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| Sunday, 1 December 2002 |
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IRA set to end military activity - UK papers LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Irish Republican Army, which opposes British rule in Northern Ireland, was moving towards a historic declaration that its war with Britain was over, British newspapers said on Saturday. The papers, citing no specific sources, said the IRA -- which has waged a three-decade war against Britain -- was nearing a decision to announce that it has given up its military operations and will decommission all weapons. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing St office said "we have no comment on unsourced stories". Neither the IRA's political ally, Sinn Fein, nor the loyalist Ulster Unionist Party, could be immediately reached for comment. Allegations of IRA spying at the heart of the province's home rule government prompted Britain to resume direct rule of the province from London last month for the fourth time since the powersharing assembly -- a cornerstone of the 1998 Good Friday peace deal -- was set up. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that the peace process, which aimed to end three decades of conflict which cost more than 3,600 lives, cannot continue with the IRA "half in, half out". "The hope is that IRA commanders and volunteers will be persuaded to give up their guns and go home," the Times quoted an unnamed source as saying about the push for a declaration. "The understanding would be that they could retire and paramilitaries on the other side would be expected to do the same." The Times newspaper said that Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator and education minister in the suspended Northern Ireland power-sharing government, was spearheading the push for the announcement. Last month, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams told a special meeting of his party that he could foresee a time when the peace process had advanced far enough for the IRA to disband, but warned that the guerrillas would not respond to threats. |
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