Deal falls on deaf ears
THE ‘WAR’ goes on. That’s the message from dissident republicans believed to be linked with the most active paramilitary groups in Fermanagh. The warning comes in spite of the decision taken by the INLA and other organisations to disarm before Monday’s decommissioning deadline.
And while one security expert has said that groups like the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA – both of whom have claimed responsibility for attacks on the PSNI in the Fermanagh area – have been weakened by the political breakthrough at Hillsborough, the dissident message is one of defiance.
Security expert Brian Rowan told the Herald that had the politicians at Hillsborough failed to reach an agreement on policing and justice, it would have created a ‘playground’ for dissident republican activity.
But, for at least two high-profile paramilitary republican groupings, the ‘war against British occupation’ goes on.
The 32 County Sovereignty Committee which is thought to have links with the Real IRA said in a statement to the Herald this week that the conflict will continue: “The regime at Stormont will return to form just as British-backed unionism always intended for it to be. Token nationalist involvement merely offers it a veneer of acceptability.
“We reiterate our call for a conflict resolution process which actually deals with the cause of the conflict. In the absence of such a process, the conflict will continue.”
The spokesman said the 32 County Sovereignty Committee movement was growing: “Our analysis is reaching a wider audience. Irrespective of the distractions in Stormont, we will see an end to British occupation in our country.”
Meanwhile, Republican Sinn Fein have described the INLA’s unilateral surrender of weapons as, ‘no less shameful than that of the Provos’.
An RSF spokesman told the Herald: “These weapons should have been given to those prepared to use them rather than destroyed to gain favour with the enemy. British guns remain on our streets with the blessing of former republicans.”
Meanwhile, Brian Rowan, a commentator on security matters, was invited by the Herald to comment on how the political progress made in recent days was likely to impact on the dissidents’ campaign. County Fermanagh has already been given a ‘high security’ tag following several dissident attacks in the east of the county over a six-month period, June, 2008- March, 2009, two of which were attempts to kill police officers, at Roslea and Lisnaskea.
“You can look at them from a narrow frame base – the attacks on Masserene Barracks, Craigavon and the attempt on (Constable) Peadar Heffron, and when you look at it in that narrow way, it exaggerates the threat.
“If you look at it in a much wider frame, you see incidents like the bomb abandoned at Forkhill, the attack at Garrison, the bomb outside the Policing Board offices that didn’t go off and, likewise, the device at Strabane, and they form a pattern which shows that a lot of their activities fail.
“In saying that, I am in no way downplaying or understating the threat. They can kill people, they have killed people and they will want to kill more people. The question that has to be asked is: what are they fighting for?”
Asked about the prospect of the Hillsborough deal prompting a fresh upsurge in dissident violence, Mr Rowan said if anything political progress would serve to undermine those opposed to the peace process.
“I have a huge concern that had the political deal not been made last week, that would have created a vacuum and that would have been the playground for dissidents to try and step up their activities.
“I say that because they’re trying to undermine the Adams and McGuinness peace strategy. While the dissident threat can be presented as a war against the British and the security forces, I think it is much more to do with what is going on inside the republican community.
“So, if the deal wasn’t done, that would have gone badly against Adams and McGuinness who are hate figures for the dissidents. People would have said they talked the IRA out of the war by telling them there was an alternative political strategy. If politics failed, the people would have the dissidents to argue that Sinn Fein’s alternative strategy had failed.”
Yesterday, a Police spokesman declined to comment on the recent decommissioning of weapons by two republican groups.
However he did state: “It is fair to say that the current Chief Constable and his predecessor (Sir Hugh Orde) have spoken about the high levels of dissident threat in border areas, like Fermanagh.”
