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IRA blames Britain for

stopping peace process

BELFAST: The Irish Republican Army on Thursday blamed Britain for the lack of progress in the Northern Ireland peace process and said it maintained a "mandate for armed struggle".

However, the Catholic guerrilla organisation also said it was willing "to help in developing the conditions which will allow for a meaningful negotiations process".

The IRA's statement, made to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Easter rising in Dublin which led to creation of an independent Irish Republic, was published in the weekly newspaper of its Sinn Fein political arm, An Phoblacht.

It said that the hopes last Easter of a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland situation had been "slowly and relentlessly strangled by a British Government which squandered the historic opportunity presented to it".

The IRA announced a ceasefire in its 25-year struggle to oust Britain from Northern Ireland in August, 1994, but ended it in February with a bomb blast in east London which killed two people and injured a hundred.

It accused the British government of placing obstacles in the way of all-party talks to consider the province's constitutional future.

"The British, rather than seize the moment, sought only to avoid any meaningful engagement in the Irish peace process.

"Their adoption of an unashamedly unionist agenda, and their adherence to the utterly failed policies of exclusion and marginalisation of republicans led to a deepening and worrying crisis," the statement said.

It said the IRA's "mandate for armed struggle derives from Britain's denial of the fundamental right of the Irish people to national self-determination and sovereignty".

Britain has said Sinn Fein will be allowed to take part in all-party talks within months provided the ceasefire is restored permanently.

But the IRA said it remained fully committed to its objective of a republic embracing the whole island of Ireland.

"As long as Britain persists in its denial of national and democratic rights in Ireland, then the IRA will continue to assert those rights," its statement said.

It added: "The IRA, of course, remains ready to help in developing the conditions which will allow for a meaningful negotiations process, free from preconditions of any kind.

Ken Maginnis, security spokesman for the pro-British Ulster Unionist party, reacting to the statement, predicted there would be no imminent restoration of the IRA ceasefire.

"They do not have an agenda which can be met through the democratic process," he told BBC radio.-Reuter