MEP 's Belfast Telegraph Article on Sinn Fein and the rule of law
09 January 2007
PLATFORM PIECE BY JIM ALLISTER QC MEP
So Sinn Fein, once it gets over its petulant foot-stamping, because Unionists have not joined the Government in being gushing cheerleaders for the republican movement, might support the police and the rule of law. Good. But, how would we know and when?
Given that since its inception the Provisional Sinn Fein movement has supported the very antithesis of the rule of law and all things lawful, it is hardly unreasonable for the DUP Executive to insist that any mere verbal commitment is tested and tried over a credible period – it seems timely to remind the Prime Minister that this is the DUP’s binding policy. What might some of those tests be?
Most are self-evident:
• Encouragement to join the PSNI, which can be tested by seeing an upturn in Roman Catholic applications in future recruitment competitions, the next of which does not open till March 2007.
• Publicly promoted direct co-operation with the police, demonstrated by a sustained increase in the flow of information about crime, of all types, from within nationalist communities, and including cooperation with the Historical Enquiries Team.
• An increased conviction rate, resulting not only from statements to the police but evidence being given in court, not just in high profile cases, like the McCartney murder, but in all cases.
• A marked decrease in and end of association with organised crime in such areas as fuel-smuggling and money-laundering.
• Then, there is the important issue of the return of ill-gotten gains, highlighted by Dr Paisley MP as essential, both at St Andrews and in the News Letter on 30 December 2006. Clearly, Sinn Fein has far to travel in this regard. Wholehearted support for the rule of law will see an end to Sinn Fein’s fatuous denial that the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery. You can’t be in support of the rule of law and the police and at the same time repudiate the intelligence findings of the police in order to excuse and accept “the word” of an illegal organisation.
• Ending association with an illegality is a key and defining issue. The IRA is an illegal organisation with military structures in place. No one can credibly be said to be supportive of the rule of law and supportive of an illegal organisation at one and the same time. Hence, the logic of disbandment of the IRA as a corollary to Sinn Fein acceptance of the rule of law. How could anyone be said to genuinely support the rule of law and at the same time support, endorse, justify, or be associated with an illegal “Army”, with an “Army Council” (It is less than 2 years – 29/5/05 – since the Republic’s Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, publicly named Adams and McGuinness as members of the Army Council, and Bertie Ahern described Sinn Fein and the IRA as “both sides of the same coin”.). So, the end of the IRA Army Council would seem an indispensable part of proof of support for the rule of law. The IMC’s next report will be watched with interest on this point.
• Critically, there is the pivotal issue of the warped republican view of criminality. Less than 2 years ago Mitchell McLaughlin declared on RTE that though the IRA murder of mother of 10, Jean McConville, was “wrong”, it was not a “crime”! Evidently, such a perverted view of criminality would make a nonsense of support for the rule of law. So, a clear affirmation from Sinn Fein that any breach of the criminal law of Northern Ireland, by anyone at any time, is and was unequivocally a crime, is a pre-requisite to meaningful commitments to oppose criminality. We have yet to hear such a declaration.
• Finally, the daily actions of Sinn Fein leaders must match their words. Glorification of terrorist acts is wholly incompatible with support for the rule of law. Three days after Adams spoke in Dublin of Sinn Fein preparing to support the police, he was in Fermanagh glorifying two IRA terrorists who met their just deserts when they attacked a police station! This sort of schizophrenic approach to the rule of law shows just how much Sinn Fein has to do to begin to convince law-abiding citizens that any professed commitment to the rule of law is genuine.
Tempting as it might be for some to obscure or fudge or rush these issues, if a durable way forward is to be found, then it must be on tested and tried foundations. We’ve had quick fixes before and they crumbled just as quickly. Remember, Sinn Fein signed up for “the Mitchell principles” – a fine body of words - but that didn’t stop the Florida gun-running, Columbia, the Castlereagh break-in, Stormontgate, the Northern Bank robbery and several IRA murders, including that of Robert McCartney! Proven actions, not mere words, are the test. Its deeds not deadlines that matter.
I sense no appetite among rank and file Unionists to be rushed on these issues. Thus, the Government’s belief that a “positive” Ard Fheis in late January can produce an inclusive government in March is, I believe, bereft of both sense and prospect.
