Word: iras
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...Gerry Adams or David Trimble who has imperiled Northern Ireland's peace deal; it is their supporters. Britain has given the IRA until Friday to provide a "credible commitment" to disarm, failing which it will suspend the territory's historic joint assembly and executive. That would flash-freeze the peace process, which London considers preferable to allowing the total collapse that would result if Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble carries out his threat to resign by February 12 in the absence of any disarmament. The crisis reflects the mood of the hard-liners on both sides unconvinced by the compromises...
Sinn Fein translates from Gaelic as "Ourselves, Alone," and the IRA-aligned party finds itself living up to its name as Northern Ireland's peace process verges on collapse. Britain on Thursday gave the IRA a week in which to disarm or face the suspension of the power-sharing government and the return of direct rule from London. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has warned that the IRA's refusal thus far to begin turning in weapons makes his party's presence in a coalition government with Sinn Fein untenable, and vowed to quit unless London suspended the institution...
...IRA's reluctance to begin handing in weapons has been sharply criticized by the U.S. and Irish governments, as well as by the SDLP. "The IRA may have shot itself in the foot in terms of international support," says McAllister. "But there's clearly a split between the Sinn Fein leadership and the IRA hard men who've always been dubious about surrendering their weapons, even though those weapons are silent. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness may have thought they could deliver at least a token IRA commitment by the end of January, but they clearly can't - and Trimble...
Like its Middle Eastern equivalent, Northern Ireland's peace process is perennially in crisis. But Monday's secret report by the Canadian overseer of the arms-decommissioning process could be a decisive setback. General John De Chastelain is widely expected to find little progress toward IRA disarmament in his report to the governments of Britain and the Republic of Ireland, and that has the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party - the largest party in the territory's historic joint administration - once again threatening to walk out, a move that would collapse the Northern Ireland Assembly and restore direct rule from London. "Disarmament...
...Despite pressure for a disarmament gesture from quarters as diverse as the White House and the majority Catholic party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams simply protested that his party has no control over IRA decisions, even though it's universally accepted that they're two wings of the same Republican movement - which is not to deny, of course, that the peace process has created serious divisions between moderates and hard-liners. The same division on the Unionist side may force Trimble's hand: "Trimble faced a mutiny in his own ranks over the IRA...