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Irish nationalist leader urges IRA to disarm

BELFAST: Nobel peace laureate and Irish nationalist John Hume appealed to IRA guerrillas on Monday to save the Northern Ireland peace process by starting to disarm.

The province's bitterly divided parties showed rare unity of purpose, meanwhile, in condemning a bomb attack that shook an already fragile ceasefire between pro-British Protestant "loyalists" and Roman Catholic republicans.

A Roman Catholic politician respected on both sides of the sectarian barricades, Hume called on the Irish republican Army to hand over its plastic explosive to an independent disarmament body, headed by retired Canadian General John de Chastelain.

"I believe that if the IRA were to arrange with General de Chastelain that an amount of Semtex was to be left in a certain location, the current difficulties could be swiftly overcome," Hume wrote in Dublin's Irish Times.

The peace process has come under increasing strain with leaders of the Protestant majority threatening to ditch a home-rule government unless their republican foes agree to hand over their weapons.

On Sunday, the Continuity IRA, a renegade faction hostile to attempts at compromise, claimed responsibility for a hotel bombing in a small country town.

Police said casualties were avoided because they managed to evacuate about 80 people after telephoned warnings from the splinter group.

Britain has threatened to suspend the province's new Protestant-Roman Catholic coalition administration if the IRA does not disarm. The IRA regards itself as being at war with the province's British rulers and equates disarmament with surrender.

"I now appeal to the IRA to show its deep respect for the will of the Irish people," wrote Hume, who was awarded last year's Nobel prize along with David Trimble, the province's main pro-British Protestant leader, in recognition of their efforts for peace.

"I ask it to demonstrate for all to see its patriotism and desire to move the situation forward by strengthening the peace process through beginning voluntarily the process of decommissioning (disarmament)."

He wrote the article before the sleepy rural community in Irvinestown was shaken by Sunday night's bomb that damaged a hotel used by both Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Gerry Adams, head of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, which has two ministers in Northern Ireland's fledgling home-rule government, called for calm.

"I want to reiterate that I unequivocally condemn this attack," Adams told reporters.

"The people involved are not acting in the interests of Irish republicanism. They are not representative of any real section of the Irish people and they should disband."

Ken Maginnis, the Protestant Unionist member of parliament for the area, told reporters: "If anything, tonight's explosion vindicates those of us who believe -- not just the Ulster Unionists -- that disarmament is an absolute necessity."

As the British and Irish governments voiced outrage, feverish efforts were made to save the peace process.

Unionists are adamant that they will not share power with Sinn Fein, while the latter's guerrilla allies are reluctant to give up weapons that sustained their 30-year-long war against British rule.

In a weekend statement, the IRA accepted that disarmament was a necessary objective of the peace process and said the problem could be resolved.

But it added: "This will not be on British or unionist terms, not will it be advanced by British legislative threats."-Reuters