The IRA had been waging a military campaign against British occupation of the north. A 1994 cease-fire broke down in 1996 after London reneged on plans for talks. It was reestablished in 1997 and has been maintained ever since.

A year later Sinn Fein, the main Irish republican party, signed the Good Friday Agreement with London, Dublin, and pro-British unionists of Northern Ireland. The accord registered a weakening of British rule over the northern six counties of Ireland. The agreement included the institution of an elected assembly in the north, establishment of cross-border institutions, and the release of political prisoners. Although no time frame was set, London was to gradually cut down and eventually phase out its military presence in the north, and the IRA agreed to decommission its weapons.  
 
December accord frozen
Since then, the IRA statement recalled, the group has made three moves to decommission some of its weapons and was ready to proceed to complete disarmament after the signing of a new agreement that had been reached in December, under which the elected assembly in Northern Ireland would be re-established. On December 8, just prior to unveiling the full details of the pact, London backed the demand by Ian Paisley, leader of the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)—the largest pro-British unionist group—that the decommissioning be publicly photographed. The IRA rejected this as an effort to humiliate the nationalist fighters. The agreement fell apart.

Then, on January 7, Hugh Orde, Northern Ireland’s police chief Constable, claimed that the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery. Dublin seized on the allegation, adding the charge that Sinn Fein leaders were aware of the robbery plans. Neither Orde nor Dublin or London, however, has produced any evidence to substantiate their claims about the robbery.

Sinn Fein—not only the main nationalist party, but overall the second-largest party in Northern Ireland—had been set to form a power-sharing executive with the DUP in the assembly. Leaders of both the DUP and the Social Democratic Labour Party, a smaller nationalist group, have proposed that Sinn Fein be excluded from the executive of a re-established assembly.

“The progress and change promised on political, social, economic and cultural matters, as well as on demilitarization, prisoners, equality and policing and justice, has not materialized to the extent required or promised,” the statement continued. “British forces, including the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland], remain actively engaged in both covert and overt operations, including raids on republicans’ homes.”

London maintains 11,000 troops in northern Ireland, more than its forces in Iraq.  
 
Bloody Sunday march
Another sign of London’s attempts to retake the initiative from Irish nationalists over northern Ireland was highlighted at demonstrations to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

About 10,000 people marched in Derry January 30, to mark the ongoing fight for justice in response to the murder of 14 civil rights protesters by British army paratroopers in January 1972.

The previous weekend, more than a 1,000 marched through the centre of Glasgow, despite police allowing some 300 rightist counterdemonstrators to assemble within feet of the march.

The 1972 demonstration had been a watershed in the mass movement resisting the second-class status of Catholics in northern Ireland. London claimed its troops had shot only “gunmen.”

Speaking to demonstrators in Glasgow, Tony Docherty, whose father was shot while stewarding the 1972 march, protested the recent jailing for three months of a local republican, Martin Doherty, who had refused to appear before the inquiry to answer questions about Bloody Sunday. He has said he was not present that day. “His treatment is very different to that given British politicians and soldiers who have lied and refused to answer questions,” Docherty said.

Speaking at the Derry march, Sinn Fein chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin said Doherty’s jailing was further evidence of London’s determination to “criminalize republicans rather than expose the truth of its dirty war in Ireland.” He pointed out that Doherty is the only person who has been jailed in relation to the Bloody Sunday events.

A theme of the Bloody Sunday marches this year was “From Bogside to Basra.” Bogside was the district of Derry where the 1972 marchers were shot. Basra is the city in southern Iraq where most British troops are concentrated today as part of the U.S.-led coalition occupying the country.

Only a few weeks prior to the Derry march, the court-martial in Germany of British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners had begun. London’s attempts to paint the abuse as an isolated incident ran into problems when, on February 3, seven British paratroopers were charged with the murder of an Iraqi civilian.

Caroline Bellamy contributed to this article.  
 
 
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