Sinn Fein is the party leading the fight to unify Ireland and end British rule in its northern part. According to the Financial Times Adams was to be questioned about "what three IRA [Irish Republican Army] members were doing last summer in Colombia." The three have been charged with teaching bomb-making to opponents of the pro-imperialist regime in Colombia and are being held in jail waiting trial. Washington and London assert the IRA and Sinn Fein are two wings of the same organization, a claim denied by both groups.

In a letter to Henry Hyde, chair of the House International Relations Committee that directed Adams to appear before it, the Sinn Fein leader said he was "particularly concerned at the way anti–peace process elements in Britain and Ireland have seized upon the hearings to damage the peace process itself. I also have serious concerns about the arrest of three Irish citizens in Colombia and the way these arrests are being brought into a wider agenda in that region."

At the Belfast press conference Adams said that he thought the committee hearings were "essentially about the relationship between the U.S.A. and Colombia." Such matters, he argued, were "for the governments of these two countries." He explained that Irish republicans "have no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries."

Confirmation that these hearings were being used by Washington to deal a blow to Irish republicans and interfere in the sovereignty of Colombia came when, on the day Adams was to have testified, a report was released by the House committee titled, "Summary of investigation of IRA links to FARC Narco-Terrorists in Colombia."

The report, which received prominent coverage in the capitalist media in the United States and Britain, alleges that 15 IRA members have traveled to Colombia over the last four years to train members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The report charges the IRA with being "part of a global terror network in Colombia, training members of the guerrilla group FARC alongside Iranian and Cuban officials."

The committee took testimony from Gen. Fernando Tapias, commander of the Colombian Armed Forces, who claimed he knew of seven IRA members "involved in training FARC."

Responding to these allegations, Adams explained that the three men "have become pawns in a much bigger game," and added that the report "vindicates the view of the men’s solicitors that the hearing itself could be prejudicial to their possibility of getting a fair trial."  
 
‘Blatant electioneering’
Along with this move in the United States, Adams was also summoned to appear before the Irish Republic’s Dail (parliament) foreign affairs committee to answer questions about the "relationship between Sinn Fein and ‘international terrorism,’" according to the Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht. In declining to attend, Adams charged that the committee’s request "may be an attempt to use the proceedings of this committee for blatant electioneering and to pursue a domestic party political agenda." A general election has been called for the Irish republic for May 17. The London Times observed that Sinn Fein may well increase the number of seats it holds from one to six in the voting.

In his letter Adams asked if the foreign affairs committee had "ever discussed RUC and British Intelligence Services operational links with loyalist death squads." The RUC is the British-run Royal Ulster Constabulary police force in Northern Ireland.

The Sinn Fein leader challenged the committee over whether or not it had ever discussed the massacre, known as Bloody Sunday, of 14 civil rights marchers by British troops in 1972, as well as the involvement of British forces in bombings by pro-British loyalists in 1974 which killed 33 people. "Have you ever invited the British government to meet the committee on these matters?" Adams asked.  
 
Campaign of disinformation
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein member of parliament Pat Doherty, referring to negotiations with London, warned of "a concerted effort to scupper the entire peace process." The Irish movement is facing a "massive scale of disinformation, inspired leaks, rumors, and downright lies," he said.

The Irish Republican Army has also rejected allegations leveled against it over the past weeks of organizing a break-in at the Special Branch headquarters in Castlereagh, having a hit list of leading Conservative Party politicians, and buying arms last year from Russia.

This offensive against Irish freedom fighters has also been used as a smoke screen by the British rulers to step up raids and arrests aimed more broadly at opponents of British rule. Peter Caraher, a leader of the South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee, was one such victim. Over the last months he has been in the forefront of protests calling for the removal of British military bases in his area. Caraher was arrested after British forces smashed their way into his home April 18. Along with Jim Cleary and Philip O’Rourke, he was forced into a helicopter and taken to an interrogation center at Crossmaglen.

According to An Phoblacht, after Caraher was forced to the ground a cop at the jail stood on his head, "inflicting cuts to his scalp. He then placed his boot behind Caraher’s ear and twisted it round, causing a gash that required seven stitches."

In an April 28 press release, the South Armagh Farmers and Residents Committee condemned the arrests and treatment of the men, which, they said, were "designed to attack a peaceful representative group and inflict serious injury with a view to undermining" the negotiations.

Despite these efforts, Irish republicans continue to press forward with their fight. An event in Dublin April 13 was attended by 2,500 people, predominantly families of republicans who had died in the fight to overturn British rule over the last 30 years.

Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness told participants that "nationalist people are up on their feet like they have never been up on their feet before; they are confident, they are assertive, and they know where they are going. And the reason they have that confidence is because of the leadership provided by young men and women who were ready to stand up and say ‘we are not prepared to accept second class citizenship in our country.’ So our message to the British government and the unionists is that those days are gone and they are never coming back." Unionists are supporters of British rule in northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, in England and Scotland supporters of the fight to end British rule are holding marches May 5 in Glasgow, May 25 in London, and June 8 in Edinburgh.  
 
 
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