Angry Major turns heat on Adams

DAVID MCKITTRICK and DONALD MACINTYRE

John Major responded yesterday to a ferociously worded IRA pledge not to "surrender" its arms by challenging the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, to decide whether he was now a man of peace or the "straightforward spokesman of a terrorist organisation".

But although Mr Major hit back angrily at an IRA statement rejecting the British government's "ludicrous" demand to begin handing over its arms as a precondition to all-party talks, both the UK and Irish governments agreed to press ahead with plans for a "twin-track" approach to preliminary talks on arms and the political future of Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister challenged Sinn Fein to show its true colours and denounce the IRA for refusing to give up weapons. He accused the Republican paramilitary leadership of delivering a "slap in the face" to the rising peace hopes.

The IRA statement represented an affirmation of its previously stated insistence that decommissioning could only happen after political negotiations and not before.

This position appeared to have been directed at the international body on de- commissioning, headed by the former US Senator George Mitchell, which is due to start work in New York this weekend.

It did not, however, rule out Republican co-operation with the Mitchell commission and, in fact, Sinn Fein has confirmed it will send a delegation to meet the international body. This was crucial for the work of the commission, since its deliberations would have been close to meaningless in the absence of any Republican input.

Mr Major said: "The message of all those people to the paramilitaries was that their day was over and that now was the time to put away guns, give up violence forever and make peace.

"This is a moment of trial for Mr Adams. Does he believe what he has been saying or has he been trying to deceive people? We'll soon know," he told reporters in his Huntingdon constituency.

"Gerry Adams had better make up his mind what he wants. Is [he] the man who wants to bring peace to Northern Ireland or is he a straightforward spokesman for a terrorist organisation who continues producing intransigent statements and putting a bottleneck in the way of peace?"

John Bruton, the Irish Prime Minister, said he understood Sinn Fein would speak to the international body on the issue of IRA weapons.

Mr Adams said that his party's position was unchanged by the IRA statement, which he described as "restating the obvious and widely acknowledged reality of the current situation". He said everyone, including Mr Major and Unionist leaders, "knows that none of the armed groups is prepared to disarm at this time".

However, the two governments insisted after a meeting between Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Dick Spring, the Irish Deputy Prime Minister, that the momentum for peace triggered by the vast crowds which greeted US President Bill Clinton last week would be maintained.

The IRA message, released in Dublin, said: "There is no question of the IRA meeting the ludicrous demand for a surrender of IRA weapons either through the front or the back door."

John Taylor, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionists, told a meeting of the Woodvale Unionists Association last night: "The rank and file of the IRA cannot change as they know nothing but terrorism as the way forward. This harsh reality must now be accepted by London, Dublin and the US."

But Mr Spring said: "We all saw what the people of Northern Ireland wanted last week in Derry and Belfast and also what the people in the Republic wanted. The opportunity is there for us and we have all got to take that."

Yesterday's developments came as a man was killed in a mystery shooting incident in south Belfast. Police were trying to establish a motive for the murder of the man, who was hit several times in the head as he stood by a taxi in Claremont Street. He was taken to Belfast City hospital but found to be dead on arrival.

Claremont Street contains flats and bed-sits, many of them occupied by students, and during the troubles was relatively trouble-free.

t Most Tory MPs believe that the IRA or loyalist paramilitaries will resume violence, according to a Harris Research opinion poll.

Some 54 per cent of Tories questioned by Harris Research thought it very or fairly likely that there would be a return to arms, with 41 per cent saying this was fairly or very unlikely.

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