"Protestants complained that the army was moving too quickly in response to untested IRA pledges. They noted that South Armagh remains a haven for border smugglers and IRA dissidents and that police still require military backup to patrol the area."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072901938.html?nav=rss_world washingtonpost.com Britain Answers IRA Peace Declaration With Base Cutbacks By Shawn Pogatchnik Associated Press Saturday, July 30, 2005; A13 BELFAST, July 29 -- Reacting quickly to the Irish Republican Army's peace declaration, the British government began dismantling military posts Friday in the border territory of South Armagh, the IRA's rural heartland where it is still unsafe for troops to use the roads. British army engineers flown in by helicopter began taking down a watchtower, code-named "Romeo 1-2," atop Sugarloaf Hill less than a day after the outlawed IRA met international demands to declare its 1997 cease-fire permanent and to renounce violence. First to be removed were the surveillance post's high-tech cameras and directional microphones that monitored traffic on roads and eavesdropped on conversations. Also earmarked for immediate closure were an army fort in the border village of Forkhill and a watchtower overlooking Newtownhamilton, the only village in South Armagh with a significant Protestant minority. British authorities said more closures would be unveiled within weeks. Protestants complained that the army was moving too quickly in response to untested IRA pledges. They noted that South Armagh remains a haven for border smugglers and IRA dissidents and that police still require military backup to patrol the area. But Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein party, the IRA's political wing, said he expected Britain to accelerate military cutbacks, which began with the IRA's first major cease-fire in 1994. "We want to see this proceeding as quickly as possible," said Adams, who also discussed the political effects of the IRA statement in a phone conversation Friday with President Bush. The British army has about 12,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland, down more than 7,000 from 1998. It previously closed more than three dozen posts, but paused in recent months to await the IRA's next move. The IRA's declaration Thursday that it was calling off its war to end British rule in Northern Ireland was the product of years of negotiations. Adams, whose party has grown in recent years to become the biggest Catholic political group in Northern Ireland, said the governments of Britain and Ireland now must push Protestant leaders into negotiations to revive power-sharing, the central goal of the 1998 peace accord for the British territory. The pact's dream of a stable Catholic-Protestant administration has been on hold since 2002, when a moderate-led coalition fell apart amid chronic arguments over the IRA. Adams called on Ian Paisley, whose Democratic Unionist Party represents most of the territory's Protestant majority, to drop his long-standing refusal to hold face-to-face talks with Sinn Fein. But Paisley's party insisted it would wait several months before deciding whether to enter talks involving Sinn Fein. The British secretary for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, said he expected power-sharing negotiations to resume in September following a period to test whether "this historic declaration has actually been delivered. Has violence closed down?" Hain and Adams agreed on one point: Outlawed anti-Catholic groups rooted in Northern Ireland's poorest Protestant districts should respond to the IRA move by making their own commitments to renounce violence and disarm. Three outlawed Protestant gangs -- the Ulster Defense Association, the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Loyalist Volunteer Force -- have committed more violence than the IRA in recent years, including two killings in Belfast this month. Their refusal to disband has caused far less political trouble, however, because their representatives attract few votes and are excluded from most political negotiations. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h4o9dqj/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122871668/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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