Mowlam says she did not find enough evidence of an IRA resort to violence

August 26, 1999
Web posted at: 5:31 p.m. EDT (2131 GMT)

In this story: 'This sick society of ours' Trimble disputes ruling RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- In a move that angered pro-British Unionists, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary Thursday ruled that the Irish Republican Army had not violated its cease-fire, despite an alleged gun-running plot and the killing of a suspected informer that police blamed on the IRA.

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam called the situation "deeply worrying," but said there was not enough evidence to find the IRA was returning to violent action. She also said she would not halt the early release of Republican prisoners.

The decision drew praise from the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party: Sinn Fein spokesman Mitchell McLaughlin said it allows the delicate talks on implementing the Northern Ireland peace agreement -- known as the Good Friday accords -- to go forward.

But Ken Maginnis, an Ulster Unionist member of Parliament, called Mowlam's statement "utter, unmitigated rubbish."

"She's falling down on her responsibility to society, but it's not any different from what we expected from her," Maginnis said.

Maginnis calls Mowlam's statement "utter, unmitigated rubbish"

Northern Ireland's police chief blamed the IRA for July's paramilitary-style execution of a Belfast cab driver believed to have been a police informer and for an effort to smuggle guns from Florida to Northern Ireland.

The IRA's July 1997 cease-fire suspended its violent campaign against British rule, but beatings and shootings on both sides of the sectarian divide have persisted. Sinn Fein had threatened to boycott the talks if the IRA were found to have broken the armistice.

Though there has been a "dramatic and absolutely radical transformation" in Northern Ireland in recent years, McLaughlin said, "This sick society of ours -- and it's been sick for a very, very long time -- still has residual violence.

"And there's such thing as an acceptable level of violence. So we have to address that in the political facet," he said.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble accused Mowlam of accepting too readily the IRA's account of events, and warned that there will be future breaches of the cease-fire.

Police say the IRA killed a cab driver believed to have been an informant

"I'm sorry the secretary of state was not able to tell the people the simple truth," he said. "Of course, there is a question then, knowing there is a breach, as to what you do as a consequence of it. And of course, there are problems in that respect.

"But to deny the simple fact that this is a breach of the cease-fire is, I think, deeply disappointing," Trimble said.

The Good Friday agreement has been hobbled since June, when the mostly Protestant Unionists parties refused to participate with mostly Catholic Republicans in a planned local government until the IRA agreed to disarm.

The coalition government was to take office in July, ending 30 years of direct rule from London.

John Hume, leader of the Catholic moderate Social Democratic and Labor Party, said Mowlam's decision will allow the parties to move forward in setting up a government.

"Let's work together and build together, and as we do that, the real solution will begin," Hume said. "The real healing process will begin, and we will erode the distrust of the past."

Correspondent Catherine Bond and Reuters contributed to this report.

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