Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Posts
- 30,949
Hope they mean it.
DUBLIN (Reuters) - The IRA guerrilla group apologized on Tuesday for the first time for bombing and shooting hundreds of civilians in its 30-year campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland.
The British government welcomed the unprecedented statement as a major step toward peace, but Protestant Unionists and some family members of victims said it was too little, too late.
In a statement issued to Dublin-based republican newspaper An Phoblacht, the group said it offered its "sincere apologies and condolences" to the families of civilians it had killed during three decades of conflict.
The Irish Republican Army has fought for decades to unite Northern Ireland with the mainly Catholic rest of the island, while Protestant Unionists seek to keep the north a part of the United Kingdom. An IRA cease-fire has been in place since 1997.
"We remain totally committed to the peace process and to dealing with the challenges and difficulties which this presents. This includes the acceptance of past mistakes and of the hurt and pain we have caused to others," the statement said.
The statement was welcomed in Britain, Ireland and the United States.
Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid hailed what he called "a statement of unprecedented strength" but challenged the IRA to make clear its war was over.
"I think the best testimony to any regret...the people of Northern Ireland can be given is complete confidence the actions that caused that pain and misery will never occur again. That they are finished, they're over, there's no going back," Reid said.
The Irish government said it was a "a significant step forward in the healing process."
In addition to apologizing for killing civilians, the IRA acknowledged that the family members of "combatants" killed in attacks had suffered as well, although it did not apologize for killing police and soldiers.
TENSE MOMENT FOR PEACE PROCESS
The apology came ahead of this weekend's 30th anniversary of "Bloody Friday," when the IRA detonated more than 20 bombs in central Belfast in one hour, killing seven civilians and two British soldiers, and injuring at least 130 people.
It is also a particularly tense moment in the Northern Irish peace process which has seen the IRA come under criticism.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to rule in a week on whether the IRA's cease-fire remains intact following reports it trained Marxist rebels in Colombia and allegations it was involved in illegal activity in Belfast.
British Unionist leaders were skeptical. The leader of the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party David Trimble focused on what the statement omitted.
"It's significant that this statement says nothing, nothing at all, about the recent violence the IRA's been involved in, nothing about what their future conduct will be," he told Britain's parliament late on Tuesday.
"And consequently it does not absolve the (British) prime minister from the need to make clear what the government will do in the event of breaches by the republican movement."
Unionists have accused the IRA of involvement in a break-in at a top-security police station in Belfast earlier this year and in recent street violence. They have called for its political wing Sinn Fein to be ousted from the power-sharing government set up under a landmark 1998 peace pact.
WELCOMED IN WASHINGTON
The IRA was responsible for about half of the conflict's 3,600 deaths, including 640 civilians. Since a key 1998 peace agreement it has put two batches of its extensive illegal arms arsenal under international supervision, "beyond use."
Washington, whose long arm and large Irish community have given it clout in the peace process, said it welcomed the IRA statement and its reiteration of support for the peace process.
"It is important in any conflict situation that parties deal honestly with the past and this is an important step in that direction," said Richard Haass, the State Department's policy planning chief in charge of Northern Irish affairs.
"All of this underscores the need for the IRA and other paramilitaries to permanently foreswear violence as well as the acquisition of arms," he said, reading from a statement.
Many British newspapers ran photographs of victims of IRA attacks on their front pages in their Wednesday editions and quoted relatives lamenting the apology had come too late.
"These civilians died in IRA attacks. Yesterday, at last, their families, and 640 others, received an apology," wrote the Independent over front-page portraits of ten victims.
"IRA scum say sorry," ran the headline in the tabloid Daily Express, adding inside: "And there's plenty to be sorry about." (Additional reporting by Michael Roddy and Alex Richardson)
DUBLIN (Reuters) - The IRA guerrilla group apologized on Tuesday for the first time for bombing and shooting hundreds of civilians in its 30-year campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland.
The British government welcomed the unprecedented statement as a major step toward peace, but Protestant Unionists and some family members of victims said it was too little, too late.
In a statement issued to Dublin-based republican newspaper An Phoblacht, the group said it offered its "sincere apologies and condolences" to the families of civilians it had killed during three decades of conflict.
The Irish Republican Army has fought for decades to unite Northern Ireland with the mainly Catholic rest of the island, while Protestant Unionists seek to keep the north a part of the United Kingdom. An IRA cease-fire has been in place since 1997.
"We remain totally committed to the peace process and to dealing with the challenges and difficulties which this presents. This includes the acceptance of past mistakes and of the hurt and pain we have caused to others," the statement said.
The statement was welcomed in Britain, Ireland and the United States.
Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid hailed what he called "a statement of unprecedented strength" but challenged the IRA to make clear its war was over.
"I think the best testimony to any regret...the people of Northern Ireland can be given is complete confidence the actions that caused that pain and misery will never occur again. That they are finished, they're over, there's no going back," Reid said.
The Irish government said it was a "a significant step forward in the healing process."
In addition to apologizing for killing civilians, the IRA acknowledged that the family members of "combatants" killed in attacks had suffered as well, although it did not apologize for killing police and soldiers.
TENSE MOMENT FOR PEACE PROCESS
The apology came ahead of this weekend's 30th anniversary of "Bloody Friday," when the IRA detonated more than 20 bombs in central Belfast in one hour, killing seven civilians and two British soldiers, and injuring at least 130 people.
It is also a particularly tense moment in the Northern Irish peace process which has seen the IRA come under criticism.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to rule in a week on whether the IRA's cease-fire remains intact following reports it trained Marxist rebels in Colombia and allegations it was involved in illegal activity in Belfast.
British Unionist leaders were skeptical. The leader of the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party David Trimble focused on what the statement omitted.
"It's significant that this statement says nothing, nothing at all, about the recent violence the IRA's been involved in, nothing about what their future conduct will be," he told Britain's parliament late on Tuesday.
"And consequently it does not absolve the (British) prime minister from the need to make clear what the government will do in the event of breaches by the republican movement."
Unionists have accused the IRA of involvement in a break-in at a top-security police station in Belfast earlier this year and in recent street violence. They have called for its political wing Sinn Fein to be ousted from the power-sharing government set up under a landmark 1998 peace pact.
WELCOMED IN WASHINGTON
The IRA was responsible for about half of the conflict's 3,600 deaths, including 640 civilians. Since a key 1998 peace agreement it has put two batches of its extensive illegal arms arsenal under international supervision, "beyond use."
Washington, whose long arm and large Irish community have given it clout in the peace process, said it welcomed the IRA statement and its reiteration of support for the peace process.
"It is important in any conflict situation that parties deal honestly with the past and this is an important step in that direction," said Richard Haass, the State Department's policy planning chief in charge of Northern Irish affairs.
"All of this underscores the need for the IRA and other paramilitaries to permanently foreswear violence as well as the acquisition of arms," he said, reading from a statement.
Many British newspapers ran photographs of victims of IRA attacks on their front pages in their Wednesday editions and quoted relatives lamenting the apology had come too late.
"These civilians died in IRA attacks. Yesterday, at last, their families, and 640 others, received an apology," wrote the Independent over front-page portraits of ten victims.
"IRA scum say sorry," ran the headline in the tabloid Daily Express, adding inside: "And there's plenty to be sorry about." (Additional reporting by Michael Roddy and Alex Richardson)
