Provisional IRA terrorists refuse to disband

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Now that its tiny splinter group the “Real IRA” has announced it’s intention to disarm, its time that the official Provisional IRA was forced by all sides to do the same. This mass terrororist group has been responsible for 30 years of terrorsist attacks that have claimed the lives of over 3000 people. Its time all its former and existing supporters i.e. Sinn Fein, the Catholic Church, and its Irish-American backers etc come forward and ask the IRA to disband.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/021019/80/dc485.html

IRA rejects call to disband

The IRA has rejected as unreasonable demands that it lay down its guns as a prerequisite for reviving Northern Ireland’s stalled peace process.

In a separate development, jailed members of the breakaway Real IRA – which carried out the 1998 Omagh bombing that killed 29 – issued a statement on Saturday saying the group was disbanding, an Irish newspaper reported. The group broke off from the IRA (Irish Republican Army) in the 1990s, opposing the IRA’s ceasefire.

A “senior source” in the mainstream IRA on Saturday rejected calls from Prime Minister Tony Blair and main Northern Irish Protestant leader David Trimble for the paramilitary group to abandon its weapons. “There’s considerable concern within the IRA at recent developments and at the sustained efforts to present the IRA as a threat to the peace process,” the IRA source said, according to journalists in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. “The IRA is not a threat to the peace process and will not accept the imposition of unreasonable demands.” London suspended Northern Ireland’s power-sharing assembly this week after pro-British Protestant unionists said they would no longer sit in government with the IRA’s political ally Sinn Fein while the Catholic-backed guerrilla group remained active. The IRA, which fought for three decades to end British rule in the province, stands accused of a string of alleged ceasefire breaches, from spying on British ministers in Belfast to training leftwing FARC guerrillas in Colombia.

BLAIR’S CHALLENGE TO IRA

In a speech in Belfast on Thursday – billed by the government as his most important statement on Northern Ireland since the 1998 Good Friday peace accord – Blair said the process could not continue “with the IRA half in, half out”. The IRA’s apparent refusal to bow to the demands of the government or its Protestant foes will not surprise observers in the province, but underlines the difficulties facing those attempting to get the peace process back on track. Less than a hour before news of the IRA comments broke, Trimble told the annual conference of his Ulster Unionist Party that the guerrillas would need to disband before power-sharing could be restored. “Frankly, republicans’ words are as devalued as Argentina’s currency,” he told the gathering of his pro-British party faithful in Northern Ireland’s second city, Londonderry. “Words like ‘the war is over’ that might once have meant something cut no ice today. Neither will deeds if they are grudging and minimalist. We will not be satisfied with some phantom disbandment.” A year ago the IRA carried out the first of two symbolic acts of “decommissioning”, the secret destruction of an unknown quantity of weapons under the gaze of international monitors.

But although it has refrained from attacking British troops and police or bombing “economic targets” since its 1997 ceasefire, security sources say its organisation remains intact. Trimble later declined to comment on the IRA pronouncement. A Sinn Fein spokesman said: “it was a briefing, not a statement, and it speaks for itself.” There was no reaction either from Blair’s Downing Street office. “The Prime Minister’s speech speaks for itself. Anything we have to say was in there,” a spokeswoman said. Dublin’s Independent on Sunday newspaper said the jailed members of the Real IRA had withdrawn their support for “the armed struggle” and accused their leaders still at liberty of “fraternising with criminals”. – Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Dublin, Louise McCall in Belfast and Sinead O’Hanlon in London

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Well it's not as if Belfast is going to get bombed if they refuse to disband or disarm so they might as well carry on regardless.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Judge^MentuLL: *
Well it's not as if Belfast is going to get bombed if they refuse to disband or disarm so they might as well carry on regardless.
[/QUOTE]

Yes so much for the war against all terrorism then?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Malik73: *

Yes so much for the war against all terrorism then?
[/QUOTE]

I'm sure they have a priority list, Malik.

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The priority for the British government should be to deal with it's own problems first and leave problems elsewhere to those for whom it's more important.

The IRA spy scandal at Stormont has shown that UK can't afford to take it's eye off the ball in it's own backyard - not when so many innocent lives have been shed due to the bloody campaign led in the name of catholic terrorism.

It's time for the UK to follow America and Israel's lead and use full military might to hunt down these scum. There should be no hiding place in the Republic, we know who they are, let's get our troops in and pulverise them. All who offer assistance and help to the IRA can have no complaints if they get caught in the crossfire.

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why dont we just bolldoze the homes of these IRA thugs as well as their supporters or susected supporters? I mean its internationally acceptable approach these days innit?

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Majority of Americans are sympathetic to the IRA. I guess it is because they always cheer the underdog.

