Criticism Leads to IRA Weapons Scrap

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
Associated Press Writer

October 24, 2001, 5:50 PM EDT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The Sept. 11 terror attacks, the arrest of IRA suspects in Colombia, and the fear of being blamed for wrecking Northern Ireland's peace accord all contributed to the Irish Republican Army's historic decision to begin getting rid of its weapons.

Tuesday's action, publicized by Sinn Fein leaders on both sides of the Atlantic for maximum impact, did much more than defuse the immediate tensions tearing apart Northern Ireland's Protestant-Catholic government.

It ensured that Sinn Fein leaders will enjoy continued cordial relations with Washington and hefty financial support from Irish-Americans, who in recent years have made Sinn Fein the best-funded party in Northern Ireland.

Of all the factors weighing on Sinn Fein's calculations, growing U.S. impatience may have been what tilted the scales in favor of IRA action on disarmament, after seven years of word play.

The arrest in August of three IRA suspects visiting leftist rebels in Colombia, a U.S. ally, had raised embarrassing allegations of IRA duplicity -- professing adherence to a cease-fire, while helping America's enemies. One suspect was identified as the IRA's senior weapons designer, another as Sinn Fein's representative to Cuba.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams had for months denied that Sinn Fein had a man in Havana, then said Monday that one had been appointed without his knowledge.

President Bush's adviser on Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, met Adams in Belfast the day after the Sept. 11 attacks, with talk of a U.S.-led war against international terrorism already heavy in the air.

Haass' message -- much tougher than anything Sinn Fein had heard during his years of being softly cajoled by the Clinton administration -- was that Adams' movement had to make an irrevocable, public choice between terror and democracy. The IRA's decision a month earlier to withdraw a disarmament commitment was seen as an act of particular bad faith, Haass said.

"Terrorism is ethically indefensible. Those responsible for the atrocities in the United States must be brought to justice," Adams said in a speech last month, though he rejected suggestions that the IRA should be lumped with Osama bin Laden. "Progressive struggles throughout the world have been set back by the attacks in the U.S.A."

But the horror of Sept. 11 also had unexpected repercussions for the IRA's future tactics.

Throughout the 1990s the IRA found that car-bomb strikes on London's financial district hit Britain hard. Some commentators credited bombs in 1992 and 1993 with greatly influencing Britain's determination to pursue an IRA cease-fire and talks with Sinn Fein. When the IRA last gave up on the peace efforts in 1996, it struck the financial district again with a one-ton truck bomb.

"The IRA couldn't dream of mounting another bomb spectacular against the City of London. If it ever was an option, it no longer could be after Sept. 11th," said a senior Sinn Fein negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity.

By contrast, a start on disarmament has never offered more kudos for Sinn Fein.

The party has high hopes of achieving a breakthrough in elections next year in the Republic of Ireland, where Sinn Fein's IRA links have long kept it unpopular -- it has just one seat in the 166-member parliament.

Next year, opinion polls suggest, the party could win five or six seats. That could be enough to help form the next coalition government led by Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

Ahern has previously cited the IRA's refusal to disarm as a reason why his party, Fianna Fail, couldn't form a government with Sinn Fein. But Sinn Fein is threatening to win seats at the expense of Fianna Fail, which grew out of the 1920s IRA and claims today to remain the authentic voice of Irish republicanism in the south of Ireland.

Sinn Fein, since it is the only Irish party running candidates in both parts of Ireland, would be in a unique position if it managed to win a place in the next Irish government. During regular policy-making summits between Ireland's two governments, north and south, Sinn Fein would have Cabinet ministers on both sides of the negotiating table.

"Sinn Fein would be putting its claims to be seeking Irish unity into practice in a way that no Irish party has ever done," said Brian Feeney, a Catholic political commentator in Belfast. "It certainly would be more effective than the IRA trying to bomb people into a united Ireland."