IRA says ceasefire intact, rejects hit list claims Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit AFP via Times of India -April 21, 2002 IRA says ceasefire intact, rejects hit list claims BELFAST: The Irish Republican Army insisted Sunday that it posed no threat to the Northern Ireland peace process, amid reports that it has been buying weapons and updating a "hit list" of potential targets. A senior source categorically rejected any suggestion that its ceasefire had broken down now or was going to do so in the future. Speaking anonymously, the source also denied that the Catholic paramilitary group was involved in targeting people. "I am here to reiterate, the IRA poses no threat to the peace process," the source said. The briefing followed demands from some Protestants for the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein to be thrown out of the province's power-sharing government. The calls were prompted by a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the IRA had bought a consignment of Russian assault rifles in clear breach of its commitments under the peace process. On Friday, police sources briefed journalists that they had found a list of names of leading members of Britain's opposition Conservative Party in a house in a staunchly Catholic area of Belfast. Also found in the house were plans of British military bases. The documents were found during follow-up searches following a break-in at a high-security Belfast police station last month. Security sources claim the IRA was behind the break-in, in which top secret documents -- such as informants' names -- were alleged to have been stolen. The IRA source, however, insisted that it was "not targeting" Conservatives or the bases, and that "it did not carry out" the police station raid. Instead, the organisation blamed "some sections" of British intelligence for the break-in, claiming subsequent arrests and searches in republican areas were merely a smokescreen. The source pointed to the IRA's announcement earlier this month that it had carried out a second act of disarmament as proof of its commitment to the peace process. The IRA is so far the only paramilitary group in the province to have given up any arms, a vital plank of the 1998 peace accord which sought to end decades of sectarian conflict by apportioning power between Protestants and Catholics. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-04.25.02-18:12:02-939