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| Europe |
| Irish National Liberation Army disarms |
| 2009-10-12 |
| An Irish republican paramilitary group responsible for dozens of murders during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland has renounced its armed struggle, its political wing said on Sunday. The renunciation of violence by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Dublin, from where she was due to travel to Belfast later in the day. "The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the INLA that following a process of serious debate... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over," said Martin McMonagle of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the INLA's political wing. "The objective of a 32-county socialist republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle," he added, referring to the aim of a united Ireland, including the British province of Northern Ireland. The statement made at a ceremony in Bray, outside Dublin, made no mention of decommissioning weapons. The INLA's highest-profile attack was the 1979 murder of the British Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave -- a close adviser of future prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The INLA's decision is likely to boost the British-run province's peace process, which has come under the microscope in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Clinton said militants behind a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland "are out of step and out of time". "To me terrorism is terrorism. Those who would try to disrupt the peace of people going about their daily lives are out of step and out of time," she said. agencies |
| Posted by:Fred |