If the British government offered a plan to fully deliver the Good Friday Agreement, including dramatic demilitarisation, then this "would be relayed to the IRA" – Sinn Féin sources said yesterday.
The IRA "would have to make their judgment on that and decide if they should respond to it", the sources said.
A senior Sinn Féin source said he hoped that not just the IRA but all armed groups would, in such a situation, recognise the huge significance
of the deadlock being broken and all parties moving forward together.
It is unclear at this stage what the IRA would offer if the British government put its plan on the negotiating table.
Republicans yesterday sought to dampen down media speculation about any imminent move by the IRA.
"As far as I am aware this speculation has no basis whatsoever and has ar-isen as a result of government briefings and is clearly an attempt to shift the onus for action to republicans and away from themselves," a Sinn Féin source said.
"It is my view that the responsibility in all of this rests squarely with the two governments, particularly the British government. We have seen absolutely nothing to suggest that the British government are prepared to fully implement the Good Friday Agreement."
But by signalling that there would be an IRA response if certain offers were made on fully implementing the agreement, it appears that republicans want to smoke out the British government's plans about its acts of completion.
Sinn Féin wants the British government to address the questions of:
- ending the suspension of the Northern Ireland political institutions
- a bill of rights
- Irish language rights
- victims' rights
- demilitarisation
- policing.
The Sinn Féin source said: "There has been no programme of demilitarisation as demanded by the Good Friday Agreement. Instead we have seen
remilitarisation in some areas and rationalisation in others.
"In terms of the situation on the ground in south Armagh and other parts of the north we hear consistently people within the British military establishment drag up republican
dissidents as an excuse as to why they cannot demilitarise.
"The reality of the situation, which Tony Blair has told me privately he accepts, is that the best defenders of the Good Friday Agreement in south Armagh, for example, are republicans and nationalists.
"They are more effective than 5,000 British soldiers – and it is time the British military and those who have responsibility for them recognise that."
On policing, Sinn Féin argues that the Weston Park legislation fails to bridge the gap and that the new beginning re-quires a police service which is acc-ountable for its actions, representative of the community, free from partisan political control, based on respect for human rights, politically and culturally neutral and routinely unarmed.
Republicans believe that the current draft legislation does not go far enough "as there is still no mechanism for removing human rights abusers, the Special Branch remains at the heart of policing and the powers of the Policing Board and the ombudsman need to be brought into line with Patten".
Regarding justice, republicans say there are serious shortfalls in reforms because "there needs to be an end to repressive legislation, an independent oversight mechanism, an accountable judicial appointments process and reform of the prosecution service".
The Sinn Féin source said: "I believe that republicans have delivered the republican constituency for the Good Friday Agreement – and over and above that the IRA has moved on, a number of occasions, to rescue the process from collapse.
"A demand now for the surrender
of the IRA in order for the British government to honour the commitments
it has already entered into is not
realisable, in my view."
Yet expectations are growing about big moves in the process, with the arrival of US president George Bush's special adviser on Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, for talks in Belfast to-day and with British prime minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern due to meet at Hillsborough on Febru-ary 12 for discussions with the parties.
The Republic's foreign affairs minister, Brian Cowen, yesterday said the Hillsborough talks would be "an important staging post in the path to an
overall acts of completion package".
The timescale to get a deal – five to six weeks – is relatively short and rep-ublicans emphasise that some "heavy lifting has to be done by everybody".
Sinn Féin negotiators say they have not yet seen details from the British government on demilitarisation.
Republicans suggest that if the British government were to take a decision on the removal of watchtowers in south Armagh and 'spyposts' in other areas, such as Divis flats in Belfast, this would be viewed as highly significant.
British government sources have stressed the need for a big-bang app-roach and this is interpreted as covering not just the question of paramilitarism but also the implementation of all aspects of the agreement.
A Sinn Féin source said: "There needs to be dramatic demilitarisation of the British army in the north and we need to develop a conversation piece around that. This would send a very powerful message to a lot of people."
As the talks process steps up a gear there are concerns inside republicanism about the state of unionism and whether David Trimble and the UUP would be willing or able to sell a deal on the agreement's implementation.
In addition, the violence of loyalist paramilitaries is considered as one of the greatest threats to the agreement.
