BY MEGAN ARNEY
SOUTH ORANGE, New Jersey - A dozen leaders of Sinn Fein, the
party leading the fight for a united, free Ireland, spoke to
hundreds of people across the United States March 11-18.
After the killing of a prominent lawyer Rosemary Nelson (see above), the events took on the character of protest meetings. "Clearly this mechanism of appointing an English policemen to get at the truth [about Nelson's murder] will find no support or confidence among nationalists," Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said in a press release while in the United States.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, called the attempt by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) to involve the FBI "a cynical exercise to deflect criticism from the role the RUC played in setting up Rosemary Nelson."
During the tour an event entitled "Equality Agenda: Northern Ireland in 2000" was held here at Seton Hall University and at Columbia University in New York March 12-13. Several Irish politicians and activists spoke on the panels that discussed and debated the struggle in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein's Bairbre de Brun spoke on the panels.
Ulster Unionist Party leader and first minister designate of the new Northern Ireland Executive, David Trimble, also spoke. He attempted to justify efforts to block representation of Sinn Fein on the Executive by calling for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to surrender, or "decommission," its weapons.
Decommissioning is "not even up for discussion as far as republicans are concerned," declared Sinn Fein councilor Alex Maskey in response, speaking to a meeting of about 30 people here on March 16. The Belfast city council member also condemned the British and Dublin governments for effectively supporting the Unionists' stance.
Audience members in New Jersey spoke about different fights they're involved in -from protesting police brutality to supporting the Puerto Rican independence struggle and solidarizing with the striking miners in Pennsylvania. Maskey indicated interest in these and other fights, saying, "Everywhere we [Sinn Fein] go now, we are starting to reach out for links with other struggles."
Below are reports on a few of the other events during the 40- city Sinn Fein tour.
Others participants included activists from the Xicano Development Center, a center for immigrant rights and the rights of Latinos in Detroit. A couple of Arab-American immigrant rights activists also attended.
When asked to comment on the siege on Garvaghy Road, McLaughlin replied, "Today's murder of Rosemary Nelson is a direct outgrowth to that siege." He explained the residents face "nightly violence," and charged the British government with "allowing the siege to continue."
John Sarge
McLaughlin explained that according to the April 10 agreement, decommissioning of IRA weapons has to be voluntary and based on a climate of trust. He noted there are still 20,000 armed British soldiers, 14,000 armed members of the RUC, 140,000 legally licensed weapons - mostly in the hands of Protestants - and countless "illegal" weapons in the hands of loyalist paramilitary organizations that must be addressed.
Cappy Kidd
Ted Leonard
Cahill told 100 people who gathered here that "there is no peace in Ireland, there is only a peace process." He said "the time has come when we must sit down and talk. We are duty bound to make this thing a success. Unification of the country is our objective, which can only be achieved through the unity of Catholics and Protestants together."
Eric Simpson