US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Britain on Sunday to give Northern Ireland authority over its justice system to complete a peace process that was boosted when a paramilitary group said it would end violence.
Clinton, who met Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin and held talks with leaders in Belfast yesterday, said the peace process on the island was a model for other world hot spots, but more work needed to be done.
Fighting between pro-British and Irish nationalist groups killed 3,600 people before a 1998 peace deal that was followed by pledges by the main militant organizations on both sides, including the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to disarm.
“It will take the leaders of both communities working together ... to make day-to-day governing a reality and I am confident that is within reach,” Clinton told a joint press conference with Cowen.
The fragile balance within the Belfast power-sharing executive that includes former IRA guerrillas and hardline pro-British leaders has been tested by tensions over the timing of devolving policing and justice powers from Westminster.
“The step of devolution for policing and justice is an absolutely essential milestone,” Clinton said. “Clearly, there are questions and some apprehensions but ... the parties understand this is a step they must take together.”
The peace process got a further lift on Sunday as the paramilitary group the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) said it would end its violent activities.
“The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the Irish National Liberation Army that ... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over,” Martin McMonagle, a spokesman for the INLA’s political ally the Irish Republican Socialist Party, said at an event in Bray, a seaside resort south of Dublin.
Together with moves by pro-British militant groups earlier this year to disarm, the INLA announcement showed growing political stability, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said.
“Indications from any group who have been involved in violent activity in the North to the effect that they are ceasing such activity, that’s a welcome development,” Martin told reporters ahead of Clinton’s arrival.
The IRA’s political ally Sinn Fein said it welcomed the statement from the INLA, adding that it would be met with some skepticism given the history of the organization.
“However, if it is followed by the actions that are necessary, this is a welcome development,” Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said in a statement.
Underlining the continuing security threat in the UK province, 10 police officers were wounded in a “serious disturbance” involving more than 150 people in County Armagh in the early hours of Sunday, police said.
They said the crowd attacked a police patrol, smashing the windows of police vehicles and kicking and punching officers, but added that none of the injuries were believed to be serious.
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