Mowlam says IRA decision to be delayed

MO MOWLAM, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has deferred the announcement of a decision on the key issue of whether the IRA has been involved in recent killings and other violence. She said yesterday that she hoped to make a judgement by the end of the week, or early next week.

Ms Mowlam announced the delay during a day of talks with many of the Northern Ireland parties which signalled that political activity was gradually restarting following the summer holiday season.

She has already met senior security advisors, including Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and Sir Hew Pike, the Army General Officer Commanding. She said she was hoping to hear shortly from the security authorities in the Irish Republic and in the United States.

One of the recent killings laid at the door of the IRA was that of Charles Bennett, a taxi driver shot dead in Belfast last month. But the authorities are also examining a recent attempt to send weapons from the US to Ulster by mail. Although the IRA has denied that any "procurement operation" was authorised by its leadership, if Ms Mowlam decides that there is firm evidence of IRA involvement then Northern Ireland politics would be plunged into crisis, since there would be huge pressure for the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the peace process.

Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, who yesterday led a delegation to see Ms Mowlam, counter-attacked Unionist critics, declaring: "The Ulster Unionist leadership should end the cold war against the nationalist community. There can be no renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement and the Unionists are going to have to accept their responsibility.

"We have tried our best. We have worked hard... at the end of the day, what has to be recognised here is that we are a very substantial political party who represents tens of thousands of people."