26.3.04
Irish American Information Service
SINN FEIN DELEGATION MEETS WITH MONITORING BODY
03/25/04 07:19 EST
A Sinn Féin delegation including North Belfast MLA Gerry
Kelly and South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey this morning met
with the International Monitoring Commission in their
Belfast offices.
The commission was set up at Ulster Unionist leader David
Trimble's insistence to monitor paramilitary ceasefires in
Northern Ireland.
Speaking after the meeting Mr Kelly said that they had told
the IMC "in very clear terms that they were little more
than a smokescreen to be used by the British government to
provide cover for any attempt to exclude Sinn Féin".
Mr Kelly said: "This mornings meeting was the second time
which we had met with the IM. At the initial meeting in
early January we informed the IMC that it was our belief
that they were not independent, operated outside the terms
of the Good Friday Agreement and were a British tool to be
used to validate acts of exclusion against Sinn Féin".
"The actions of the IMC in the weeks since vindicate
completely this position and we told them this at today's
meeting. Nationalists and republicans hear little from the
IMC or the British government about the ongoing campaign
being conducted by unionist paramilitaries. We have heard
little from them about the murder of a young catholic man
in Lisburn late last year."
" The IMC should be in doubt that Sinn Féin and the
community we represent view them as little more than a
smokescreen to be used by the British government to provide
cover for any attempt at exclusion in the future," Kelly
said.
SINN FEIN DELEGATION MEETS WITH MONITORING BODY
03/25/04 07:19 EST
A Sinn Féin delegation including North Belfast MLA Gerry
Kelly and South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey this morning met
with the International Monitoring Commission in their
Belfast offices.
The commission was set up at Ulster Unionist leader David
Trimble's insistence to monitor paramilitary ceasefires in
Northern Ireland.
Speaking after the meeting Mr Kelly said that they had told
the IMC "in very clear terms that they were little more
than a smokescreen to be used by the British government to
provide cover for any attempt to exclude Sinn Féin".
Mr Kelly said: "This mornings meeting was the second time
which we had met with the IM. At the initial meeting in
early January we informed the IMC that it was our belief
that they were not independent, operated outside the terms
of the Good Friday Agreement and were a British tool to be
used to validate acts of exclusion against Sinn Féin".
"The actions of the IMC in the weeks since vindicate
completely this position and we told them this at today's
meeting. Nationalists and republicans hear little from the
IMC or the British government about the ongoing campaign
being conducted by unionist paramilitaries. We have heard
little from them about the murder of a young catholic man
in Lisburn late last year."
" The IMC should be in doubt that Sinn Féin and the
community we represent view them as little more than a
smokescreen to be used by the British government to provide
cover for any attempt at exclusion in the future," Kelly
said.
