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IRA Withdraws Disarmament Offer in Blow to Peace Process
BELFAST, Aug 14 (News Agencies) - Northern Ireland's peace process was dealt a double blow Tuesday as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) withdrew its unprecedented offer on disarmament as controversy raged over the arrest of three alleged IRA members in Colombia.
Downing Street said the IRA's decision, which dashes immediate prospects of salvaging the province's power-sharing government, was "regrettable" but changed little on the ground.
Protestant leaders in the province said it proved the IRA had never really been serious about giving up its weapons.
Meanwhile, the arrest of three men in Colombia, accused by authorities there of training leftist anti-government elements in explosives, heightened skepticism over the group's intention to disarm.
A republican source, when asked if they were members of the Irish paramilitary group, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), "That would be about right."
Colombian army commander, General Jorge Mora, told BBC radio that authorities in Northern Ireland had confirmed that the men "belong to the IRA."
"Two of them have spent time in prison for terrorist offenses," he said.
"They belong to the engineering department of the IRA - those who make the bombs, the explosives and the custom-made weapons."
The IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, also hinted they were IRA members.
Asked if they were known to Republicans, Sinn Fein's chairman Mitchel McLaughlin told a press conference, "Yes, some of them certainly are, and they would be known to the media."
John Reid, Britain's minister for Northern Ireland, said it was difficult "to imagine a worse scenario" than people from the province being linked to a Marxist outfit "up to its eyes" in the drugs trade.
He said the reports coming from Colombia would be further "food for thought" for skeptics who believed that Republicans were not serious about the peace process.
"They did not go out to Colombia to get a suntan," added Reg Empey, a senior Protestant Ulster Unionist and minister in the Belfast executive.
"They went there to develop and test weapons."
He suggested an IRA statement issued earlier Tuesday could be a tactic to take the spotlight off the "very damaging" development in Colombia.
In its statement, the IRA said it was withdrawing its "unprecedented" offer for disarmament because Protestants had rejected it and because Britain had failed to keep its promises.
It said it had "involved a very difficult decision by us, and problems for our organization."
However, it gave no indication when the process would start, and Unionists said it was meaningless without a timetable.
The IRA announcement calls into question the survival of the power-sharing government in Belfast, set up under a 1998 accord that aimed to end sectarian conflict by apportioning power between Protestants and Catholics.
Following a 24-hour suspension of the province's assembly over the weekend, the parties have six weeks to reach a deal on disarmament, police reforms and British troop withdrawals.
The new IRA statement makes the chances of a deal seem even more remote.
By last week, politicians had reached a point where they were discussing a disarmament timetable. Now they find themselves trying to get the IRA to move back to where it was before.
Republicans, who are overwhelmingly Catholic, want Northern Ireland reunited with the Irish Republic, while the largely Protestant Unionists want to maintain British rule.
Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen called the IRA statement "regrettable" and urged the group to reverse the decision.
Reid said the IRA's withdrawal of its offer "will not be easily understood at home or abroad.
"We have always acted in good faith, we will continue to act in good faith. We are not the ones who are walking backwards on this, nor will we be."
John Hume, of the moderate Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party, said the IRA statement was "strange and unhelpful."
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