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I say go and bomb IRLAND and CO!
How about a daisy cutter?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by NYAhmadi: *
Majority of Americans are sympathetic to the IRA. I guess it is because they always cheer the underdog.
[/QUOTE]

yeh in this case its not underdogs but a bunch of byatches that they are supporting.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Fraudz: *
why dont we just bolldoze the homes of these IRA thugs as well as their supporters or sus[ected supporters? I mean its internationally acceptable approach these days innit?
[/QUOTE]

Well in the 'war against terror' the Americans have called on other states to freeze the sources of funding that terrorist groups get, at home and abroad. They have also closed down various charities and organisations suspected of having links with terrorist groups. I think the United States should extend a helping hand to its most loyal British ally in this regard, and close down and freeze all sources of funding for the IRA in the United States. The vast majority of the IRA's funding has always come from benefactors in the Irish-American community through "charities" like NORAID. It's time the US and other countries (Ireland) live up to the principles of combatting terrorism that we all are told to support. Shut down NORAID and others like them, and openly call for the IRA to disband. If they refuse then the British army should be given a free hand to hunt down the IRA and its murdering gangs, wherever they are.

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It's upto the UK to push for such moves if it feels thats what it takes to rein in the IRA. The IRA hasnt been upto anything of the magnitude of the triple hijacking and twin tower bombings on 9-11, and hence probably dont merit the same urgent b*ggering the al qaida deserve. In any case, it is the UK's call.

As pakistanis, you guys should be pushing for the ban and disband of the many dozen terrorist organizations that operate from within pakistan with local backing; think about the repercussions the MMA would have on indigenous terrorism (for eg. bomb up training camps in karachi, mardan, muzaffarabad etc.); and leave the IRA issue solution to the Brits.

Charity begins at home. :)

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In fact I am a British citizen, and my main concern is what goes on in these isles and slightly less what goes on elsewhere.

As you say, charity begins at home and for those of us who have to live with the repercussions of the bloody campaigns carried out in the name of religious terrorism, it's very much a big concern.

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Judge, you are absolutely correct. Terrorism anywhere needs to be condemned because one way or another it is everyone’s concern. Who could have thought about a year ago that the fire that starts in a Bedouin camp in a Saudi desert may engulf New York?

However, I personally feel sympathetic to the Irish cause. The English need to get out of there, and let Ireland belong to the Irish, and not some extension of King Henry the 8th (or was it the 16th??) imagination of United Kingdom. Manchester United is fine, but don’t have artificial unity that comes out to blow in your face some day.

IRA is not as bad as Hamas or the Islamic Jihad, so they are ok, besides they don’t go around in other countries to blow tourist resorts up. As long as they keep their tactics concentrated in Britain (or British interests overseas), they are OK and don’t need to be dealt with like Hamas and other terrorist entities.

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IRA is not as bad as Hamas only because Blair's government turned back on British policy to take on the IRA in with military might and in fact agreed to negotiate - a move which was widely condemned by many at the time. Why negotiate with terrorists?

And now we learn that the IRA has refused to disarm, refused to disband and further, then on top of this there is the recent spy scandal at Stormont. Terrorism has no place in this day and age, and unless the Irish agree to a full disarmament, and agree to weapons inspection teams, then they should be hunted down and rounded up. The world can no longer accept terrorists to roam freely and plan their evil designs.

These scum attempted to blow up an elected parliament, and didn't care how many civilians lost their lives in the proicess.

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Since 1968 the IRA alone has killed 1800 people, including 650 of them civilians in the British Isles. They have bombed people's houses, office buildings, pubs, hotels, market places, restaurants, clubs, department stores, buses, trains and any other places where civilians frequent. Hundreds of children have been killed by terrorist attacks carried out by the IRA. And still we hear that the majority of American people are 'symapthetic' to the IRA?

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Malik, 1800 is not such a big number for 34 years, The reason Americans sympathize with the IRA is because they view it as a legitimate expression of the Irish will to get them free of the UK hegemony, which they hate being a part of, just as the Palestinians wish to self-rule.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by NYAhmadi: *
Malik, 1800 is not such a big number for 34 years, The reason Americans sympathize with the IRA is because they view it as a legitimate expression of the Irish will to get them free of the UK hegemony, which they hate being a part of, just as the Palestinians wish to self-rule.
[/QUOTE]

Tell the families of the 1800 people killed that by IRA terrorists that that is not a big number. Terrorism is terrorism, and if one starts to make excuses for one terrorist group based on numbers killed over a period or say they are fighting for freedom, then we should not have a problem if such analogies are used across the board? The fact remains that the IRA has conducted a terrorist campaign over the last 30 plus years, and killing hundreds upon hundreds of civilians including small children and babies intentionally is terrorism. That is what the * majority* of American people are supporting, with their symathises for the IRA terrorists.

If the Americans symathise with Irish "freedom" , and the tactics used to achieve it, then they should have no problem with Palestinian freedom struggle, and the similar tactics used by some to achieve it?

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If the Americans symathise with Irish "freedom" , and the tactics used to achieve it, then they should have no problem with Palestinian freedom struggle, and the similar tactics used by some to achieve it?<<<<

Malik, are you saying that you don’t support Palestinian freedom struggle just as you don’t support the Irish one? You don’t need to answer this, just ask yourself. Meanwhile, I will ask Americans why they have different standards to deal with different people.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by NYAhmadi: *

Malik, are you saying that you don’t support Palestinian freedom struggle just as you don’t support the Irish one?

[/QUOTE]

No, rather I am asking you if you support the IRA terrorists and its "freedom" struggle, and the tactics they employ, the surely you support the Palestinian freedom struggle and the similar tactics used by some of them? You don’t need to answer this, just ask yourself. Meanwhile, I to will ask the Americans why they have different standards to deal with different people.