TURNING THE SCREW ON TERRORISM
TURNING THE SCREW ON TERRORISM
The speed with which the British and Eire Governments are moving to tighten the screws on republican terrorists following the Omagh bomb atrocity is to be welcomed. And when he announced some of the measures, on a visit to the town on Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair left no doubt about his commitment to the task of rooting out the renegades.
Sadly, the reforms come too late for the dead and injured in Omagh and the pity is that it took the loss of 28 innocent lives and the maiming of hundreds more to bring home to Government the seriousness of the ruthless and evil threat posed by the killers who call themselves the Real IRA.
Why had it taken so long for the potential for terror of this and other dissident republican groups to be fully appreciated by the intelligence services on both sides of the border? Everyone knew that the fanatics making up these groups were, not long ago, the hardest of the hard men in the Provisional IRA, and pledged to do their worst to bring down the Good Friday Agreement.
The legislation to be enacted by Westminster and the Dail is already being opposed by civil liberties organisations and Sinn Fein, because of its draconian nature, but it is needed to protect the people of the province. There is a feeling that had the reforms been introduced years ago, and vigorously applied, Omagh and other outrages might have been prevented.
Violent republicanism, either in its ceasefire mode or in its active reality, is the influence that has the greatest potential to wreck the shaky peace process. The threat from the latter has been all too clearly seen and that from the former, the Provisional IRA, lies in its refusal to declare its war over for good and to begin decommissioning its armoury.
Sinn Fein, while claiming to be walking the democratic path, has yet to convince most people that it has entirely divorced itself from its murky past. It demands the privileges of power while the IRA war machine remains intact.
It has a long way to go before it earns the trust of constitutional unionism, and its leader, Gerry Adams, is far short of matching the courage shown by First Minister David Trimble, in particular, and his deputy Seamus Mallon.
They represent the hopes for the future of many of the tens of thousands who thronged Omagh on Saturday to remember those murdered and sympathise with their relatives and the injured.
At that deeply moving ceremony the people of Omagh were, in the words of one minister, reclaiming their town from the bombers after the darkest days of their lives.
The powerful message that came from it was the clear contrast between the goodness of the ordinary, decent people and the evil that came to the town a week earlier.
The speed with which the British and Eire Governments are moving to tighten the screws on republican terrorists following the Omagh bomb atrocity is to be welcomed. And when he announced some of the measures, on a visit to the town on Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair left no doubt about his commitment to the task of rooting out the renegades.
Sadly, the reforms come too late for the dead and injured in Omagh and the pity is that it took the loss of 28 innocent lives and the maiming of hundreds more to bring home to Government the seriousness of the ruthless and evil threat posed by the killers who call themselves the Real IRA.
Why had it taken so long for the potential for terror of this and other dissident republican groups to be fully appreciated by the intelligence services on both sides of the border? Everyone knew that the fanatics making up these groups were, not long ago, the hardest of the hard men in the Provisional IRA, and pledged to do their worst to bring down the Good Friday Agreement.
The legislation to be enacted by Westminster and the Dail is already being opposed by civil liberties organisations and Sinn Fein, because of its draconian nature, but it is needed to protect the people of the province. There is a feeling that had the reforms been introduced years ago, and vigorously applied, Omagh and other outrages might have been prevented.
Violent republicanism, either in its ceasefire mode or in its active reality, is the influence that has the greatest potential to wreck the shaky peace process. The threat from the latter has been all too clearly seen and that from the former, the Provisional IRA, lies in its refusal to declare its war over for good and to begin decommissioning its armoury.
Sinn Fein, while claiming to be walking the democratic path, has yet to convince most people that it has entirely divorced itself from its murky past. It demands the privileges of power while the IRA war machine remains intact.
It has a long way to go before it earns the trust of constitutional unionism, and its leader, Gerry Adams, is far short of matching the courage shown by First Minister David Trimble, in particular, and his deputy Seamus Mallon.
They represent the hopes for the future of many of the tens of thousands who thronged Omagh on Saturday to remember those murdered and sympathise with their relatives and the injured.
At that deeply moving ceremony the people of Omagh were, in the words of one minister, reclaiming their town from the bombers after the darkest days of their lives.
The powerful message that came from it was the clear contrast between the goodness of the ordinary, decent people and the evil that came to the town a week earlier.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0270
Published Date: 27-Aug-98
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