Mcguinness threatens police over Adams arrest
Peace process in danger as Sinn Fein warns of fresh violence
THE Northern Ireland peace process was plunged into crisis yesterday as Gerry Adams was held for a third night over the notorious murder of a mother 42 years ago.
In a highly inflammatory outburst, his deputy Martin McGuinness threatened to withdraw republican support for the police if the Sinn Fein president is charged with ordering the abduction and killing of Jean McConville in 1972.
The move would have devastating consequences for security and stability in the province, where police officers were routinely shot by IRA terrorists before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
As detectives were given permission by a court to quiz Adams for another 48 hours, Mr McGuinness sparked new fears that Ulster could explode into violence after he warned of a ‘growing anger’ among nationalists.
The tension was highlighted by graffiti that appeared yesterday in Belfast’s nationalist stronghold of the Falls Road, which accused the people who raised the allegations against Adams of being ‘touts’ – an Ulster word for grasses. Before the peace
‘Elements on the Dark Side’
process, those dubbed touts were also routinely killed by the IRA.
In another worrying throwback to the height of the Troubles, republicans painted a 20ft mural of Gerry Adams on the Falls Road in protest at his detention.
As tensions rose, David Cameron urgently called for calm as he contacted Mr McGuinness and Peter Robinson, who head the powersharing administration.
He was last night understood to be giving regular updates to Washington – which pays close interest to Northern Irish politics.
But the PM’s calls were largely ignored by Mr McGuinness, who made extraordinary claims that a ‘cabal’ of serving police officers or a ‘force within a force’ wanted to destroy the peace process. He accused some officers of pursuing a ‘destructive political agenda’, adding: ‘It is clear that there are elements of the Police Service of Northern Ireland – what some in that force have described to us as the Dark Side – who continue to work to a negative and anti-peace process agenda and are involved in political policing.’
Praising those who aim to deliver ‘impartial and accountable policing’, he claimed there was ‘ clear evidence’ that British state forces were treated differently to republicans and nationalists.
‘The indisputable fact is that for 40 years there has been a virtual amnesty for British state forces involved in killing citizens both directly and through state collusion with unionist death squads,’ he added. ‘Sinn Féin under the leadership of Gerry Adams will not allow these elements to succeed.’
Mr McGuinness said his party would ‘reflect’ on their endorse- ment of the police if Adams is charged – rather than making a ‘knee-jerk’ decision.
Police went to court to apply for an extension to question Adams, after the expiry of the initial 48-hour deadline for officers to either charge or release the Sinn Féin leader, who was arrested on Wednesday.
Adams, 65, vehemently denies allegations levelled by former republican colleagues that he ordered Mrs McConville’s murder and secret burial in 1972. Her eld- est daughter Helen McKendry yesterday vowed to ‘name names’ as she stepped up her two- decade campaign for justice.
She said: ‘I spent the first 20 years of my life being afraid of these people, of fearing to speak out, but now I am no longer afraid.
‘To me that is not informing but doing my duty to my mother.’
Mrs McKendry says police have obtained as many as 11 tapes – testimonies from former IRA members – from a US academic archive relating to the McConville killing.
However, she has raised concerns that any decision on charges would be made by prosecutors led by Adams’ former lawyer Barra McGrory QC.
Mr McGrory, now the director of public prosecutions in Northern Ireland, once represented relatives of three IRA terrorists killed by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1998. He also acted for Adams in a £10,000 compensation claim for false imprisonment after he was held at a police roadblock for four hours.
A spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland said Mr McGrory would take ‘no prosecutorial decisions’.
Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers last night said she was ‘anxious’ to ensure that Northern Ireland political leaders continue to work with each other.