INLA Ceasefire Remains Intact - Claims IRSP

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday November 02, 2002 00:51 by Danielle Ni Dhighe - Irish Republican Socialist Movement danielle at irsm dot org

INLA Ceasefire Remains Intact - Claims IRSP

Derry Journal
1 November 2002

INLA Ceasefire Remains Intact - Claims IRSP

It would be a "retrograde step" for the Secretary of State to declare
the INLA's ceasefire null and void, a leading member of the IRSP's
ruling body warned yesterday.

Willie Gallagher, who sits on the Ard Comhairle of the IRSP - the
INLA's political wing - insisted the ceasefire declared in August,
1998, was still intact.

The current state of the INLA's four year old ceasefire has come
under the spotlight after the organisation carried out a so-called
punishment shooting in Strabane.

An INLA gang shot 42-year-old Collie Barr four times in both knees
and both elbows after viciously beating him at his Carlton Drive home
on October 15.

It subsequently emerged that the handgun used in the paramilitary-
style punishment shooting was the same weapon used by the INLA to
murder a loyalist in Derry in 1998.

Trevor Deeney was gunned down outside his home in the Waterside four
months before the INLA declared its ceasefire.

Police refused to confirm the sinister double link between the
firearm used in the recent punishment shooting in Strabane and the
murder of Mr. Deeney.

A PSNI spokesman said: "At this stage of the investigation we are not
prepared to comment on the ballistic history of the weapon used in
the shooting in Strabane."

West Tyrone SDLP MLA and Chairman of Strabane District Council,
Eugene McMenamin, has called for the INLA to clarify their ceasefire
position in the wake of the developments.

Mr. McMenamin said: "The new Secretary of State needs to take urgent
action against these barbaric acts and order the disbandment of
paramilitary organisations such as the INLA. This type of activity
should be condemned by all right-thinking people."

The SDLP Assembly member, who also voiced concern about a
paramilitary show-of-strength by dissident republicans in Strabane
last week, continued: "Since the suspension of devolution, we have
been seeing signs that the paramilitaries are only too willing to
fill the political vacuum with violence and fear. The Secretary of
State needs to reinforce that his agenda is the Good Friday Agreement.

"The sooner we get the Agreement back on track the better, to show
the paramilitary organisations that there is no place for terror in
our society and that all the good decent people of Northern Ireland
want to see is peace and prosperity restored."

Unionist politicians have also demanded that the Secretary of State
now move to specify the INLA ceasefire, by which the government would
no longer recognise its status.

IRSP spokesman, Willie Gallagher, said that while the INLA remained
committed to its ceasefire, he had been told that the organisation
reserved the right to defend its members.

He claimed the paramilitary group also stated it would, if necessary,
defend nationalists against attacks from loyalists.

However, responding to calls from politicians for the Secretary of
State to specify the INLA's 1998 ceasefire in wake of the Strabane
shooting, Mr. Gallagher said: "It would be a retrograde step for the
ceasefire to be declared null and void."