathering intelligence on the people named in the past few weeks.

Intelligence gathering

It is understood none of the Special Branch files stolen from Belfast's Castlereagh police centre were found in the raids in republican areas.

But the police have maintained that IRA involvement in the security breach at Castlereagh is one of the main lines of inquiry they are pursuing.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said there were "sustained efforts to create an entirely contrived crisis in the peace process".

Speaking in Tralee in the Republic of Ireland on Saturday, he said the British and Irish governments needed to be circumspect about their response "to the current flurry of media speculation".

"The chief culprits in the present controversy are the failed and faceless manipulators in the Special Branch and British Intelligence services," he said.

He added: "They are endeavouring to undermine the Sinn Fein leadership and our efforts to promote the peace process."

Acting chief constable Colin Cramphorn said he had no information to suggest that the IRA intended to resume violence.

But the Ulster Unionist Party has said that if it is proved that the IRA is still involved in gathering intelligence which could be used to target politicians and that it broke into the Special Branch centre, Sinn Fein cannot remain in the political process.

Quentin Davies: "Implications for process"

Northern Ireland First Minister and UUP leader David Trimble could press for the republican party's exclusion from Northern Ireland's power sharing government.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid moved to defuse the situation.

"There is no indication that the IRA is either about to or intending to recommence its campaign," he said.

But he demanded an end to paramilitary intelligence gathering.

"All organisations need to dismantle the apparatus of terrorism in all its forms," he said.

'Anti-peace agenda'

The Conservatives' spokesman on Northern Ireland, Quentin Davies, said Sinn Fein would now have to prove it was sincere in its renunciation of violence.

"We've got to be prepared to wait and see what the evidence is. But if it becomes clear the IRA have been in breach of the ceasefire all along, there must be some penalty," he said.

Deputy First Minister and leader of the nationalist SDLP, Mark Durkan, said the discovery of the files proved the IRA was still active at a number of levels despite their ceasefire.

But Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said everyone should be "highly sceptical" about the allegations being made about the IRA.

He insisted there was no evidence linking the IRA to the documents and added: "There is an agenda going on here and it is an anti-peace process agenda".