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BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) – The United States has demanded that the IRA disband after the guerrilla group’s astonishing offer to shoot the killers of a murdered Northern Ireland Catholic man. “It’s time for the IRA to go out of business,” U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss said Wednesday. For the IRA’s political ally Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland’s biggest Irish nationalist party, the U.S. demand was yet another blow to its democratic credentials. Reiss told BBC radio: "It’s time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated. “You can’t sign up for the rule of law a la carte.” The IRA’s offer – also condemned by London and Dublin – handed fresh ammunition to Protestant rivals who say Sinn Fein is not fit for government until the Irish Republican Army disarms and disbands. The killing of Robert McCartney by a gang including IRA members has plunged the IRA and Sinn Fein into crisis – coming just weeks after the guerrilla group was blamed for a £26.5 million ($50 million) bank raid in central Belfast. London and Dublin say there can be no progress on restoring the British-ruled province’s regional government – set up under a 1998 peace deal to share power between divided Protestants and Catholics – until the issue of IRA criminality is resolved. Home rule was suspended in 2002 when unionists, who support ties to Britain, said they would no longer sit in government with Sinn Fein until the IRA got rid of the weapons which sustained its three-decade campaign against British rule. “It is their declared intent to murder,” said hardline Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley in response to the IRA move.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com …