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24 July 1997 Edition

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A challenge for everyone

The renewed IRA cessation has challenged everyone to play their part in the reconstruction of the peace process. For republicans the challenge is to enter a new phase of struggle with the same resourcefulness and determination that they have shown in all previous phases. The courage of the IRA in taking this step has given them an example to follow.

For the Dublin government the challenge is to represent Irish national interests. For the SDLP it is to do likewise. The British government has to face up to the historical and present reality of its colonial role in Ireland. It cannot credibly pretend to be a neutral arbiter while simultaneously upholding the Union and backing the unionist veto.

Republicans are conscious of the challenge that unionists face and the difficulties the new situation brings for them. This section of our people must be central to any new agreement. In a very revealing phrase on 20 July UUP MP Martin Smyth said that in politics sometimes one cannot even trust oneself. But it is precisely themselves that uniomists need to trust so that they can negotiate. Dependence on Britain offers them no real future. Sooner or later they will come to see this reality. In the meantime they cannot be allowed to bring down the peace process.

RUC and RIR must be disbanded



The IRA has sent a clear message of its intentions to enhance the search for a democratic peace settlement through real and inclusive negotiations.

This British Labour government must therefore show a willingness to build on the groundwork already laid.

Republican demands in 1997, as they did in 1994, call for a demilitarisation of the Six Counties, including the disbanding of the RUC and the RIR. After the 1994 cessation British government began a process in which they tried to normalise these armed forces and recreate the image of the RUC as a normal police force. This was, in some instances, aided and abetted by school boards and governors who allowed the RUC into nationalist schools and youth clubs to give talks on various subjects to children.

Nationalists should be alert to the possibility that the RUC, the NIO and those in authority in schools and youth clubs may attempt the same thing again, especially in light of RUC brutality on the Garvaghy Road this year and last and the Lower Ormeau Road as well.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland