February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
It claims the report’s publication was timed to cause maximum damage to the party during negotiations to restore power sharing.
The IMC was originally scheduled to report in June, but its findings were brought forward by the British government in the wake of the abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill in February. The IMC report backs up PSNI chief constable High Orde’s contention that members of the IRA had been involved in the
incident.
Tohill was abducted by four men while drinking in a Belfast bar. He was later found severely beaten in the back of a van stopped by armed PSNI officers. The four men face charges of kidnapping, though charges relating to IRA membership were quickly dropped. The IRA has denied that it authorized the operation.
Sinn Fein has slammed the report for failing to highlight failures by the British government in implementing significant sections of the Good Friday agreement. It claims the IMC was set up outside the terms of the accord and was a sop to beleagured Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey said his party would not cooperate with the financial sanctions recommended by the IMC. “We will not be accepting these sanctions if they are to be imposed upon our party, although we may not be able to do much about them, at least initially,” he said.
Speaking on Monday, he said the IMC was a “securocrat tool” designed to damage the peace process. “This report will be based entirely upon briefings given to this body by the [PSNI] Special Branch and the other securocrat agencies,” he said. “The very same people who stand indicted for organizing and carrying out a campaign of state sponsored murder in the Six Counties. It is hardly surprising therefore the conclusions which will be drawn.”
Republicans claim the four members of the IMC are biased toward unionism and that any decision to exclude Sinn Fein from government falls exclusively into the hands of the British government.
The joint declaration stated that IMC recommendations for exclusion would only be implemented after a cross-community vote in the Northern assembly. However, the declaration makes it clear that if the IMC fails to win cross-community backing, then the decision will then fall to the two governments. Republicans argue this will allow the British to implement their will. They point out that Tony Blair’s government has acted unilaterally on numerous occasions not least the four times when it has suspended the assembly.