[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H571]]
          REMARKS ON RECENT STATEMENT BY IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to once again call 
upon the British Government to get the Northern Ireland peace process 
back on track and implement the recommendations of the Patten 
Commission in reforming the police service. The recent statement by the 
Irish Republican Army that they are taking their proposals to fully and 
finally decommission their weapons off the table is a direct result of 
the culture of hypocrisy and humiliation that plagues the Unionist 
parties and the British Government.
  It troubles me that we have arrived at this point after the 
significant strides that had been made by Sinn Fein and the republican 
movement in the north in persuading the IRA to pursue a peaceful end to 
their struggle for a free and united Ireland.
  Mr. Speaker, the fact that the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Hugh 
Orde, along with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn, 
have publicly accused the IRA of masterminding the recent bank robbery 
in Belfast without showing one piece of evidence is anathema to the 
core principle of due process that we hold so dear here in the United 
States.
  These statements made to the press by the Chief Constable, and 
repeated by the Prime Minister and Taoiseach, are politically motivated 
and have no place in the criminal justice system. Sinn Fein and the IRA 
have said they will not tolerate criminality within the republican 
movement, and this policy of criminalization by the British Government 
brings us back to the days of Margaret Thatcher and the hunger strikes.
  The public humiliation that the Reverend Ian Paisley and his 
Democratic Unionist Party so desperately seek of the Catholic community 
of Northern Ireland and the IRA should not be carried out by the likes 
of Mr. Blair and Mr. Ahearn while they maintain that they are committed 
to fulfilling the spirit and promise of the Good Friday Accords.
  Central to the peace process in the north is the reform of a police 
service that for far too long has served as a tool of the Unionist 
majority and has sought time and again to punish, discriminate, and 
publicly humiliate the Catholic minority.

                              {time}  1515

  The Catholics in Northern Ireland will never see the PSNI as their 
own police service if it is continually being used as a tool of 
unionism to disenfranchise their community.
  Mr. Speaker, I call upon Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach 
Bertie Ahearn to stop their public posturing and press ahead with a 
return to the Good Friday Agreement and, most importantly, the 
implementation of Patten. Sinn Fein has stated unequivocally that they 
are committed to the peace process and are opposed to any return to 
violence. It is essential that we get back to devolved authority for 
the people of Northern Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant alike.

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