ULTIMATE TREACHERY

The Republican response to developments on June 26 was led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin who said that the carrying out of the Provo guarantee of May 6 last to give over their arms dumps and have them sealed was the ultimate treachery.

He said: "No military force claiming to be an army can give its arsenal into the safe-keeping of another party -- in this case one which reports back to that army's enemy -- without going into liquidation.

"It is no longer an army. It has surrendered, not just politically on its objectives but it has also in effect disbanded without those objectives being realised.

"Worse still, its leaders by their actions have committed an overt act of treachery. This contravention of their own rules (vide Brendan O'Brien's The Long War p296) is rated by General Order No 11 as "treachery" punishable by "death".

"The example of the Irish struggle for national independence, so long an inspiration to people fighting for liberation against colonialism and imperialism the world over, will now -- in so far as the Provos are concerned -- be cited as a classic case of betrayal, counter-revolution and collaboration with the enemy.

"However, there remains one section of the Irish people which continues to resist English rule in Ireland.

"That is the lesson of Irish history and that will continue to be the case until the British government leaves Ireland, in spite of betrayals, treachery and collaboration with the enemy," the statement ended.

It must also be noted that:

• Many Irish people have lost their lives over the past 200 years for doing exactly what the Provisionals are now doing.
• On June 27 the British supremo in the Six Counties Peter Mandelson confirmed that the disbanding of groups like the Provos and the permanent decommissioning of weapons was necessary for the current partitionist process of strengthening British rule.
• The death of a British army RIR soldier while on a training mission in Canada on June 14 underlines the bogus 'independence' of Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body. He is a general in the same Canadian army which is training the British Crown Forces on an ongoing basis.
• The fact that the sell-out formula was hammered out on May 5 last, the 19th anniversary of Bobby Sands' death on hunger strike, should not be forgotten when certain former Republicans presume to honour him next May.

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