Britain Gives IRA Seven Days

As the British government Friday moved a step closer toward resuming direct control over Northern Ireland, it left the Irish Republican Army and its political allies a little wiggle-room.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson Friday introduced legislation into the House of Commons hat would strip a nine-week old Northern Ireland Cabinet of its powers.

However, the law does not go into force until next week, giving the IRA seven days to begin disarming. In addition, Mandelson's bill allows the government to restore the Cabinet's powers at a later date.

Mandelson's bill is aimed to prevent Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble from resigning from the Northern Ireland Cabinet. When a report on IRA disarmament on Monday reported that the group has not begun to handover its weapons, Trimble threatened to leave the Cabinet, where he sits with members of Sinn Fein, a political party with ties to the IRA.

Trimble's resignation could have collapsed the Cabinet and erased progress in the peace process. So Britain decided to strip the Cabinet of power in an effort to save it.

Speaking today after late-night consultations with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in southwest England, British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended the move.

"It is a critical moment, because this issue of decommissioning has just got to be confronted and resolved," Blair said.

Trimble is now expected to withdraw his resignation.

Mandelson told the Commons that the disarmament commission needs concrete evidence the IRA would make good on its promise to disarm, or decommission. "In particular, they need definite information about when decommissioning will actually start," he said.

Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which created the Northern Ireland Cabinet, the IRA is supposed to completely disarm by May.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams angrily attacked the plans, warning it had undermined his efforts to win any disarmament commitment from the IRA. He emphasized the outlawed group was "an undefeated army" that shouldn't have to scrap its secret weapons dumps.

Adams accused Mandelson of "disgraceful" bias towards the Ulster Unionists.

"Mr. Mandelson needs to have some sense," Adams said. "There are a number of people on a tightrope. He is not the circus master. He is up there with the rest of us and what he says can have a divisive and decisive effect on everything."

Mandelson called the IRA's position "simply unacceptable and a betrayal."