World

Irish Unionists To Court?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 26, 1999 / 9:14 AM EDT / CBS

Claiming that murder and gun running signify a violation of the cease-fire, Northern Irish unionists said on Friday they may take the British government to court.

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam provoked their fury on Thursday when she said there was not sufficient basis to say overall that the Irish Republican Army's two-year-old truce had broken down.

She reached her decision despite admitting that it appeared that the IRA had murdered a taxi driver (an alleged police informer), and was implicated in the alleged smuggling of arms from the United States.

Jeffrey Donaldson, a member of parliament for the pro-British Ulster Unionists, told the Guardian newspaper: "We are considering a legal challenge to overturn her ruling."

"If she lacks the moral courage to face up to the IRA she should leave and let someone else come in who will," he said.

"She has lost all credibility and she should go now," he added. "She is sending a signal to the terrorists they can do as they wish."

But Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, said Mowlam's statement was the only decision available.

"There is a considerable amount of violence and it emanates from right across this very sick society," Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said.

The Irish government also said it fully shared Mowlam's assessment that "in terms of an overall judgement, the IRA cease-fire has not broken down."

Had Mowlam found the IRA in violation of its cease-fire, it could have torpedoed the chances of Sinn Fein participating in a review of the peace process next month.

Unionists, who fervently want Northern Ireland to maintain its links with Britain, had wanted Mowlam to say the IRA had breached its truce and that the early release of IRA prisoners, under last year's historic peace deal, should be halted.

Some 270 IRA prisoners have been released under the Good Friday peace accord, and the remaining 200 are to be set free by next May if the cease-fire holds.