Доклад: Terrorism in Europe

The PIRA cease-fire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Agreement has among its aims that all extra-legal paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm by May 2000.

Calls from Sinn Fйin have lead the IRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October, 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partly triggered by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service, the PIRA temporarily broke contact with General de Chastelain. It is expected that, if and when power-sharing resumes, the PIRA disarmament process will begin again, though it is already considered by some to be behind schedule. Increasing numbers of people, from the Ulster Unionists under David Trimble and the Social Democratic and Labour Party under Mark Durkan to the Irish Government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning but the wholesale disbandment of the PIRA.

In December, 2004, attempts to persuade the PIRA to disarm entirely collapsed when the DUP, under Ian Paisley, insisted on photographic evidence. The PIRA stated that this was an attempt at humiliation and so the attempts collapsed.

At the beginning of February 2005, the PIRA declared that it was withdrawing from the disarmament process.

Activities

The Provisional IRA's activities have included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, 'punishment beatings' of civilians accused of criminal behaviour, robberies and extortion. Previous targets have included the British military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and Loyalist militants – against all of whom PIRA gunmen and bombers fought a guerrilla war.

PIRA has also targeted British Government officials, Unionist politicians and certain civilians in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Many Protestant civilians perceived to have been assisting the British were killed in Northern Ireland, whilst many British civilians were killed during the IRA bombing campaign in England, which was often directed against civilian targets such as pubs, as well as targets of an economic significance.

One of their most famous victims was Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed on August 27, 1979, by a PIRA bomb placed in his boat.

Also many Catholic civilians have been killed by PIRA in Northern Ireland for alleged "collaboration" with the British security forces (i.e. the British army or the RUC). The IRA has also summarily "executed" or otherwise punished suspected drug dealers and other suspected criminals in the past, sometimes after kangaroo trials. IRA members suspected of being British or Irish government informers were also executed, often after interrogation and torture and a kangaroo trial.

Members of the Garda Sнochбna (the Republic of Ireland's police force) have also been killed; most notorious was the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was shot and killed after the commencement of the IRA ceasefire, while escorting a post office delivery. PIRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (subway) stations, pubs and shopping areas on the island of Great Britain, and a British military facility on Continental Europe.

It has recently been claimed that elements of the PIRA have been involved in a spate of bank robberies throughout the island of Ireland, allegedly to build up funds to 'pension off' PIRA members and so facilitate disbandment.

The PIRA has been officially on ceasefire since July 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and so-called Real IRA continue their campaigns). It previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996, after the Downing Street Declaration, although this was ended when the British government refused to talk to Sinn Fein.

c) Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein used to be widely regarded as the political wing of the IRA, but today the party insists that the two organisations are completely separate.

A republican party devoted to establishing a united Ireland, Sinn Fein advocates strong cross-border bodies as a step towards achieving that goal and the maintenance of the Irish Republic's territorial claim to Northern Ireland.

It is a strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, but accuses unionists of undermining the deal in the months since it was signed.

The original Sinn Fein campaigned for an independent, united Ireland before and after the First World War. The current form of the party dates back to 1970 when Provisional Sinn Fein split away from Official Sinn Fein, which became the Workers' Party. This split mirrored the split in the IRA into Official and Provisional wings.

Since the early 1980s, Sinn Fein has slowly gained strength and political power. At the 1997 general election, it won 16% of the vote. Its two MPs, party president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, have never sat at Westminster as they refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen.

Sinn Fein has 18 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and two seats on the executive.

Sinn Fein was angered by the refusal of First Minister David Trimble to allow it to take up its executive seats until the IRA began to disarm, arguing that the Agreement gave it an automatic right to attend regardless of the IRA's actions.

In November 1999, however, Sinn Fein made a statement reaffirming its beliefs in decommissioning as an essential part of the peace process and in the IRA's commitment to a permanent peace. That statement - and similar declarations from the Ulster Unionists and the IRA - were seen as a breakthrough in the decommissioning deadlock.

Three months later, however, it became apparent that no decommissioning had taken place. Sinn Fein was angered by unionist pressure on the government and the suspension of the executive, arguing that this amounted to a unionist veto.

Sinn Fein welcomed the IRA's announcement in May 2000 that it was ready to put its weapons beyond use.

Latest Developments

When Sinn Fйin and the DUP became the largest parties of the two communities, it was clear that no deal could be made without the support of both parties. They nearly reached a deal in November 2004, but the DUP's insistence on photographic evidence of the decommissing, as had been demanded by Rev. Dr Ian Paisley, meant the failure of the arrangement. The robbery of Ј26.5 millio